The Argentine Base Esperanza (Spanish "Hope Base") is located at 63°24′S, 56°59′W, Hope Bay, Trinity Peninsula, Antarctic Peninsula.
Esperanza Base, Hope Bay, December 2004
Built in 1975, the base houses 55 inhabitants in winter, including 10 families and 2 school teachers. Provincial school #38 "Julio Argentino Roca" was founded in 1978 and acquired independent status in 1997. The LRA 36 Radio Nacional Arcangel San Gabriel radio station started transmitting in 1979. The mean temperatures are -5.5 °C and range throughout the year from -10.8 °C in winter to 0.2 °C in summer. The temperature trend since 1948 is +0.0315 °C/yr (annual), +0.0413 °C/yr (winter) and +0.0300 °C/yr (summer). The 43 buildings of the station have a combined space of 374,400 m² covered; 180,000 liters of fuel are used annually by the 4 generators to produce electricity for the station. Research projects include: Glaciology, Seismology, Oceanography, Coastal Ecology, Biology, Geology and Limnology. Esperanza Base has some measure of fame because it is the birthplace of Emilio Marcos Palma, the first person to be born in Antarctica. The Base has tourist facilities that are visited by approximately 1,100 tourists each year. The Base's motto is "Permanencia, un acto de sacrificio" ("Permanence, an act of sacrifice"). The base telephone number to call from Argentina is 0810-222-0770; the cost is as a local call.
References
Antarctica. Sydney: Reader's Digest, 1985, p. 156-157. Child, Jack. Antarctica and South American Geopolitics: Frozen Lebensraum. New York: Praeger Publishers, 1988, p. 73. Lonely Planet, Antarctica: a Lonely Planet Travel Survival Kit, Oakland, CA: Lonely Planet Publications, 1996, 302-304. Stewart, Andrew, Antarctica: An Encyclopedia. London: McFarland and Co., 1990 (2 volumes), p. 469. U.S. National Science Foundation, Geographic Names of the Antarctic, Fred G. Alberts, ed. Washington: NSF, 1980.
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