A Tour through SANAE IV

I created this virtual tour through the base during my stay in 1999. I've not been back, but to the best of my knowledge most things are still the same. I preserve this page for general interest and nostalgic reasons.
D Malan, November 2003.

I went back to Antarctica for the 2004/2005 summer season. I have some pictures about it. You can also visit my professional or personal websites to see what I'm doing now.
D Malan, December 2005.

This is a short electronic tour of the Antarctic base SANAE IV. The construction of the base commenced in 1991, and the first expedition, SANAE 36, overwintered in 1997. Previous South African bases were situated on the Fimbul Ice Shelf, but these were crushed under the accumulated snow. At present the decommissioned base SANAE III is situated 35 m under the surface. SANAE IV was built 180 km from the coast, on a windswept mountain top that pierces the surrounding ice sheet. The base is built on stilts so that the wind can blow under the base and prevent a build-up of snow. Here's a picture of SANAE IV for general orientation.

All the links on this page are links to pictures. To get back here, use your browser's 'back' button.

Here we are now at the front door of SANAE IV. It enters into the link between Block A and Block B. As you step inside you see a display cabinet. To the right of the display cabinet is the door to the changeroom. Step inside, take off your hat, boots and gloves, and put them in the drying locker. Hang your padded clothes on the coat peg behind you.

Across the passage from the changeroom is a control room. Here we have a number of controls for pumps and fans, the fire alarm control panel against the right-hand wall, and the telephone exchange at the back.

Inside the links are sewage tanks and pumps, therefore the floors are raised. Come down these few steps, into the passage of the A-block lower floor.

The radio room is the first room on the right-hand side. Here you will find our HF-radio, satellite-communication and intercom, telephone, fax and VHF-radio, and the internet gateway. The radio operator is always busy.

Across the way is the darkroom. We use it to develop photographs, but is also essential for the development of X-ray photos taken in the hospital

The next door on the right opens on the doctor's consulting room. Here is also a single-bed hospital, with an X-ray machine and a dentist's chair .The theatre is kept sterile, so I can't show it to you.

Further down the passage we have a small room were we have our network hub, network printer and Novell fileserver . Next door is the fire escape. To get out you lift the hatch on the floor and throw down a rope ladder. It is a climb of about five metres to the ground. This room is also used as a telephone booth.

Next door right opens on the wet laboratory. Here we analyse the purified sewage water, to ensure that the waste that gets dumped conforms to standards.

This is the inside of a scientist's office. On the right-hand side there is a filing cabinet, to the left a desk, and against the outside wall a bench with a computer. To the left, behind the door, there is a door to a store.

Now we are at the end of the passage., at the southern end of the building. To the left is the office, in front of us the bottom lab, occupied by the Potchefstroom University. Just to the left of the lab doors a staircase leads to the upper floor.

This is the inside of the laboratory. To the left are the equipment for ANOKS and AMIGO. With these we count cosmic rays, measure the radio-transparency of the atmosphere, and monitor the weather and the earth's magnetic field. To the right your see the computers of SHARE, the coherent-scatter HF-radar project. Here is a workbench for electronic repairs and construction.

Lets go upstairs. At the top of the stairs we have a hatch that opens to the roof. It can also be used as an emergency exit. In the upper A-block passage, facing north, we have the upper lab behind us. This is occupied by the University of Natal in Durban. Inside the lab, facing east, we can see instruments to measure ultra-violet radiation, atmospheric ozone and very-low-frequency electromagnetic waves. UND also operate the aurora cameras. The first is an all-sky camera, and the other a narrow field-of-view camera. They watch the sky through domes in the roof.

The rest of the A-block upper floor is occupied by bedrooms and, or the far end of the passage, a ladies' bathroom and a men's bathroom to the left and a laundry to the right.

To get to B-block we must first go down the stairs again to the lower floor. Next to the laundry there's a staircase that ends at the hospital.

Here we're back at the A/B-link, looking in the direction of B-block. The door to the changeroom is to the right, and to the control room to the left. The mirror is there to ensure that you're covered properly (with clothes or sunscreen, depending on the weather and season) and the whiteboard shows where you've gone and when you'll be back. The door to the left on the other side is for a bathroom for handicapped people.

On the other side of the link is the dining room, the full width of the building. Standing in the end of the B-block lower passage we can see the kitchen to our left, with a door to the pot store behind the oven. Close to the kitchen is the fridge and freezer. Further down the passage, on the left, there is a dry-food store.

Across the way from the food store is a very important room, the waste storage room. Usually there's a big container in the middle of the floor, in which all the compacted waste is packed. To remove the waste we lift the removable panels out of the floor, and lower the container through the hole. A crane outside then transfer the container to a sledge. An empty container is brought inside through the reverse of this process. Glass, metal and food are put into drums, that are sealed and marked with a colour code, and depot'ed. During the takeover all the rubbish are loaded on the ship and returned to South Africa for processing.

Let's go upstairs using the staircase opposite the kitchen and see what's on the B-block upper floor. Here we also find a long passage with bedrooms on either side. These bedrooms are all occupied during takeovers. Also on this floor we have a store-room for videos, the upper TV-lounge where we have slideshows, and the library. On the far end of the passage there are again bathrooms and a laundry.

Coming down the other (northern) staircase we emerge in the entertainment area. It consists of the bottom TV lounge, the games room and the bar on the opposite side of the passage

This is the end of B-block. The B/C link is similar to the A/B link, differing in the historical contents of the display cabinet.

On the bottom C-block floor we have, on the left-hand side, a spares store and a lubrication store. The silver box on the right-hand side is the day-tank for the generators. It contains enough diesel to give us electricity for a day or two. On the right hand side of the passage there is the water purification plant, where the sewage is treated before the purified water can be discarded. On the other side of the last set of doors are our three electricity generators, and opposite it the workshop.

On the upper floor are the gymnasium, offices of the maintenance team, more store-rooms, and the sauna.

The last part of C-block, the northern end of the building, is the helicopter hangar. During the summer two Oryx helicopters are hangared here. In winter we park our vehicles here. Each half of the hangar has a crane to do heavy lifting (this one hangs a punching bag.)

Passing through the huge roller-doors, we get onto the helicopter deck. From here you can see the pipeline to the snow smelter east of the base. The big white box north-west of the deck is known as the radome, and houses the antenna dish for satellite communications. The bridge carries the satt-comms signal cable, the sewage pipe and the diesel line from the diesel bunker.

This is the end of the tour. Thank you for the interest. Please visit our official website for more information.

Please write to me if something's wrong, or if you want to know more.

people have been on this tour.

Created by D Malan
Last update: 17 December 1999