About us 
| Zucchelli Station |
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 Mario Zucchelli Station Mario Zucchelli Station (in the past, Terra Nova Station) is a large research facility located at 74°41'42"S, 164°07'23"E, Gerlache Inlett, Victoria Land, Ross sea. It allows operations along the Ross sea and Victoria Land coast and in the Antarctic Plateau up to Concordia station. The whole infrastructure occupies an area of more than 7000 square m. and carries out multidisciplinary research on a broad range of research topics:  - Cosmic ray observations- Environmental monitoring (since 1987) - Geodesy/mapping - Geomagnetic observations - Glaciology - continental - Human biology - Ionospheric/auroral observations - Meteorological observations (since 1985) - Offshore marine biology - Onshore geology/geophysics - Seismology - Terrestrial biology - Tide measurement The station, opened in 1986, is built on rock surface, 100 m from the coastline. It can accommodate up to 90 persons. The station is operated by the Italian National Antarctic Programme (PNRA) and works closely with the US Antarctic Program and Antarctica New Zealand (McMurdo - USA and Scott Base - NZ are the nearest stations). In 2004 the station was renamed in honour of Mario Zucchelli, President of PNRA for 16 years, who had died in October 2003. The station is provided of a little wharf and a pontoon for landing in frozen water. Until November it can be reached via air using an airstrip built on the marine ice. Recently the station has been equipped with additional continental airstrip. Zucchelli Station is particularly suited for marine studies, coastal ecosystems, marginal ice-zones, atmospheric studies and monitoring of the atmosphere.   |
