Paradise Bay, Antarctica
Photo and story by Ray Boren
On a fine midsummer day – January 14th, 2011 – at the edge of Antarctica, a glaciated mountain casts its reflection in the calm but icy waters of Paradise Bay.
This lovely harbor is on the western coast of the Antarctic Peninsula, which reaches north toward South America.
The inlet hosts two Antarctic research stations: Argentina’s Almirante Brown Antarctic Base and Chile’s Gonzalez Videla Antarctic Base. Both are occupied only during the Antarctic summer.
Some of the frozen continent’s earliest scientific research took place in Paradise Bay in the early 1920s. Thomas Bagshawe penned the first study of penguin breeding development after studying the gentoo penguin (Pygoscelis papua) rookery there.
Research that is more recent has included observing the development of the ozone hole by tracking ultraviolet solar radiation at Paradise Bay.