Exploring Antarctica

dargaud writes "There will soon be some firsts on the high Antarctic plateau: after getting 150km from it last year a Chinese expedition plans on reaching Dome A, the highest part of the Antarctic ice sheet (4200m), farthest to reach and coldest place on Earth, untrodden yet. Then in a few months the French-Italian station of Concordia at Dome C (3200m) will open year-round for its first winter-over, of which I will be part. The location of these ice domes make them great for atmospheric physics, glaciology, astronomy and more. Big projects are getting interested in Antarctica again, just in time for the International Polar Year of 2007, 50 years after the first one."

Comments

Re:The devil called...

[Andr0s]

And it seems that guy is not completely alone. Try this site . Almost as bad as moisture farming on Tatooine.

My favorite thing about Antarctica

[daveschroeder]

"US has made no territorial claim in Antarctica (but has reserved the right to do so) and does not recognize the claims of any other state"

Thing are looking up down there

[nels_tomlinson]

Nearly 100 years ago (1913?), Ernest Shackleton (1874-1922) placed a newpaper ad: "Men Wanted for hazardous journey. Small wages, bitter cold, long months of complete darkness, constant danger, safe return doubtful. Honor and recognition in case of success." Nowadays, we can tell them: ``safe return probable''. That's progress.

I enjoy spending summers in the high arctic; I think I could go for a summer or two in the high antarctic. Anyone need a statistician on the ground there for a summer? Winters are right out, though: I've spent quite enough time in the dark.

If you want to learn a bit about Antartica...

[marktaw.com]

I just finished a great book on what Antartica is really like called Ice Bound by Jerri Nielsen.* After reading it, I felt like I would want to go live there for a while, except I hate the extreme cold. The sense of community is something beautiful, and completely lacking from our modern society, as well as work being your life and your life being your work (and that's a good thing).

Good luck with your Winter-Over. If you started a blog, would yours be the first from Antartica? If you did, I would consider it a must-read.

*Yes, I make $0.02 if you order through that link, so sue me.

Website run by people on Antarctica

[LanMan04]

Check out Big Dead Place, a great website run by some very funny and bitter people that work at McMurdo (largest of the 3 American stations).

Charity drives like "fuck a winter-over" and the ever-popular column "Ask a Fucked Up Winter-Over" make it worth the visit. See how these people really live.

Oh, and they love John Carpenter's "The Thing".

Already started in 15th century!

[Anonymous Coward]

Any one care to explain how a 15th century map details the coastline of Antartica (WITHOUT glaciers) when it wasn't mapped out until the 1960?!s

Piri Re Maps

--
There are a million miracles happening everday.
But the skeptic is the only fool who won't even believe just one.
Miracles don't have to be grandiose,
for even a smile to help someone else feel better is one.

Antarctic lakes may resemble Europa

[sfjoe]

11,000 feet under Antarctica is a lake. This really fascinates me as it is one of the most alien environments on Earth. It is so low in nutrients that life would have to find alternative sources of energy.

http://www.ldeo.columbia.edu/~mstuding/vostok.ht ml