Name details

Halley (1988)

Gazetteer of the British Antarctic Territory Id 109178

Feature type: Station

Origin

This name originates from United Kingdom. It is part of the Gazetteer of the British Antarctic Territory and the SCAR Composite Gazetteer of Antarctica.

Names that other countries have for this feature:

• Halley Station (United States of America)
• Halley, /Brit./ (Russia)

Narrative

BAS station on SW side of Brunt Ice Shelf, Caird Coast, near the ice front. The RSIGYE station "Halley Bay" was established on the ice shelf, 16 January 1956, in 75°31'S 26°36'W, c. 2km from an ephemeral indentation in the ice front originally called Glacier Bay (q.v.) and for a time named Halley Bay (APC, 1958, p.5). "Royal Society Station" (NGS map, 1957b). The station was transferred to FIDS (later BAS) on 14 January 1959; designated "Base Z". "Halley Bay Base" (Ronne, 1961, p.185). An Argentine refuge hut, later abandoned, was established from the icebreaker General San Martín to S of the BAS station on 10 January 1961, and called "Ejerchito [sic] Corrientes" (SPRI, 1962a, p.48) or "Refugio Corrientes" (Pierrou, 1970, p.270) after the Argentine province. "Halley Bay Station" (BA, 1967, p.46). A BAS field station "Coats" was established 280km S of Halley in 77°54'S 24°08'W in 1964-65. Because of burial by snow and movement of the ice shelf, it was necessary to replace and resite the main station in 1967 (at a distance of 4km from the old site and 5km from the ice front in 75°31'S 26°39'W) and again in 1973 (at a distance of 500m from the old site and 5km from the ice front in 75°31'S 26°43'W). From 15 August 1977 the BAS station, hitherto known as "Halley Bay", was renamed Halley after Edmund Halley (1656-1742), English astronomer who made pioneer studies of the variation of the compass on a voyage in the Atlantic Ocean, 1698-1700, during which he reached lat. 52°S; investigator of the comet named after him in 1759; Secretary of the Royal Society, 1713-21; Astronomer Royal, 1721-42 (BA, 1977, p.1; APC, 1980, p.4; BAS sheet Misc. 2, 1981). Movement of the ice shelf, which is estimated at c. 750m W per year in the vicinity of the station, led to the removal of the original RSIGYE station by calving to sea at the end of the 1978-79 summer. The BAS station was again replaced and resited in 1983 at a distance of 7km from the old site and 15km from the ice front in 75°36'S 26°40'W.

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