Antarctica/Vostok

Time zone identifier: Antarctica/Vostok

Current civil offset: +05:00 (+05)

Current DST state: Observing Standard Time

First standard time adoption: Adopted on 1957-12-16

Total recorded transitions: 4 transitions across 3 distinct offsets

Associated countries: AQ

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Historical Offset Step Chart (1880 to Present)

-1:00 +0:00 +1:00 +2:00 +3:00 +4:00 +5:00 +6:00 +7:00 +8:00 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Text summary: Antarctica/Vostok shifted between 3 distinct offsets from 1957-12-16 through the modern era.

Complete Transition History (4 Transitions)

UTC Instant Local Wall Time Shift Abbreviation DST Effect
1957-12-16T00:00:00Z 1957-12-16 07:00:00 +00:00 → +07:00 +07 No gap
1994-01-31T17:00:00Z 1994-01-31 17:00:00 +07:00 → +00:00 -00 No overlap
1994-11-01T00:00:00Z 1994-11-01 07:00:00 +00:00 → +07:00 +07 No gap
2023-12-17T19:00:00Z 2023-12-18 00:00:00 +07:00 → +05:00 +05 No overlap

Notes from the Maintainers

Source: antarctica (Lines 237 to 291)
Poland - year-round base
Arctowski, King George Island, -620945-0582745, since 1977

Romania - year-bound base
Law-Racoviță, Larsemann Hills, -692319+0762251, since 1986

Russia - year-round bases
Bellingshausen, King George Island, -621159-0585337, since 1968-02-22
Mirny, Davis coast, -6633+09301, since 1956-02
Molodezhnaya, Alasheyev Bay, -6740+04551,
year-round from 1962-02 to 1999-07-01
Novolazarevskaya, Queen Maud Land, -7046+01150,
year-round from 1960/61 to 1992

Vostok, since 1957-12-16, temporarily closed 1994-02/1994-11
From Craig Mundell (1994-12-15):
http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/antarctica/QA/computers/Directions,Time,ZIP
Vostok, which is one of the Russian stations, is set on the same
time as Moscow, Russia.

From Lee Hotz (2001-03-08):
I queried the folks at Columbia who spent the summer at Vostok and this is
what they had to say about time there:
"in the US Camp (East Camp) we have been on New Zealand (McMurdo)
time, which is 12 hours ahead of GMT. The Russian Station Vostok was
6 hours behind that (although only 2 miles away, i.e. 6 hours ahead
of GMT). This is a time zone I think two hours east of Moscow. The
natural time zone is in between the two: 8 hours ahead of GMT."

From Paul Eggert (2001-05-04):
This seems to be hopelessly confusing, so I asked Lee Hotz about it
in person.  He said that some Antarctic locations set their local
time so that noon is the warmest part of the day, and that this
changes during the year and does not necessarily correspond to mean
solar noon.  So the Vostok time might have been whatever the clocks
happened to be during their visit.  So we still don't really know what time
it is at Vostok.

From Zakhary V. Akulov (2023-12-17 22:00:48 +0700):
... from December, 18, 2023 00:00 by my decision the local time of
the Antarctic research base Vostok will correspond to UTC+5.
(2023-12-19): We constantly interact with Progress base, with company who
builds new wintering station, with sledge convoys, with aviation - they all
use UTC+5. Besides, difference between Moscow time is just 2 hours now, not 4.
(2023-12-19, in response to the question "Has local time at Vostok
been UTC+6 ever since 1957, or has it changed before?"): No. At least
since my antarctic career start, 10 years ago, Vostok base has UTC+7.
(In response to a 2023-12-18 question "from 02:00 to 00:00 today"): This.

From Paul Eggert (2023-12-18):
For lack of better info, guess Vostok was at +07 from founding through today,
except when closed.

Zone	NAME		STDOFF	RULES	FORMAT	[UNTIL]

Attributed Statements:

Craig Mundell (1994-12-15):

http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/antarctica/QA/computers/Directions,Time,ZIP Vostok, which is one of the Russian stations, is set on the same time as Moscow, Russia.

Lee Hotz (2001-03-08):

I queried the folks at Columbia who spent the summer at Vostok and this is what they had to say about time there: "in the US Camp (East Camp) we have been on New Zealand (McMurdo) time, which is 12 hours ahead of GMT. The Russian Station Vostok was 6 hours behind that (although only 2 miles away, i.e. 6 hours ahead of GMT). This is a time zone I think two hours east of Moscow. The natural time zone is in between the two: 8 hours ahead of GMT."

Paul Eggert (2001-05-04):

This seems to be hopelessly confusing, so I asked Lee Hotz about it in person. He said that some Antarctic locations set their local time so that noon is the warmest part of the day, and that this changes during the year and does not necessarily correspond to mean solar noon. So the Vostok time might have been whatever the clocks happened to be during their visit. So we still don't really know what time it is at Vostok.

Zakhary V. Akulov (2023-12-17 22:00:48 +0700):

... from December, 18, 2023 00:00 by my decision the local time of the Antarctic research base Vostok will correspond to UTC+5. (2023-12-19): We constantly interact with Progress base, with company who builds new wintering station, with sledge convoys, with aviation - they all use UTC+5. Besides, difference between Moscow time is just 2 hours now, not 4. (2023-12-19, in response to the question "Has local time at Vostok been UTC+6 ever since 1957, or has it changed before?"): No. At least since my antarctic career start, 10 years ago, Vostok base has UTC+7. (In response to a 2023-12-18 question "from 02:00 to 00:00 today"): This.

Paul Eggert (2023-12-18):

For lack of better info, guess Vostok was at +07 from founding through today, except when closed. Zone NAME STDOFF RULES FORMAT [UNTIL]

Years on Record

Methodology Note: The 1970 Rule

tzdb guarantees accuracy for timestamps from 1970 onwards. Transitions prior to 1970 represent best-effort historical reconstructions.