Background
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The first air explorations conducted by the Argentine Air Force date from 1951 when Vicecomodoro (Lieutenant Colonel) Gustavo Argentino MARAMBIO flew over Margarita Bay in the north east of the Antarctic Peninsula with the AVRO LINCOLN registration
LV-ZEI called "Cruz del Sur".
 
In 1952 the Lieutenant Colonel Marambio as Chief of the Staff of the Antarctic Task Force flew over the Argentine Antarctic sector and studied possible places for landing areas.
Vicecomodoro Marambio Island is called SEYMOUR in old Antarctic charts in honour of a British Marine who was in the area at the end of the 19th Century, it has had its present name since 1956.

Lieutenant Colonel Gustavo Argentino MARAMBIO was born in Río Cuarto, Córdoba Province, on 21st September 1918. He died tragically in an air accident in Mugueta, Santa Fe Province on 12th November 1953. The island was called Vicecomodoro Marambio in his honour.

During the 60's the Air Force insisted on finding an appropriate area for an airstrip for the regular and continuous operation of large aircraft with conventional landing gear -that is wheels.
 

On 25th November 1968, the Air Force helicopter Bell UH-1H, registration #H-11 set out from the General San Martín icebreaker (Q-4) piloted by 1st Lieutenant Enrique PESSANA and Lieutenant Ricardo CIASCHINI landed on the plateau of the Vicecomodoro Marambio Island, Carrying onboard the Antarctic Task Force Chief (GATA), Lt.Col. Mario Luis OLEZZA, an expert in the region, Lieutenant Julio Alberto DOMINGUEZ, the Geologist Assistant, Héctor Luis PONTE, together with the geoglaciologist Dr. René Edgard DALINGER who collected samples of soil, investigated and measured the area.

 






The 1968/69 Crew, who were later called Soberanía Patrol and who founded Marambio Base, came to Antarctica on the icebreaker and were designated to the Petrel Air Naval Station and to Teniente Matienzo Air Base which was in a state of emergency.

 

 

In April 1969 the area was air photographed by the DHC-6 "Twin Otter" and an Hércules C-130 made a reconnaissance. A DHC-2 "Beaver" belonging to Matienzo Base crew performed similar tasks.

From those several studies they came to the conclusion that the airstrip could be built on the plateau that crowns the island.

EXPLANATION:

To say that October 29th is the anniversary of the foundation of Vicecomodoro Marambio Air Base in Argentine Antarctica seems an insignificant and trivial fact,
but it is not.

The foundation coincides with the opening of the first airstrip on the 6th Continent, and it is an outstanding historic event because it enabled to break the isolation in this part of the world -before this, it was only possible to get there in summer by sea when the ice permitted it.

Without doubt these operational characteristics have an extraordinary value and started a new era in the Antarctic Polar Cap where the tasks are performed in a different way now.

It is no longer necessary to wait for favourable weather conditions to get there by sea or the propitious condition of the ice -only possible in summer time. The necessary air support can be moved in a few hours under any circumstance.

The previous isolation was replaced by this functional capacity, which enables the transfer of crew, logistic support, emergencies, evacuations, flight alternatives and support for search and rescue.

To speak about an airstrip is astonishing because all we know of Antarctica is that it has a huge covering of eternal ice and snow.

But Vicecomodoro Marambio Island emerged from the sea in ancient times and its plateau reached 198m above sea level. It has a semi-flat surface made of a frozen mud of clay soil and rocks of different sizes spread all over the area.

These special characteristics allow the plateau to be usually swept by the wind preventing the accumulation of snow.