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25.01.2022 A FLIGHT TO ANTARCTICA IN THE COVID AGE IS STILL POSSIBLE International travel is pretty much dead during the Pandemic, but if Antarctica is on your bucket list, there is a nice little loophole that will allow you to fly to Antarctica from Australia for the day. With trips by cruise ships likely to set you back around $7000-$10,000 as a minimum for a very basic cruise, this may be a worthwhile alternative. You won’t get to land but then you don’t get to land on Antarctica if...Continue reading

24.01.2022 DISCOVERY In honour of my daughter’s birthday this week (she turned 22), I wanted to talk about the ‘Discovery’, Scott’s ship that took him and his Terra Nova expedition to the Antarctic. The Discovery was launched 120 years ago this week in Dundee where it sits waiting for you to visit (it’s on my bucket list) as it is a major tourist attraction.... It was launched on March 21, 1901. Sir Clements Markham was a naval officer, geographer and President of the Royal Geographical Society, and instrumental in Britain’s forays into Antarctic. Having raised funds for the construction of the ship through various measures he contracted Dundee Shipbuilders Ltd to build Discovery at a cost of 51,000 (about 6,309,000 pounds in today's money). She was built to be the strongest ship afloat at that time and the last three-masted sailing ship to be built in Britain. Her very thick hull to cope with Antarctic pack ice was made from Scottish pine, oak, English elm and greenheart, sealed with iron bands, and her sails were backed up by a steam engine. The launch of the ship was major event and newspaper accounts of the time all speak of the great excitement in Dundee with many workers given time off to attend the launch The role of christening the ship was conferred upon Lady Markham. The ship was duly christened ‘Discovery’ and rolled down the slipway into the river. Just a week later, Discovery left Dundee to sail into history as the ship that carried the ill-fated Terra Nova expedition. Scott and four of his companions died on that expedition after reaching the South Pole. Discovery would later go on to serve other Antarctic expeditions, including Australia’s Sir Douglas Mawson’s BANZARE expedition of 1929 and 1931, She was used in the fur trade in Canada, as a transport in World War 1 and as a research vessel in the Falklands before she was returned to Dundee in March, 1986, for the first time to stay at what is now Discovery Point where you can visit her. Worth the trip I think.

24.01.2022 AIRCRAFT DANGERS IN ANTARCTICA Back in 1928 Admiral Richard Byrd set out on his first expedition to Antarctica. His mission was to set up the first United States base there, to be called ‘Little America’. Byrd’s ship reached the ice shelf on December 25, 1928. Within weeks he had set up Little America base camp on the Ross Ice Shelf. It consisted mainly of tents and conditions were harsh.... Some of the wealthiest industrialists of the 1920’s had supported the expedition with donations of supplies which is why, when a low lying mountain range was discovered in 1929 they were named by Byrd for John D. Rockefeller, Jr., a patron of the expedition. Byrd took three planes with him to Antarctica in order to explore inland from the coast. When the Rockefeller Mountains were sighted and named from the air on January 27 it was decided to collect geological specimens there at a later date. On March 8 three men from Byrd’s party set out in the expedition's Fokker Universal, named Virginia. It flew from Little America to land as close as possible to the Rockefeller range to collect geological specimens. Their plane did not return and their was an absence of radio transmissions. After ten days, Admiral Byrd flew a rescue mission in search of the lost men. On March 18 the three men were found clinging to life inside a shredded tent pitched at the foot of the mountain range. They had inadvertently landed in a site marked by exceptionally strong katabatic winds that vortexed down from the mountains. Katabatics are winds that carry high-density air from a higher elevation down a slope under the force of gravity. Sometimes called fall winds, they can rush down elevated slopes at hurricane speeds, but most are not as intense as that, and many are only 10 knots (18 km/h) or less. After the field party had spiked their plane down into the ice, set up a field meteorological station, pitched a field tent, did some triangulation survey work, and collected some rocks, hurricane-force winds had blown down the slope at a speed timed at 240 km per hour. The Category 4 winds wrenched the Fokker off its moorings and the steel plane blew away, leaving the field party marooned. A series of rescue flights with a smaller plane, beginning on March 18 and ending on March 22, slowly collected all three men and returned them safely to Little America. The shattered remains of the missing Fokker monoplane were discovered almost a kilometre away. Just one of the dangers facing aircraft travel in Antarctica.

23.01.2022 BELLINGHAUSEN-THE FIRST SIGHTING? You may not be aware but Captain James Cook was the first person to circumnavigate Antarctica in 1773. Though he sailed around the continent he never actually saw it, only assuming that there was land further south of him from observing the rock carried by icebergs as he passed them. Forty five years later, Czar Alexander I of the Russian Empire, in 1818 sent two ships, Vostok and Mirny, under the command of Gottlieb Benjamin von Bellingsha...usen and Mikhail Lazarev to study the southern polar regions. It became known as the Bellinghausen expedition. After a voyage of seven months, on January 26, 1820, the two ships crossed the Antarctic Circle and two days later they approached within 32 km of what is now known as the Princess Martha Coast and sighted the Fimbul Ice shelf. Bellingshausen is generally credited with the discovery of Antarctica though the honour may also lie with Edward Bransfield. There are arguments supporting each so it may be some time before there is an ultimate decision on who was first. Encountering fierce storms in February the Vostok and Mirnyi sailed north for Sydney, Australia and from there explored the South Pacific for several months and then back to Antarctica in December. Bellinghausen became the second person after Cook to circumnavigate Antarctica and discovered and named Peter I Island and the Alexander Coast (which turned out to be an island). Over two years later they returned to Russia and both officers were promoted. They had covered over 80,000 km on their expedition in some of the harshest waters on Earth. Bellinghausen published an account of his travels ten years later and during the International Geophysical Year (IGY) of the mid-1950s, two bases were set up in Antarctica by the Soviet Union. They were named Mirnyi and Vostok after the ships in the Bellingshausen Expedition. A fitting honour in memory of the bravery of the Bellinghausen Expedition in expanding our knowledge of the world.

23.01.2022 ANTARCTIC SHIP MYSTERY 'May you live in interesting times' is actually a curse, attributed to the Chinese (and the Scots). We have the sum total of human knowledge at our fingertips and never in history have there perhaps been such a high level of gullibility. I don't want to be harsh because I would love there to be Nazi/Alien UFO bases in Antarctica or a portal at the poles leading to the hollow Earth, but for all of our science we seem to be creating world of conspiracy d...riven lunacy. This ship is only the latest in a long line of 'see something unusual and jump to a dumb conclusion'. Does this iceberg look like a ship? Yes. Is it a ship? Most probably not (but I'm not ruling it out without further investigation because that's what scientists should do). There is a long history of anomalies to do with Antarctica and this latest one was discovered by YouTube user (this immediately makes it suspect) MrMBB333, who describes himself as an Earth Watchman. He scours Google Earth looking for anomalies and recently found this 122 metre (400 ft) long object which he claims to be a ship. Icebergs get sculpted by wind and waves and take on unusual shapes. All of the early explorers spoke about the fantastical shapes resembling castles, ships, dragons and whatnot. To me that's all this is, another Antarctic ice sculpture, which just happens to resemble a ship. As usual though, that hasn't stopped the instant speculation. Here are some of the comments: 'I was told a couple of years ago that there are ships built underground somewhere on upper east coast (like the ones in the movie 2012) to save the rich and powerful when canary islands get hit with massive earthquake that will take out east coast,' 'I want to [know] why politicians, old astronauts, and religious leaders where invited to Antarctica and the whole world still doesn't know. Makes me ANGRY!' 'Anartica is nazi army base from Hitler days. Plaidiens. Helped him,' [I am assuming they mean Antarctica and are referring to the Pleiadians (Aliens from the Pleiades constellation who figure in a number of conspiracy theories)] MrMBB333 also finds an iceberg that he considers to be some sort of base with entryways and there is a 'torpedo' or 'sub' sitting out on the ice as well. Personally, I'm not seeing it but then humans try and fit what they see into what they know. Maybe I just have no imagination. Antarctica is fascinating on its own, without the conspiracy theories. I just wish humans were taught to be better filters of information than we appear to be. You can follow the video here https://youtu.be/leuY9x5xv7w

22.01.2022 FOOD IN ANTARCTICA - A RECENT JAPANESE FIND. Japan has three stations in Antarctica and their main one, Syowa station, is a permanent research station located on an island off the coast of Queen Maud Land. A recent Japanese expedition to Antarctica to Mukai Rocks, about 8 kilometers from Syowa, discovered a cache of emergency food, not opened for half a century.... In the cache they found the first can of Coca-Cola introduced into Japan, Cool Mint chewing gum and canned foods, including a can of stewed beef and vegetables, made in February 1965 The beef and vegetables was an emergency ration used by the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force (MSDF). It seems that after the Soya, Japan’s first icebreaker was decommissioned, it was replaced by the Fuji in 1965 and the new ship was operated by the MSDF, who carried these rations. The Coca-Cola can was unusual in that it was opened by making a hole in the top of the can with an opener, not the ring pull that we use today. That design was only used for two years in Japan and there are no examples of it left in Japan. The chewing gum was unusual as well. First released in 1960 it was especially designed for the Antarctic, as it was mixed with vitamins and minerals that could be preserved for almost 18 months without deteriorating and could cope with tropical heat and extremely cold temperatures as well. The Lotte company which manufactured it, even used the phrase ‘Fresh like in Antarctica’ in their advertising. I’m not sure what they will do with the find but it’s an interesting piece of Antarctic history and demonstrates the preservative value of Antarctic ice. The photo below is of the coke can (credit: Yumi Nakayama)

20.01.2022 FIRST SUNRISE The European Space Agency (ESA) recently released this image. Captured on August 11, 2020, it celebrates the sunrise at Concordia Research Station in Antarctica, after 4 months of darkness. Concordia is located at Dome C on the high East Antarctic plateau about 1100km from the coast and an altitude of 3233m. This site is one of the coldest and most remote places on Earth with temperatures here rarely rising above -25C in summer and can fall below -80C in wint...er. The joint facility, run by Italy and France, has been continually occupied since 2005 and has the capacity for around 80 personnel in summer but in the winter season only 8 staff remain on site. Because of its remoteness and the fact that the expeditioners there are isolated from the rest of civilisation, with limited internet availability, Concordia shares many stress characteristics similar to that of long-duration deep-space missions, in particular extreme isolation and confinement. These psychological aspects of the overwinter experience are of considerable interest to the European Space Agency which conducts a series of experiments utilising the base staff to understand the psychological impact of this isolation. How long the winter darkness lasts depends on how close or far away you are from the South Pole. The sun won’t rise again at the South Pole until mid September but for the people of Concordia the sight of the sun is a welcome relief from the depths of winter.

19.01.2022 THE BIG SLEEP Scientists appear to have discovered hibernation behaviour in an animal from 250 million years ago. Lystrosaurus, an animal that lived in Antarctica during the Early Triassic period seems to have gone through a state of ‘torpor’ -- a general term for hibernation or similar where animals lower their metabolic rate temporarily. ... If proven correct it will show that hibernation arose in vertebrates even before mammals and dinosaurs evolved. There is a nutritional stress indicator in humans, known as Harris Lines, which appear in human bones during periods of reduced food intake. A similar thing occurs in tusked animals where the tusks show growth rings (much like tree growth rings). Thick rings tend to indicate periods of less deposition of dentine brought on by prolonged nutritional stress. Some modern animals demonstrate the same thing in the dentine deposition in their teeth. As you know, bears hibernate and use up their stored fat while hibernating and a similar process may have occurred with Lystrosaurus. The researchers compared Lystrosaurus tusks from Antarctica (it was within the Antarctic circle back then) with tusks in South Africa, almost 900 km to the north and outside the Antarctic region. The Antarctic fossils showed closely spaced thick rings that were absent in the South African examples, leading the researchers to hypothesise that they are likely due to periods of prolonged nutritional stress. Currently it is only a theory and the evidence is not conclusive because the stress could have simply been caused by a seasonal decrease in the food supply rather than a hibernation state. Lystrosaurus survived the great Permian Extinction and was widespread across the Earth so it was a tough animal and perhaps hibernation played a part in its survivability. Antarctica: Always fascinating.

18.01.2022 SATELLITES SHOW ANTARCTIC MELTING The European Space station has operated a number of satellites over Antarctica (ERS-1, ERS-2, EnviSat and CryoSat-2) and these spacecraft have been tracking the change in thickness of Antarctica's ice shelves since the early 1990s. This information, analysed by a team from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego and combined with ice velocity data, has led to the most accurate and detailed map of Antarctic ice loss.... The ice shelves are the floating projections of glaciers flowing off the land and pushing out to sea. They ring the entire continent of Antarctica, and the 25 years of collected ESA data confirms the melting trend, showing that the ice shelves have lost about 4,000 gigatons since 1994 (a gigaton is a billion metric tons). Although there has been some mass ice gain in parts of Antarctica the overall trend has been negative. We have known for a while now that relatively warm ocean water is melting the ice shelves from below but now, thanks to the data and the new map, researchers can see exactly where loss is occurring. As the shelves melt they produce meltwater and we know that some of this cold, fresh water has been entering the deep sea around Antarctica, impacting ocean circulation. Antarctica controls much of the world’s weather and ocean circulation so changes here can have far reaching impacts. As climate change sceptics love to point out, thinning ice shelves do not contribute directly to sea-level rise because they are already floating and have displaced the water already. But that’s not the important point. If the ice shelves are weakened or disappear, as has happened in the past, the land ice (glaciers) behind the ice shelf can flow more quickly into the ocean. It is this process that leads to sea-level rise, which is already happening. Prof David Vaughan of the British Antarctic Survey told BBC News: "The Scripps team has produced a map of Antarctica that shows thinning around the margin in a strip of mottled red and blue colours. The detail at the coastline is absolutely phenomenal. "We really can now identify the parts of ice shelves that are most crucial to the story of thinning. There'll be a lot of oceanographers spending a lot of time looking at where the melting and the thinning is actually occurring, and trying to work out exactly why those areas have been affected."

17.01.2022 THE INCREDIBLE FEAT OF THE ‘JAMES CAIRD’ Back in 1915, Sir Ernest Shackleton’s ship ‘Endurance’ was trapped in the ice for seven months and finally crushed while attempting to reach Antarctica for a crossing of the continent. Using three lifeboats from the ‘Endurance’ the crew managed to reach Elephant Island over a 6-day period and set up camp under two of the upturned lifeboats. With winter approaching and given the remoteness of their location, Shackleton knew that ther...e was no hope of rescue by passing ships so he had the expedition carpenter, Harry McNish, convert the ‘James Caird’ for travel on the open sea. McNish constructed a deck on the 7 metre long boat to protect the occupants as much as possible from the elements. From Elephant Island, in 1916, Shackleton set out with five others (McNish was one of them) in the lifeboat to seek help, leaving the rest of the crew of 23 men under the command of Frank Wild, to survive till they returned. The story of the ‘James Caird’ is legendary. Shackleton and his men managed to travel 1300km in some of the coldest, roughest seas on Earth to land on South Georgia and get help. New Zealander, Frank Worsley, was the navigator, and recently, researchers replicated his logbook calculations, which demonstrated just how amazing a feat it was to reach South Georgia. Worsley’s logbook is in the possession of the Christchurch Museum and the researchers found that, in spite of rough seas, cramped conditions and the discomfort of the boat and the lack of sun sightings for most of their 14 day journey, there was not a single error in Worsley’s calculations. The ‘James Caird’ made it to South Georgia, only to land on the opposite side of the island from the whaling station at Stromness which could assist them. Shackleton and two of his men traversed the mountainous and glaciated island in a 36 hour feat of endurance and reached help. It would take four attempts to return to Elephant Island to rescue his men but in the end not a single man was lost. Much of the result was due to Shackleton’s leadership and Frank Worsleys navigation skills Worsley also managed to estimate correctly the longitude of their camp on Elephant Island which, if wrong, would have meant them missing South Georgia completely. He was an incredibly skilled navigator and without his presence the outcome may have been very different. The James Caird is preserved and on display at Dulwich College in south London Photo credit: Rumping - Personal Photo, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=13421262

15.01.2022 WYATT EARP IN ANTARCTICA No, not the legendary marshal and gunfighter of the wild west fame, but a still famous part of Antarctic history. The Wyatt Earp was a ship, and its remains lie in shallow water only a few hundred metres off the coast of Queensland, 241 km from where I am writing this. The ship began life in Norway as the Fanefjord, a specially designed herring fishing boat. In 1933, It was acquired by legendary Australian explorer Sir Hubert Wilkins on behalf of wea...Continue reading

14.01.2022 SCOTTS LETTERS AT AUCTION Sometime later this month, Dawson’s auction house in London will be presenting a remarkable collection of original correspondence from and relating to Robert Falcon Scott CVO (aka Scott of the Antarctic). Recently, four letters from Scott to his parents and dozens of other letters from friends and family were found in a box during the clearance of a house that belonged to a family member. ... The handwritten letters were sent from Scott to his family and two were sent during his time on HMS Victorious in 1907, three years after his return from the Discovery Expedition to the Antarctic and three years before the start of the Terra Nova expedition. He laments the boredom of being stationed in Gibraltar in one of the letters. At this time he was something of a hero amongst the British public for his Discovery Expedition to Antarctica but the day to day activities of a Flag Captain do not seem to have enchanted him as much as Antarctic exploration and he was planning his next attempt on reaching the South Pole Alongside Scott’s letters were a bound set of condolence letters and telegrams to his mother after his death, which occurred on the return journey from the South Pole. Some of the letters came from Buckingham Palace. One of the letters was from his mentor Sir Clements Markham, who had publicly championed Scott for many years. He had this to say: He lived a good life, loving and beloved by all who were near and dear to him, respected by all, a life of true and zealous service to his King and country, and he died the death of a hero. Scott’s son Peter was named after the main character in Peter Pan, partly because J.M. Barrie, the author, was a close friend of Scott. A letter from Barrie was found amongst the items and he wrote to Scott's mother I had a warm affection for your son, and I wish there were something anything I could do for you to show it. Antarctic memorabilia attracts a high price, especially when it involves one of the key players in the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration. The collection has been estimated to fetch between 8,000 - 10,000 (AUD $14,600 - $18,200) at auction and will be sold as a single lot on August 27.

14.01.2022 ANTARCTIC VEHICLES-THE FORD 'SNOW BIRD' Ever since the Heroic Age of Antarctic Expeditions adventurers have been taking mechanised transport to Antarctica. Shackleton took the first car (it didn't work so well), Mawson took the Air Tractor (originally an aeroplane it was converted to a snow tractor after a crash and also didn’t work too well) and Scott tried mechanised sleds (that also didn’t work so well). The Ford Motor company produced Ford Model T’s and Model Asin abunda...nce. They were, reliable, strong and inexpensive. They often underwent modifications to suit them for specialized applications, but the "Snow Bird" is certainly one of the more unusual. The B.P. Arps Company of Wisconsin created a modification to allow the Ford to be used in snow. It was a reasonably popular modification as the Snow Bird could travel 56 km/hr ( 35 mph) over snow and with the body removed, the lightened vehicle easily traversed deep snow and overcame one and a half metre drifts. It was originally used by the New York Guard and later by a rural mail carrier for winter duty through heavy snow. It was a favorite of utility workers, doctors and mailmen and uses caterpillar style tracks that are driven by 2 sets of rear wheels encompassing the rear tire and two leaf sprung auxiliary wheels on each side. The front wheels have long skies mounted to them. A Model A "Snow Bird" was supposedly utilized as part of Admiral Byrds' 1931 Antarctic expedition though I can find no mention of it by Byrd. Although its inclusion in the expedition would not have been surprising, given that Edsel Ford was one of Byrd’s backers and supposedly contributed US$32,500 in cash. So it was possibly a part of Antarctic history but more research is needed. If you know anything let me know. The vehicle is highly prized by collectors and one of them sold for US$66,000 (AUD$90,600) in 2012.

13.01.2022 THE HUT THAT STOOD A HUNDRED YEARS Well I should say huts I suppose and of course I am talking about Mawson's huts. Mawson's huts are a collection of buildings located at Cape Denison, Commonwealth Bay, in East Antarctica in the Australian Antarctic Territory. They were built in 1912 during the Australasian Antarctic Expedition (1911-1914) and, hammered by merciless Antarctic winds for the past 108 years, the roof timbers had been worn down from 25mm to 10mm.... Luckily the main hut was reclad by the Mawson Hut Foundation a few years back and is now likely to last another 100 years. The main living quarters and the largest hut is known as Mawson's Hut and housed 18 men and it, along with the other smaller huts, were recognised as a an historic site and monument under the Antarctic Treaty in 1972. It is interesting that Mawson's Huts remain but Mawson's actual house in Brighton, South Australia was demolished in the mid-1960's. His widow Pacquita decided to sell it as it had too many memories for her, after Mawson's death. There were calls for the State government to buy it and turn it into a museum but it never happened. Mawson was arguably Australia's greatest explorer but unlike the US where notable people's homes are preserved, we don't celebrate those people who broadened our horizons. Still, at least some people thought the huts were worth preserving and I'm glad they did. On a lonely, isolated stretch of Antarctic coast, in an area that Mawson described as the 'home of the blizzard' a tiny outpost of civilisation still exists and I am grateful to know that it is there, even if I might never get to visit.

13.01.2022 LATEST ANTARCTIC CONSPIRACY FROM THE DAILY MAIL The daily mail, well known as a source of quality journalism (that’s sarcasm) is where I usually find the latest conspiracy theories about Antarctica. They usually report on third-party youtuber conspiracy theorists with little knowledge of Antarctica...or science, physics, history, reality etc. Their latest output is the discovery of what appears to be a landing site for some type of aircraft or even, as they suggest a crash l...anding site for a possible UFO. Admittedly it does look like a runway so I can’t blame them for thinking that it is or even a furrow dug out of the ice by a crashing alien ship. However, a bit of what some people call ‘research’ might have turned up some interesting information. As you can see from the photo it looks like a furrow has been dug out of the ice. Was it a crashed UFO? Well, no. It may look like a furrow and concave (curves inward) but it is in fact convex (curves outward). This phenomenon is actually the Erebus Ice Tongue. I didn’t get to visit it when I was there but it is often on offer as a tour/trip for the personnel at the US McMurdo Base. The Erebus glacier in Antarctica comes down from Mt. Erebus and protrudes off the coast of Ross Island, forming an 11-12 km long ice tonguea long and narrow sheet of ice projecting out from the coastline. The Erebus Ice Tongue is the serrated, blue-rimmed knife extending toward image center from the upper right out into snow- and ice-covered McMurdo Sound. Beneath the smooth white expanse is the Southern Ocean. An ice tongue forms when a valley glacier moves very rapidly out into the sea or a lake. When the sea ice in McMurdo Sound thaws in the summer, the ice tongue floats on the water without thawing. It also calves off in places forming icebergs. The Erebus Ice Tongue is only about 10 meters high, so its icebergs are small. When the ice around the tongue melts in the summer, waves of sea water constantly batter the edges of the tongue, carving very elaborate structures in the ice, sometimes producing deep caves at the margins ( an attraction for base personnel to explore). In the winter, the sea freezes once more around these new shapes. It’s pretty amazing but unfortunately no, it’s not a crash landing site for an alien spacecraft but who knows, one day...maybe. Antarctica: Always fascinating

13.01.2022 THE PUB AT THE END OF THE WORLD - ANTARCTICA It is claimed that the southernmost pub/bar in the world is located at 65 15’ South, around 5 miles off the Antarctic Peninsula on Galindez Island. It is called the Faraday bar and sits within the Ukranian Vernadsky Research Base. It is only accessible via expedition ships and operators must apply for permits before allowing their passengers to disembark. The bar was built by British carpenters during the time of the station’s ...ownership by the British government. Although they were supposed to use the wood to build a new Pier for the complex, instead, they decided the base needed a place to drink. The British base was sold to Ukraine for 1 in 1996 so the bar is an ‘interesting’ mixture of British and Ukrainian souvenirs, trinkets and Antarctic photos The bar also makes its own vodka using the surrounding glacial ice and you can purchase a drink for the small sum of $3. As an alternative they accept women's undergarments as payment, as evidenced by the selection of bras on display behind the counter. It is recorded as the southernmost bar in the world but I don't really get that because it's on the Antarctic Peninsula and I know for a fact that New Zealand’s Scott Base has a bar/recreation room and they sit at 77.85S. McMurdo Station, which is near Scott base, has 3 bars and that’s not even to mention the Australian Bases which are all further South than the Faraday Bar. I think you'll find that most of the permanent bases do have a bar/recreational area for the use of the staff and scientists so the southernmost claim is probably fake news. Alcohol seems to accompany humans wherever they go and It's also the case that all of the early expeditions to Antarctica took copious quantities of alcohol with them so I'm sure that when we venture to other planets we will be doing the same. Vernadsky Research base (below)

12.01.2022 THE GIANT ALIEN IN ANTARCTICA It has been awhile since I posted anything on conspiracies or anomalies in Antarctica, but then this showed up. I am not into conspiracies at all except the real ones that usually involve greed, power or revenge. Sadly, humans, just doing what humans do to each other. We live in a time when for all our science and knowledge we seem to be dumber than ever. Are there real conspiracies? Yes. Do they involve Aliens, flat Earths, NASA, fallen a...ngels, or Nazi UFO bases under Antarctica? Probably not. Much as I would like to see some of the more outlandish theories come true I am somewhat sceptical. When people actually believe that Michelle Obama is a man or my favourite, that Robert Deniro, working for the CIA, and disguised as an Uzbek homeopath, shot the young girl, Malala Yousafzai, to discredit the Taliban????. Wait...whaaaat!!! I start to think that an asteroid wiping out humanity is not the worst thing that could happen. But what about the Giant in Antarctica?. According to ET Database researcher, Scott Waring, Google Earth may have captured the image of one in Antarctica! Really? Of course this brought out all of the conspiracy theorists. Almost 40,000 people have viewed Scott’s video now and if you read the comments, they are almost as interesting as Scott’s speculation. He claims to have spotted an image of a 20 metre tall (65 foot) giant alien on a Google Earth image of Antarctica. Yes it does look somewhat like a person but is most likely a combination of rock and snow. People look for patterns and impose things that they have previously recognised on what they are seeing. Think of cloud shapes resembling animals or castles. Of course it has brought out the conspiracists who believe in the whole Nephilim story. The Nephilim, if I recall correctly, were a race of angelic beings who mated with the women of Earth and created a giant race called the Anunnaki. One thing people don’t realise is that there is a limit to the size of warm blooded animals based on the ability to disperse body heat, amongst other things. So a 20 metre tall giant warm-blooded humanoid alien would have a series of issues, from heat dissipation to movement, since larger animals are more vulnerable to stress from their own weight. But leaving the practicalities aside, the image is interesting so it would be nice to be able to go and have a close-up look. Scientists in Antarctica are generally busy with their own projects so it is unlikely to happen. What do you think? https://youtu.be/ZLeGPABhivE

12.01.2022 HAVE THEY FOUND THE SNOW CRUSER? Well, kind of. I have written about the Snow Cruiser a few times in earlier posts (https://bit.ly/3oDcLRJ). It was a huge vehicle designed for Antarctic exploration and research though it never lived up to expectations. The Snow Cruiser was heavy and the tyres didn't work very well on Antarctic snow and ice. In fact it travelled better and faster in reverse. Unfortunately, it was abandoned in Antarctica, and gradually covered in snow, to reapp...ear a couple of times over the decades. At one point it was speculated that the Russians might have stolen it and shipped it back to Russia to copy its advanced engineering. Now two scientists believe they have a rough idea of where it is. I'd say very rough, since they suspect it is in the ocean along the edge of the Ross Ice shelf. This article details their theory https://www.thedrive.com//scientists-find-probable-locatio

11.01.2022 GHOST CREATURES OF ANTARCTICA Scientists want to know how ice sheets in Antarctica have changed and moved over the millennia. They have developed models but their accuracy has not been confirmed...until now! Dr Byron Adams from Brigham Young University, and a group of researchers, are using the history of tiny Antarctic animals called Collembola to confirm how ice sheets have operated through the ages.... Adams, with the collaboration of a number of universities around the world, has spent the past 20 years collecting samples of six different species of these animals, which are commonly referred to as springtails. They live in Antarctic soil and the samples were collected from 91 ice-free Antarctic locations. By studying their current locations and patterns of genealogical and evolutionary divergence and matching them with the current models of ice sheet dynamics, Adams and his team are able to better understand how the West Antarctic Ice Sheet has changed over time. Dr Adams explains their research in the video below and you have to love his enthusiasm. https://youtu.be/ng0Nd_j9FbA

10.01.2022 A POLE-TO-POLE CIRCUMNAVIGATION DURING THE PANDEMIC As some of you know, I have been following the journey of Robert De Laurentis and have been in contact with him a number of times as he attempted to circumnavigate the globe from Pole to Pole. Robert just finished flying his highly modified 1983 twin-engine turbo Commander aircraft, "Citizen of the World to the South, then North Pole, and back again.... The trip, originally planned for 5 months, took nine due to the Pandemic and for awhile there he was quarantined in Spain, not sure how long he would be delayed. Well he made it and congratulations Robert. It wasn’t a smooth trip either, with cyclones, pandemics, bursting fuel tanks, technology failures and delays but Robert landed at Gillespie Field, at El Cajon, California on August 10th after a journey of almost 42,000 km, 22-countries and six-continents, all connected by the only two places on the planet where there has always been peace: the North and South poles. It was a global peace mission and Robert’s motto is "One Planet, One People, One Plane: Oneness for Humanity," During the flight he also conducted experiments for both NASA and the Scripps Institute of Oceanography. The intention of this record breaking journey was to connect the South Pole to the North Pole and everyone in-between as Citizens of the World with a vision for a shared future of co-operation between all people and a world of love, compassion and kindness for each other. While approaching Southern California, Robert was met by the Tiger Squadron, a precision formation flying team and aircraft display team based there (see photo below, Credit: Kristin B. Gates & Jeremy La Zelle). Welcome home Robert. Well done For more information www.PoleToPoleFlight.com

10.01.2022 AN UNSCHEDULED ANTARCTIC ADVENTURE For those of you who like podcasts, here is an ABC podcast of Nick Roden, an oceanographer, who talks about his unscheduled adventure in Antarctica when the ship he was on, the Aurora Australis, ran aground while resupplying Australia’s Mawson Station. Mawson Station is one of Australia’s Antarctic stations. It was named after Sir Douglas Mawson it is perhaps the favourite base of Australian personnel (the others are Casey and Davis). ... Mawson is a year round facility and has been continuously occupied since 1954 and is the longest continuously operating station south of the Antarctic Circle. In 1954, ten men, consisting of nine Australians and a French observer, wintered at Mawson, the continent’s first permanent settlement. During the ice-free period usually experienced in February, a ship may anchor within 100 metres of the station. Barges carrying the cargo take only a few minutes to travel from the ship to shore but in this case the hull of the Aurora Australis was punctured and deemed unsafe to carry passengers (although it was allowed to be operated by a skeleton crew). The Aurora Australis recently finished its service life and will be replaced by the new advanced icebreaker, the Nuyina. Although attempts were made to retain the ship as a heritage item and a national Antarctic museum, there was a lack of interest from the government and the ship will probably be sold for scrap. The scientists on board the ship when it ran aground were unable to go back home on the Aurora and had to spend their time as guests of Mawson Station until alternative methods could be used to get them home. In the meantime, Nick Roden made the best of the situation, and learnt a lot about the plant life, geology and history of Antarctica from local experts. https://www.abc.net.au//of/stranded-in-antarctica/12573152

09.01.2022 WHERE DID PENGUINS COME FROM? When we think of penguins we generally tend to think of Antarctica. But penguins range from Antarctica to the Galapagos Islands in the tropics. So it seems strange, in a way, that a penguin would evolve in such a cold, inhospitable environment as Antarctica. It turns out that they didn’t. Recent research suggests they evolved in Australia and New Zealand. Penguins occupying first these temperate environments and then gradually heading south wh...ere they found abundant food sources.. Researchers from UC Berkley looked at the genetic evidence from 18 species of modern-day penguins, using blood and tissue samples, and found that they originated on the coast of Australia and New Zealand, and nearby islands of the South Pacific, around 22 million years ago. There are seven species of penguin in Antarctica. Four breed on or near the Antarctic continent and three breed on the sub-Antarctic Islands but only one, the Emperor penguin breeds on Antarctic ice through WINTER!! . Emperors are the heaviest and tallest of all the penguins and spend their entire lives in Antarctica. Emperors are identified by the fuzzy-edged yellowy-orange-gold markings on the side of their head behind their cheeks and on their necks and beaks. It’s the only penguin that breeds during the Antarctic winter and that means it is really, really, really cold. The female lays one egg and the male looks after it by placing it in a brood pouch and balancing it on his feet while the female goes off to feed for the next two months. The male fasts for two months while he incubates the egg and can lose half of its body weight standing in the cold before the chick hatches. The males all huddle together during this time and take turns at being on the outside of the circle where it is coldest. How’s that for altruism!!. They may have started their evolutionary journey in Australia, New Zealand or the Pacific Islands but by catching circulating ocean currents to get to the south, over millions of years they developed the ability to0 withstand the Antarctic winter and survive. Climate change may change that. Some penguin species in some areas have been advantaged by the warming conditions but disappearing sea ice means fewer breeding and resting grounds for emperor penguins. With reduced ice and warming oceans you end up with less krill, the main component of the penguin's diet. Some penguin colonies in the Antarctic have declined by more than 75% over the past 50 years, largely as a result of climate change. But we still have time to reverse the trend. https://youtu.be/lf26jtJfL30

08.01.2022 PORSCHE TO THE POLE Well not exactly to the South Pole but 356 miles (573 km) in Antarctica. Why 356 miles? Because the car will be a 1956 Porsche 356A,and it will be driven by 64 year-old Renée Brinkerhoff, to raise money to fight child trafficking. It seems a strange mix. While this project combines some major interests of mine (Antarctica, fighting child trafficking, and never being too old to have an adventure) Antarctica just seems to be a strange place to do it and as...sociate it with child trafficking. Maybe it is just me. Renée has an impressive CV though. She only took up classic car road rallying eight years ago and won her first race, the 2013 La Carrera Panamericana rally in Mexico. From there she set up a team, Valkyrie racing, and has since entered the Targa Tasmania in Australia, the East African Safari Classic Rally,the Caminos del Inca in Peru and the month-long Peking-to-Paris race across Asia and Europe. In the process she has raised $200,000 for charity and her focus is fighting child trafficking. The interest came about after meeting an FBI agent who was tracking child traffickers and her own experience of seeing a man on a bus access child porn on his phone. The Porsche will be modified to take tracks, skis, solar panels and a front crevasse bar. The plan is to ship the car to Chile and fly it to Union Glacier in Antarctica early next year. The project may be delayed due to Covid-19 because I noticed recently that Antarctic Logistics and Expeditions (ALE) are suspending operations for the foreseeable future, and since they are the most likely way to get the car there it might be some time before the project goes ahead. Besides the 356 mile route they also plan to attempt an Antarctic land speed record before they pack up and head home. While I admire her grit and love her spirit she has copped a lot of negative comments online. I guess there seems to be a disconnect between child trafficking and Antarctica. I can’t fault her for coming up with the project since child trafficking is a terrible thing. I spent seven years rescuing kids and putting paedophiles in jail so I do know a little about it. Racing is what she loves to do and I plan to fly an electric aircraft from the Antarctic coast to the South Pole in the next few years myself because I love flying, and Antarctica so I understand that we all need some challenges in our lives. But my project is aimed at bringing awareness of the threats facing Antarctica and demonstrating the potential of renewables, while raising money for organisations trying to protect the Southern Ocean. It is all Antarctic related whereas the Porsche project seems like it could be done anywhere else. What do you think? Below are the modifications that will be made to the Porsche

06.01.2022 HOW TO OPERATE AN AIRPORT IN ANTARCTICA A lot of conspiracy people believe you can’t go to Antarctica and that planes can’t fly there. Well they’re wrong on both counts. A number of blue ice runways have been created to allow the relatively easy transport of passengers and cargo to Antarctica.... As snow builds up over time the weight of the snow forces out air bubbles and as this happens the density of the resulting ice increases. This ice surface is extremely hard and allows wheeled aircraft landings instead of skis. The advantage of this is that wheeled aircraft can carry much heavier loads than ski-equipped aircraft. Though dangerous in winter, due to the darkness and weather conditions, blue ice runways allow for the rescue of personnel during the rare medical emergency. In blue-ice areas the ice is visible on the surface with no covering of snow, because wind and evaporation remove more snow than that which is accumulated. Antarctic snow has a high albedo which means it is highly reflective and because it reflects back almost all of the light from the sun there is no preference for a single colour, so most of Antarctica appears bright white, in fact it is dazzlingly bright. Blue-ice has a lower albedo, so it looks relatively dark but besides that it absorbs yellow and red light, reflecting the blue so to us it appears blue. Most of the blue ice runways are associated with the various bases in Antarctica and by my count there are currently eight in Antarctica (there may be more) and here is a great article about the runway at Troll Station, the Norwegian base in Antarctica: https://bit.ly/3c4ou6h

05.01.2022 THE LARGEST LAKE ON EARTH THAT YOU CAN’T SEE Lake Baikal is the largest visible lake on Earth. Located in south-central Russia near the Mongolian border it is 640 km long and an average width of 47 km. But there is another lake never directly seen by humans that exists beneath the ice of Antarctica. It may not be as big as Lake Baikal but it is the largest underground lake in the world. Lake Vostok sits more than 3 km below the ice of East Antarctica. At 230 km long, 50 ...km wide and 800 metres deep, we are talking about a BIG lake, and one that has been covered in ice for at least 15 million years. The presence of a large buried lake was first suggested in the 1960s by a Russian geographer/pilot who noticed the large, smooth patch of ice above the lake from the air, as you can see in the photo below. The existence of the lake was only confirmed in 1996 using airborne radar. The fact that they survive in such a harsh environment makes researchers believe that life may be found in sub-glacial lakes on other planets. A Martian polar lake was discovered two years ago,1.5km below the Martian ice cap and it contains liquid water so at some stage in the future we will be looking for life there. . You might be wondering why Lake Vostok is not frozen. It seems that the pressure of so much ice above the lake keeps it in a liquid state despite the theory that geothermal heat from the Earth only manages to keep the temperature of the lake water hovering around minus 3 degrees Celsius (i.e.sub-freezing). On the ice cap above the lake lies Vostok Station, built by the Soviet Union in 1957, and the site of the of lowest recorded natural temperature on Earth of 89.2 C You can see Vostok, the Russian station, on top of the frozen lake in the far left (Image credit: NASA)

05.01.2022 A TRIP TO EREBUS In 2018 I camped for 8 days on the Ross Ice Shelf, Antarctica, in the shadow of Mt Erebus. The most southern active volcano in the world and one of only 8 with a lava lake in the cone. Actually there was no shadow since Erebus was probably 50 km from our campsite but with the incredibly pure Antarctic air it looked maybe 5 km away and it provided a massive backdrop to our activities.... It is also the site of the Mt. Erebus disaster, where an Air New Zealand flight crashed into the mountain on November 28, 1979, killing all 257 people on board. The volcano was first sighted by James Clark Ross in 1841 and named after his ship. Erebus, which in Greek mythology was the name of a God representing the personification of darkness. It was erupting at the time. I would have loved to have climbed it but at the time it was off limits and would have taken at least 5 days to reach the summit. It has been active for 1.3 million years and was first climbed by our very own Douglas Mawson, (Australian Antarctic explorer), and two others back during Shackleton’s Nimrod Expedition (1907-1909) It is not the only volcano in Antarctica but on the continent the rest are all underground, covered by kilometres of ice and many are still active. Erebus has periods where it is more active and throws out volcanic matter and In 1992, the inside of the volcano was explored by Dante I, an eight legged tethered robotic explorer. The height, cold and volcanic activity makes it a dangerous proposition to climb. At 3,794 metres (12,448 ft) there is the possibility of altitude sickness, frostbite from temperatures of -30degrees Celsius combined with windchill, and large globs of volcanic material lobbed onto your head, which all together don’t make it appealing. This great little video gives you an idea of what it’s like up there. https://youtu.be/owxtROejMB0

04.01.2022 FIRST LANDING AT THE SOUTH POLE I have a love of aviation, especially Antarctic aviation, given the extreme environment that aircraft have to operate in down there. In the 1956/57 mission, as part of the International Geophysical Year, many nations set up bases in Antarctica.... The Americans planned to build a base at the South Pole and so they sent in a plane to install navigation aids for future supply flights. Although the crew spent less than an hour on the ground, imagine what that must have felt like. To be the first people to reach the South Pole since Scott and Amundsen fourty five years earlier. What an outstanding achievement. https://bit.ly/3kFf0Sd

03.01.2022 FOOD AT THE END OF THE EARTH Mawson’s Hut contains a collection of food odds and ends. You’ll find tins of Horlick malted milk, Ceylon tea, corned beef and Dutch cocoa as well as a box of Symington’s soup and pemmican (dried beef and fat mixed and made into blocks). There are also condiments, like Colman’s mustard, Heinz India relish and golden syrup. They are what’s left of the 100 tons of food that Mawson took with him on the Australasian Antarctic Expedition (1911-1914...Continue reading