# Bellingshausen Station

Bellingshausen Station (Russian: станция Беллинсгаузен) is a Russian Antarctic station at Collins Harbour, on King George Island of the South Shetland Islands. It was one of the first research stations founded by the Soviet Antarctic Expedition in 1968. It is also the location of Trinity Church, the only permanently staffed Eastern Orthodox church in Antarctica.
The station is connected by unimproved roads to the nearby stations: Chilean Base Presidente Eduardo Frei Montalva, Chinese Great Wall Station, and Uruguayan Artigas Base.
It is antipodal to a location in Russian Siberia, ~400 kilometres (250 mi) west from Yakutsk.

## History

The station is named for the 19th-century Russian explorer of the Antarctic Fabian von Bellingshausen.
In October 2018, it was the site of the first attempted murder in Antarctica.

## Climate

The Antarctic Peninsula and its nearby islands are considered to have the mildest living conditions in Antarctica. Bellingshausen Station's climate is strongly influenced by the surrounding ocean. Under the Köppen system, it is one of the few locations in Antarctica classified as a tundra climate rather than an ice cap climate. Variation in temperatures are small with the coldest month, July, averaging −6.5 °C (20.3 °F) and 1.5 °C (34.7 °F) in the warmest month. With only 591.2 hours of sunshine per year, the weather is often unsettled and cloudy throughout the year with precipitation in the form of snow, rain and drizzle occurring often. On average, 729 mm (28.7 in) of precipitation falls per year.
Climate data for Bellingshausen Station (1968–2014) :
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Mean daily maximum °C (°F) | 3.3 (37.9) | 3.3 (37.9) | 2.1 (35.8) | 0.2 (32.4) | −1.5 (29.3) | −3.1 (26.4) | −3.8 (25.2) | −3.6 (25.5) | −2.0 (28.4) | −0.9 (30.4) | 0.4 (32.7) | 2.0 (35.6) | −0.3 (31.5) |
| Daily mean °C (°F) | 1.5 (34.7) | 1.5 (34.7) | 0.4 (32.7) | −1.7 (28.9) | −3.6 (25.5) | −5.6 (21.9) | −6.5 (20.3) | −6.2 (20.8) | −4.4 (24.1) | −2.6 (27.3) | −1.1 (30.0) | 0.4 (32.7) | −2.3 (27.9) |
| Mean daily minimum °C (°F) | 0.1 (32.2) | 0.1 (32.2) | −1.3 (29.7) | −3.8 (25.2) | −6.0 (21.2) | −8.3 (17.1) | −9.7 (14.5) | −9.3 (15.3) | −7.1 (19.2) | −4.7 (23.5) | −2.7 (27.1) | −1.0 (30.2) | −4.5 (23.9) |
| Average precipitation mm (inches) | 54.4 (2.14) | 66.4 (2.61) | 72.1 (2.84) | 65.6 (2.58) | 60.6 (2.39) | 53.4 (2.10) | 60.5 (2.38) | 62.1 (2.44) | 59.8 (2.35) | 54.6 (2.15) | 46.7 (1.84) | 46.0 (1.81) | 702.2 (27.65) |
| Average relative humidity (%) | 87.8 | 88.8 | 88.3 | 88.0 | 88.2 | 87.6 | 88.5 | 88.6 | 89.6 | 88.8 | 88.4 | 88.3 | 88.4 |
| Mean monthly sunshine hours | 89.3 | 66.2 | 54.4 | 28.4 | 13.9 | 3.8 | 9.0 | 28.5 | 48.1 | 70.9 | 83.2 | 95.5 | 591.2 |
| Source: Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute ||||||||||||||

## Gallery

* Trinity Church at Bellingshausen
* Interior of Trinity Church
* Bellingshausen in 2012
* Bellingshausen in January 1985
* Bellingshausen at night

## In popular culture

On January 21, 2014, American tattoo artist Lyle Tuttle set up an impromptu tattoo station in a scientist's guesthouse where he tattooed his signature tattoo—his autograph—on project assistant/tattoo historian Dr. Anna Felicity Friedman, making him the first person to tattoo on all seven continents.