2008 Pole Marker

The Antarctic ice sheet moves about 10 meters a year and with it the marker for the Geographic South Pole. On January 1st of every year we place a new marker at the correct position for that day. Derek, our resident Australian machinist, has done a great job fabricating this year’s marker. Luckily, I had a chance to take some glamor shots before it was installed at the Pole.

The markers started out as quite simple pieces of metal, just having the information required for a standard USGS marker. The telescopes that started to operate at the South Pole in the ’90s always employed a machinist and they started to fabricate quite amazing markers. Nowadays winter-overs can submit a design and the community picks their favorite by popular vote, which is then fabricated.