Located 100 meters from the geographic south pole, the station is named after the leaders of the first expeditions to reach the south pole. Constructed in 1956, the station sits on a glacier moving 10 meters per year towards the south pole. The research station consists of several structures for housing the research equipment, temporary structures for construction crews and housing for the researchers. The primary module housing the majority of the crew has always been named the Amundsen-Scott south pole station .
There have been three versions of the south pole station. The first was Built approximately one kilometer from the geographic south pole, but due to the movement of the ice shelf this is difficult to accurately measure. Use of the station lasted till 1975 when the dome station was built. The structure of the first station was unable to deal with the increasing snow loads caused by blowing winds.
Several new research facilities where created during the 90's including the ice cube lab and numerous astronomy labs, taking advantage of the unique conditions of the site, including a lack of light of light pollution and access to the thick ice sheet. To provide the accurate data that researchers are there to collect the area is divided in to sections. The clean air sector for atmospheric research, Dark sector for astronomy and quiet sector for seismological research.
The construction of the new station started in 1999, and it replaced the dome as the Amundsen-Scott south pole station in 2003. The new station has been engineered to avoid the snow build up problems of the old, by being elevated, an idea that was tested earlier with the elevated dorm.
The dome was dismantled as of winter 2010.
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