23 Feb 2016

2 Feb Voyage: Shokalskiy A Year on Ice

Our planned midnight landing at Inexpressible Island was abandoned when the wind speed changed rapidly, dashing our hopes of seeing the snow cave, so we continued on through the ice towards Cape Hallet. Having met Anthony Powell, a communications engineer at Scott Base last Thursday, it seemed fitting to show his documentary ‘Antarctica – A Year on Ice’. This footage gives insights into the highs and lows of a working in such a remote area with months of total darkness, contrasting with months of 24 hour daylight over the course of a year.

Afternoon lectures were presented by Marcus Thomassen and Grigory Tsidulko. Marcus talked about Shackleton’s early life and his journey on the Discovery expedition.  He was one of two boys in a family of ten children, a lover of poetry and a meticulous organiser.  Grigory gave an informative presentation about Antarctica’s sub glacial lakes, describing how they’re formed, detected and explored.  He explained how attempts at both the Ellsworth and Whillans lakes by the UK and USA respectively, were unsuccessful at extracting water from the actual lakes, but the ice extracted has provided some invaluable information on the climate. The Russian Vostok base did manage to recover water samples in January 2015 and minerals found in the water suggest geothermal activity. An unidentified genome is also being researched.