International Geophysical Year

International Geophysical Year was an international scientific project that lasted from 1 July 1957 to 31 December 1958. Sixty-seven countries participated in projects encompassing eleven Earth sciences. A major component was the study of Antarctica, a land heretofore largely unknown.

Antarctic Focus
IGY triggered an eighteen-month period of Antarctic science. The International Council of Scientific Unions, a parent body, broadened the proposals from polar studies to geophysical research. More than seventy existing national scientific organizations then formed IGY committees, and participated in the cooperative effort.

Australia established its Davis Station in 1957, in the Vestfold Hills. As a part of the IGY activities, a two-man camp was installed beside Taylor Glacier, 60 miles (97 km) west of Mawson Station, its first permanent base on the Antarctic continent. Its principal purpose was to enable parallactic photography of the aurora australis (thus locating it in space), but it also permitted studies of Emperor penguins in the adjacent rookery.

The United States built Wilkes Station for the IGY. Australia took over its operation two years later. Halley Research Station was founded in 1956 at Halley Bay by an expedition from the British Royal Society. Showa Station, the first Japanese base in Antarctica, was set up in January 1957. France contributed Dumont d'Urville Station and Charcot Station in Adelie Land. Belgium established the King Baudouin Base in 1958. The Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station was erected as the first permanent structure at the South Pole in January 1957.

Trivia

 * It was a popular topic for postage stamps.
 * It was the topic of a 2017 exhibition at the Scott Polar Research Institute's Polar Museum named "The Year That Made Antarctica".