Fletcher's Ice Island

Discovered by U.S. Air Force Colonel Joseph Fletcher, the iceberg was named T-3 or Fletchers Ice Island. Between 1952 and 1978 it was used as a manned scientific research station that included huts, a power plant, and a runway for wheeled aircraft [http://www.hamgallery.com/qsl/Interesting/kf3aa.htm] . It was a 6 km by 15 km and 25 m thick tabular sheet of glacial ice drifting around in the central Arctic Ocean. The island drifted under the influence of winds and currents. T-3 was first occupied during the International Geophysical Year in 1957 and manned until 1974. It exited through the Fram Strait sometime around 1984 [http://images.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://www.polarhovercraft.no/uploads/Main/T3_drift_track.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.polarhovercraft.no/index.php%3Fn%3DMain.Background&h=634&w=1000&sz=212&hl=en&start=17&um=1&usg=__mnSSUBdOd28it_X6C3sZKa1PBCY=&tbnid=HZzrRx_ntVhdZM:&tbnh=94&tbnw=149&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dice%2Bisland%2Bt-3%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN] . Fletcher's Ice Island, and the research station that was located on it, rotated in circles in the Arctic Ocean, floating aimlessly along in the Arctic currents in a clockwise direction. The station was inhabited mainly by scientists along with a few military crewmen and was resupplied during its existence primarily by military planes operating from Barrow, Alaska [http://www.qsl.net/kg0yh/ice.htm] .