Coldest Spot On Planet Earth Identified

Posted by Soulskill on Tuesday December 10, 2013 @07:22AM from the bring-a-jacket dept.

Thorfinn.au sends this news from NASA: "What is the coldest place on Earth? It is a high ridge in Antarctica on the East Antarctic Plateau where temperatures in several hollows can dip below minus 133.6 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 92 degrees Celsius) on a clear winter night. Scientists made the discovery while analyzing the most detailed global surface temperature maps to date, developed with data from remote sensing satellites including the new Landsat 8, a joint project of NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). Ted Scambos, lead scientist at the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colo., joined a team of researchers reporting the findings Monday at the American Geophysical Union meeting in San Francisco. Researchers analyzed 32 years' worth of data from several satellite instruments. They found temperatures plummeted to record lows dozens of times in clusters of pockets near a high ridge between Dome Argus and Dome Fuji, two summits on the ice sheet known as the East Antarctic Plateau. The new record of minus 93.2 C was set Aug. 10, 2010."

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Re:Cool! by Charliemopps · 2013-12-10 07:39 · Score: 4, Interesting

Our data centers on snow covered mountains are the hardest to keep cool. Snow is an excellent insulator.
Re:That is fucking cold. by bill_mcgonigle · 2013-12-10 07:52 · Score: 5, Interesting

Wow. So, what happens the atmospheric CO2 in that case? Would it precipitate as "dry ice" snow?

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Re:How long can you survive there? by barakn · 2013-12-10 08:10 · Score: 4, Interesting

At temperatures even warmer than that, people need special snorkels with heat exchangers to avoid freezing their lungs. Death would be by asphyxiation in mere minutes unless blood freezing in the skin caused some sort of high blood pressure event that triggers a heart attack first.

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Re:From a friend of someone down there by hubie · 2013-12-10 08:33 · Score: 4, Interesting

A friend of mine winter-overed twice in Antarctica. They would play soccer at the South Pole and every now and again they would have to throw the ball in the microwave to warm it up and re-inflate it. Also, on New Years Eve they would go out every hour and have a drink at midnight in a different time zone. :P