The idea of making Antarctica a “land of science”, later enshrined in the Antarctic Treaty, came from scientists themselves, starting with the International Geophysical Year (IGY), from July 1957 to December 1958. This marked the true starting point of the extraordinary scientific endeavour that continues today.
The need for permanent bases arose both to serve as staging points for expeditions across the continent and to allow for long-term scientific observation. Although a few stations already existed, particularly on the Antarctic Peninsula, the IGY was the real starting point for establishing permanent bases, including the American station at the South Pole and the Soviet station at Vostok. There are currently more than forty wintering stations across the Antarctic and sub-Antarctic zones, housing close to a thousand people year-round – a population that grows two to three times larger during the summer season. Seventeen of these stations are located on the Antarctic Peninsula, fifteen along the coasts, and three on the continent itself: at the South Pole, where a new station has just been built; at Vostok, which has not been occupied during winter for several years now; and at Dome Fuji (Dome F), where Japanese teams carry out drilling operations year-round.
A Franco-Italian agreement was signed in 1993 between the polar institutes of both countries, with the aim of building the permanent Concordia station at Dome C (completed in early 2005), 1,100 kilometres from Dumont d'Urville – a site where the EPICA deep ice core has so far provided access to ice 800,000 years old. An ideal location for glaciologists.
The Franco-Italian Concordia station is one of only three permanent bases built on the interior of the Antarctic continent. Construction was completed in 2005. The base consists of two main three-storey buildings, with a total floor area of 1,500 square metres.
The Dumont d'Urville base is located on Pétrels Island (the main island in the foreground) in the Pointe Géologie archipelago, 5 kilometres from the continent. Since 1959, it has housed around thirty people during the wintering period (March to November) and up to a hundred during the austral summer. A small annex base is dedicated to organising overland traverses to Concordia.
