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

The devil called...

[garcia]

Women have always been a rare and strange breed in Antarctica. Most often there aren't any. During my winter over, women were just some kind of remote and hazy memory. In 2000, a woman did winter over for the first time in Dumont d'Urville, although they have been doing so for a long time in American and Australian stations.

A lot of people seemed to be in a contest for the most original New Year's 2000: from flying the Concorde around the globe to changing the time zone of some Pacific islands... I have to say that ours was quite original: a bunch of scientists, technicians, mechanics all stuck together, getting drunk and dancing with the three available women.

Almost everybody is worthless the first two days: the high altitude combined with the cold and extreme dryness makes for some awful first nights. And hangovers are worse here too: 2 beers are enough to get you hungover in the morning.

So let me get this straight... You are in the coldest area on earth at high altitude with nearly no women and you get hung over from two beers and you return to this place multiple times in your lifetime? This poor guy is one sick fuck but at least his beer stays cold.

Personally, I'll let them see "the new sun" first and I'll stick to the sloppy seconds, at least it's warmed up by then.

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.

Remeber to take sunblock

[cheezemonkhai]

Well it's about time we fully explored our own planet rather then jetting off into space.

Space is cool and everything, but I think looking after our planet and exploring the seas etc would be a lot cooler :)

Re:Remeber to take sunblock

[Indy Media Watch]

Exploring the seas and looking after them are often mutually exclusive...

Re:Remeber to take sunblock

[Enigma_Man]

The earth is cool and all, but I think that looking after our own bodies and exploring them would be a lot cooler.

Our bodies are cool and all, but I think that looking after our molecules and exploring them would be a lot cooler.

Repeat unto infinity.

Exploration can happen in parallel dude, without it, we'd still be stuck in the cave ages trying to figure out some mundane detail.

-Jesse

Re:Remeber to take sunblock

[Jameth]

The earth is cool and all, but I think that looking after our own bodies and exploring them would be a lot cooler.

Our bodies are cool and all, but I think that looking after our molecules and exploring them would be a lot cooler.

Repeat unto infinity.

Don't worry. People will stop repeating this thought process right around the exploring their own bodies part.

Sorry, I can't resist

[jayhawk88]

Explorer: You've got to start charging more than a dollar a bag. We lost two men on this expedition!

Apu: If you can think of a better way to get ice, I'd like to hear it!

Re:Sorry, I can't resist

[Hatta]

Bart: Hey, Apu! There's a head in this bag.

Apu: Ooh, that is a special head-bag. It is chock full of... heady goodness!

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"

Re:My favorite thing about Antarctica

[lashi]

>"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"

The Antarctica isn't a continent, as in there is no land mass. The countries can make the claims on the ice surface but that wouldn't mean anything if the ice starts to melt.

Re:My favorite thing about Antarctica

[ripsnorta]

Yes it is.

See http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/ ay.html

It's the Artic (North Polar Icecap) that is not over a landmass. Except for where it intersects the top edges of North America, Siberia, and Asia.

need my eyes checked

[CoffeeJedi]

anyone else read the headline as:
"Exploding Antarctica"

and here i thought something really cool was about to happen

200 Degree Club

[DJDutcher]

I heard that at the south pole they sit in a sauna that reaches 100 degrees farenheit then, when the temperature outside drops below 100 below zero they run outside in just their boots and then quickly back into the sauna. If you've done that you're in the 200 degree club. I'd like to winter over in Antartica. It sounds like fun.

Re:200 Degree Club

[Fr05t]

I think that would also get you into the Darwin Award club.

Re:200 Degree Club

[Deep Penguin]

What we do at Pole is called the *300* Degree club - we crank the sauna up to +200F and run outside wearing only shoes at -100F.

http://penguincentral.com/300Club.html

(the photo is from my *second* 300 Club run this winter - no photographer out there the first time)

Before some smart-ass tries to claim that it's impossible to sit in a +200F sauna, remember that a) we are at a nominal 11,000' and b) there's about 0.5% RH, meaning that heat transfer to your body is quite poor. I wouldn't want to think about sitting in a +200F Sauna at sea level.

-ethan

Re:200 Degree Club

[henrym]

Sorry, that's incorrect. I'm at the South Pole right now, and I promise you that we do indeed have two saunas. The club is actually the 300 degree club. The rules state that you crank the sauna up to 200 degrees F (you have to trick the sauna's thermostat by putting it into a glass of ice water), and then you run outside around the geographic pole when the temperature is at least -100 degrees.

http://www.theglobalguy.com/antarctica-2004/the-30 0-club/ theglobalguy.com

The oceans

[millahtime]

In order to really explore our planet we would have to go down and loot at the oceans too. We know very little about what is really down there and happens down there.

Re:The oceans

[duggy_92127]

In order to really explore our planet we would have to go down and loot at the oceans too.

Best. Typo. Ever.

Doug

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.

Re:Thing are looking up down there

[RealAlaskan]

safe return doubtful. Honor and recognition in case of success." Nowadays, we can tell them: ``safe return probable''.

On second thought, we seem to have lost the ``Honor and recognition in case of success'' part in the intervening 91 years, so maybe it wasn't progress after all?

Re:Thing are looking up down there

[Damek]

Dude, everything looks up from down there!

Re:Thing are looking up down there

[RealAlaskan]

Shackleton didn't lose a single man (although they suffered quite a bit and had to eat their dogs).

Dogs make much better emergency rations than do skis or snow machines. If Shackelton had made his sleds out of hides and meat frozen into shape (See Vilhjálmur Stefánsson and Peter Freuchen ) instead of wood, they could have made the dogs last a little longer.

I've been re-reading Endurance . Shackelton was certainly a gifted leader.

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.

Time to resupply the flying saucer base

[Alien54]

Of course, they can't bring women with them, because that is what the space aliens are after. It's the porn industry's duty to produce enough to keep the space aliens happy and thereby prevent an invasion of Planet Earth.

I bet you didn't know that internet porn was a federally funded government project developed just for this purpose?

Antarctica - the coldest place on Earth

[helfen]

Antarctica holds the world's record for coldest temperature: -129F ( recorded in 1983 at the Russian Base Vostok).

Current temp of Vostok is -64 F / -53 C.

There are many claims to Antartica

[woodsrunner]

Particularily by Argentina and Chile, but I think the French, Russians,Brits and maybe Chinese have some claims. Mostly it's an Argentine and Chilean thing since they are closest.

Think of the possibilities

[xThinkx]

"coldest area on earth at high altitude with nearly no women"

Now you've done it, hardocp will soon establish a city of overclocking enthusiasts there.

But did they find...

[Sefi915]

The Lost Outpost of the Ancients?

heres a map

[reeb]

territorial map

I have...

[CrackedButter]

the ancient gene if they need me to power the outpost.

Personally

[ObsessiveMathsFreak]

I'd love to take a holiday in Antartica over the antartic winter. I'd have loads of time to work on projects, no noisy distractions and I'd finally have an excuse to stay indoors for six months!

I'd need some kind of net connection though. The slashdottings would keep me warm during the cold winter nights.

beware of the penguin terrorists...

[tuxette]

...and their weapons of mass destruction.

Earth to Eggheads.

[mcmonkey]

I'd really like to know what a "Polar Year" is. I click on the International Polar Year link. On that page I click on the What is IPY link.

What is IPY

The Polar Regions are remote areas of the Earth that have profound significance for the Earth's climate and ultimately environments, ecosystems and human society. However we still remain remarkably ignorant of many aspects of how polar climate operates and its interaction with polar environments, ecosystems and societies. To have any hope of understanding the current global climate and what might happen in future the science community needs a better picture of conditions at the poles and how they interact with and influence the oceans, atmosphere and land masses. Existing climate models do not work well in the polar regions and have for example failed to predict the dramatic break-up of Antarctic ice shelves observed in recent years. The three fastest warming regions on the planet in the last two decades have been Alaska, Siberia and parts of the Antarctic Peninsula, Thus the Polar Regions are highly sensitive to climate change and this raises real concern for the future of polar ecosystems and Arctic society.

There have been a number of major international science initiatives in Polar Regions since the first International Polar Year in 1882-83 and all have had a major influence in overhauling our understanding of global processes in these important areas. These initiatives have involved an intense period of interdisciplinary research, collecting a broad range of measurements that provide a snapshot in time of the state of the polar regions. The last such initiative was the International Geophysical Year in 1957-58, involving 80,000 scientists from 67 countries.

It produced unprecedented exploration and discoveries in many fields of research and fundamentally changed how science was conducted in the polar regions. Fifty years on, technological developments such as earth observation satellites, autonomous vehicles and molecular biology techniques offer enormous opportunities for a further quantum step upwards in our understanding of polar systems. An IPY in 2007-2008 also affords an opportunity to engage the upcoming generation of young Earth System scientists and to get the public to realize just how much the cold ends of the sphere we all live on really do influence us.

So WTF is a "Polar Year"?? I know a little bit about polar climate. I know the three fastest warming regions in the last two decades. I know when the first and last "Polar Years" were. I still don't know what a "Polar Year" is or how we know when the next one is.

Is this a political thing like Black History Month? Is it one of those made up holidays to sell more greeting cards like Secretaries Day? Is there some super-seasonal cycle of weather that affects the polls?

I love the environment and all. I'd really like to give two shits. But first I'd have to have some clue as to wtf you are talking about.

Re:Earth to Eggheads.

[phiala]

So WTF is a "Polar Year"?? I know a little bit about polar climate. I know the three fastest warming regions in the last two decades. I know when the first and last "Polar Years" were. I still don't know what a "Polar Year" is or how we know when the next one is.

It's a research push. They've been doing International Something Years for a long time. (International Geophysical Year, etc.) A bunch of scientists get together and push really really hard for research funding for something big. The kind of stuff done is beyond the capabilities of any one research group or any one research grant, so these let BIG research happen.

Big Dead Place

[Aggrajag]

One of the funniest and most interesting sites I know. Site has stories about the people working over there (Antarctica) and other stuff as well.

http://www.bigdeadplace.com/

Reads different to me

[AviLazar]

Australia, Chile, and Argentina claim Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) rights or similar over 200 nm extensions seaward from their continental claims, but like the claims themselves, these zones are not accepted by other countries; 20 of 27 Antarctic consultative nations have made no claims to Antarctic territory (although Russia and the US have reserved the right to do so) and do not recognize the claims of the other nations; also see the Disputes - international entry

Apparantly 20 of the 27 nations have not made any claims. And apparantly those 27 do not recognize claims by other nations. I think your paraphrasing is incorrect.

Warming Up

[DigitalRaptor]

Don't worry, things are warming up down there.

Soon it will be a great summer resort with swimming and water skiing. The winter vacations will be spent in Cancun.

Re:Ozone

[kirkjobsluder]

They banned dogs over a decade ago because people were afraid that they would spread parvo to the seals (something scientifically impossible since it is an entirely different species)

Viruses cross over between species all the time: Rabies,Influenza, Hantavirus, and Ebola all have large non-human reservoirs.

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".

Re:Ozone

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah those 8 snowmobiles are destroying the world

Would someone please think of the children!?

Got any more pseudo-scientific horseshit for us?

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.

Re:Already started in 15th century!

[tootlemonde]

Any one care to explain how a 15th century map details the coastline of Antartica...

The modern interest in the Piri Reis map comes from its description in Maps of the Ancient Sea Kings: Evidence of Advanced Civilization in the Ice Age by, Charles H. Hapgood, which was published in 1979. Hapgood was a professor with good academic credentials and his book describes a number of 16th century maps, all assembled from earlier maps, that showed a knowledge of the globe beyond what one would have expected at the time.

As this analysis points out, Hapgood was very selective in which details of the maps he said corresponded to Antarctica, ignored the details that didn't fit and never considered other plausible explanations for the maps. In particular, cartographic theory at the time posited the existence of a large southern continent for no other reason than that it would balanced the land mass in the known world above the equator.

Even if Hapgood goes well beyond the evidence, the ancient maps still seem anomalous and suggest that there are vast gaps in our knowledge of the ancient world.

Re:Already started in 15th century!

[derdesh]

Here's a pretty good explanation.

The author credits Piri Re for making a very good map of South America using the cartographic techniques of the time, but concludes that it is not Antarctica. Instead what is often interpreted as Antarctica is the coast of South America, perhaps bent around to fit the map onto the irregular parchment (or whatever) it is drawn on.

Perhaps most damning to the Antarctica interpretation are the marginal notes which (according to the site author) say the coastline in question was reported by sailors blown off course, who described the region as "very hot".

Re:What?! No AvP jokes?!

[Daagar]

Just imagine an army of a million 4'10" Chinese Predators!

What type of /.'er are you!? Don't you know that should read "Just imagine a beowolf cluster of 4'10" Chinese Predators"?

Imitation Dog

[pipingguy]

Sounds cool and stuff until some Norwegian finds somethingburied in the ice...

IceCube starting up

[EigenHombre]

There is always a tremendous amount of science going on in Antarctica, but this year will mark the first deployment of sensors in the IceCube neutrino detector at the South Pole, one of the largest Antarctic science projects to date.

If all goes well this Austral Summer, IceCube will deploy four "strings," each with 60 light sensors attached, at a depth of about 2 km. Subsequent years will deploy more sensors until a total of 4800 is reached, making the cubic-kilometer sized detector one of the largest on Earth.

IceCube's quarry is primarily neutrinos of extraterrestrial origin. For the uninitiated, neutrinos are extremely elusive subatomic particles produced by high energy interactions. Candidate sources include the supermassive black holes at the heart of so-called "Active Galactic Nuclei", dark matter, and the mysterious Gamma Ray Bursts.

A recent article has more information.
See also a previous Slashdot post about IceCube's predecessor, AMANDA.
Wikipedia has this introduction to neutrinos.

Beware of the domes of ice

[FuzzyBad-Mofo]

To seek the sacred river Alph
To walk the caves of ice
To break my fast on honeydew
And drink the milk of Paradise...

I had heard the whispered tales of immortality
The deepest mystery
From an ancient book I took a clue
I scaled the frozen mountain tops of eastern lands unknown
Time and Man alone
Searching for the lost Xanadu

To stand within the Pleasure Dome
Decreed by Kubla Khan
To taste anew the fruits of life
The last immortal man
To find the sacred river Alph
To walk the caves of ice
Oh, I will dine on honeydew
And drink the milk of Paradise

A thousand years have come and gone but time has passed me by
Stars stopped in the sky
Frozen in an everlasting view
Waiting for the world to end, weary of the night
Praying for the light
Prison of the lost Xanadu

Held within the Pleasure Dome
Decreed by Kubla Khan
To taste my bitter triumph
As a mad immortal man
Nevermore shall I return
Escape these caves of ice
For I have dined on honeydew
And drunk the milk of Paradise

let me be the first to say...

[DrStrangeLoop]

Tekeli-li! Tekeli-li!

Leng, here we come!

[minotaurcomputing]

I wait with baited breath for incomprehensible reports from those noble explorers concerning the ancient plateau city of Leng just east of the Mountains of Madness, built eons ago by the Great Old Ones on the very spot where they first infected our planet.

-m

Great site!

[October_30th]

If I were given a chance of becoming an Antarctican for a while, I'd go for it. I don't even have any molars left...

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

Re:Coldest Place?

[hesiod]

> Wasn't the coldest inhabited place Vostok(?) in Russia?

Isn't Vostok just the name of the Russian base in Antarctica? Look Here.