Talk:Vostok Station

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

WikiProject Geography
Geography Portal

This article is supported by the Geography WikiProject, a collaborative effort to improve Wikipedia's coverage on Geography and related subjects on Wikipedia. Please participate by editing the article Geography, or visit the project page for more details on the projects.
Start This article has been rated as Start-Class on the assessment scale.
Antarctica
Antarctica Portal
This article is within the scope of the WikiProject Antarctica, which collaborates on articles related to Antarctica. To participate, you can edit this article or visit the project page for more details.
Start This article has been rated as Start-Class on the quality scale.
??? This article has not yet received an importance rating on the importance scale.

[edit] Effects on humans

All the claims below from the article are not cited, come with no explanation and seem scientifically dubious:

"Accounting for the fact that oxygen density gets lower as one approaches the poles"

 Is this really true? If so why?

"A higher ionization of the air"

really? why? due to stratispheric ozone depletion or something else?

"A partial pressure of gases which is different from that to which most humans are used to"

apart from lower pressure due to high altitude what else causes this different partial pressure and what effect does it have on human physiology

"A lack of carbon dioxide in the air, which leads to irregularities in a person's breathing mechanism."

is this true? is there a lower concentration, if so why and what effect does it have on human physiology

—Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.111.156.114 (talk • contribs) 13:14, 26 March 2007

All of those things were added by myself and are simply translations from the Russian article. I agree that sources are needed, but I think it's likely that the Russians know more about Vostok than the English-speakers do - I figured I'd best added them in and see if someone else can source it. The carbon dioxide question, at least, has an "obvious" answer to me (though it may not be the right one) - there's a severe lack of anything that produces carbon dioxide for a great, great distance around the base. I've personally felt the withdrawal symptoms of CO2 when I go from the city the countryside for any length of time - I feel a bit light-headed and tired for the first day or two. I imagine that this is much worse in a place as isolated as the middle of Antarctica. Esn 06:47, 31 March 2007 (UTC)

By the way, the carbon dioxide article says as much - that CO2 controls a person's breathing rate. Esn 06:53, 31 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Something like heroism

The following is a translation of a comment from the talk page of the Russian article which seems interesting:

In 1982, a fire broke out at Vostok Station. The diesel machines were destroyed. One wintering person died. But people were able to bring life under control and overcome all difficulties. Not only that, but they didn't leave the station, staying through the winter. They did scientific work and fought for the life of the station.

This tale of hardiness was written about in Комсомольская правда' (June 1983)

Personally, I do not have reliable information about this story. I wish that eyewitnesses, biographers or real participants in the events would in describe them in detail. This is a worthy story.

So... does anybody know anything about this? It would be a fine thing to mention, I think. Esn 07:14, 31 March 2007 (UTC)

Don't know about this. But Not only that, but they didn't leave the station, staying through the winter is a bit odd: AFAIK its impossible to leave there during winter William M. Connolley 08:30, 14 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Min T

I don't know about this; our records [1] say the min was "only" -84.4 William M. Connolley 08:30, 14 June 2007 (UTC)

Which disagrees with what the Russians themselves think: [2] William M. Connolley 08:34, 14 June 2007 (UTC)