HALLEY STATION, ANTARCTICA — Amid fears that the structure might meet a catastrophic end when the ice it stands on breaks off into the ocean, a small party of engineers has reopened the UK's Halley research station in the Antarctic. <br /><br />The BBC reports that the base had been "mothballed"; in part because of Covid, but also because the ice shelf it stands on could soon calve into the ocean. <br /><br />The British Antarctic Survey, or BAS, is trying to avoid having staff in the base when this happens. But some maintenance still has to be performed and a suite of instruments needs servicing. <br /><br />The party of ten will only stay until mid-February before shutting Halley down again. Halley station sits on a floating platform of ice known as the Brunt Ice Shelf. <br /><br />The shelf has developed a number of cracks over the years, and the widening of two of these prompted BAS in 2017 to move Halley to a more secure location. The whole station was dragged on skis over 20km upstream. <br /><br />The most obvious piece to break away has been stubbornly hanging on by a thread for months. This 1,500 square kilometer chunk of ice needs to calve before the station can be reopened.
