Antarctic Vehicles

There are a multitude of different vehicles used in Antarctica, each designed to deal with different purposes, types of terrain and conditions. Many of the vehicles are shown below; others such as snowmobiles will be showing up in future posts. 

Colleagues of mine are using a PistonBully like this one to travel across the sea ice to the site of their science experiment.

Due to the long and wide track, a PistonBully can safely cross some of the cracks in the sea ice that are up to a meter (3ft) wide

Standing next to "Ivan the Terra Bus", which is a snow coach that will pick up passengers from the air strip. It drives along roads on the ice and snow.

A Delta truck - this one is called "Gale". I am standing next to the Delta and the wheels are almost as tall as I am!

A Mattrack truck can travel across snow. The weight of the vehicle is spread across the large surface area of the tracks, so the truck does not get stuck in snow - it rides on top of the snow.

Closet view of the Mattrack, which is put on in place of a standard wheel and tyre/tire

The engines on vehicles are fitted with heating blankets and plugged in for power so the oil won't freeze

Large tractors/cat vehicles fitted with snow tracks and heavy external machinery such as cranes or winches

An articulated bulldozer fitted with snow tracks and a huge snow plow.