Living Aboard South Pole's Polar Research Ship | Antarctica: Journey Into The White Desert | Spark

[Music] a vast white wilderness stretches across the south of our planet a giant natural laboratory that has long occupied the human psyche [Music] so [Music] antarctica is a continent of remote natural wonder for brief moments each year this hauntingly beautiful landscape opens up beckoning scientists and explorers from around the world to investigate its frozen secrets [Music] cape town at the south and tip of africa has been a springboard for antarctic exploration for over 200 years [Music] at the start of every summer expedition teams prepare for their trip south and bid farewell to cape town sunny shores embarking on an ocean journey of almost four and a half thousand kilometers [Music] every year the summer voyage relieves the overwintering team that have braved the stark antarctic winter on board the sa galas is a diverse team of scientists and logistical staff that will spend three months maintaining the base and researching polar signs this expedition falls within the fourth international polar year an internationally coordinated scientific program that celebrates the importance of polar science and for the first time is being carried out against the backdrop of climate change this year over 10 000 scientists from more than 60 countries will be participating it's a grueling trip that can take up to three weeks across the world's wildest seas scientists and mariners vie for the chance to experience the antarctic journey i grew up in limpopo you know as a kid running around turning to goats and and kettle and donkeys and i never ever thought that there was another world outside of that the sea the largest water i've seen was down the river which was most of the time dry and i never ever thought that i would be at sea but this is more than just an epic passage across a formidable ocean the ship is an important floating laboratory a team of meteorologists work on board throughout the year to monitor weather systems in the southern ocean weather balloons are deployed every 12 hours measuring temperature humidity wind speed and direction this data is sent to the south african weather service and is used to predict southern africa's weather conditions the southern ocean is the engine that drives the world's ocean currents and directly influences climate conditions across the globe these seas are uninterrupted by land masses so they have the fiercest winds and highest waves on the planet a fact that the expedition will learn to live with for another three weeks heading south the seas become wilder colder and darker [Music] approaching 50 degrees south and nearing the sub-antarctic islands the team meet their first sign of the ice continent first iceberg southern ocean hooray that's wonderful i've always wanted to see one i've always read my boys wanted to journey south always wanted to have an adventure no it's the first iceberg it's like like seeing your first lion climbing your first big peak it's wonderful [Music] a joint team of south african and norwegian biologists are preparing to leave the ship to do cutting-edge research on the world's most isolated and inhospitable island and there's five of us going and obviously five people surviving on a on a on an uninhabited island for three months requires quite a lot of equipment so uh it's a bit of a logistic gamble of how to actually get everything off and we need to start prioritizing which stuff we definitely need to survive in case the ship has to keep sailing and they have to leave us there i think the problem is all these places are isolated so there's always the risk of being injured and you can't get somebody off so if something serious really happens you're going to die it's as simple as that that's reality [Music] inaccessible and shrouded in cloud year round bouvet is a volcanic island with glaciers that shear off into the ocean fewer explorers have ever braved its shores sea landing via boat is impossible with just one small and treacherous landing spot on the island the helicopter must wait for a rare break in the clouds and carefully navigate the hazardous landscape the island is managed by the norwegian polar institute and is a sensitive breeding ground for sub-antarctic life [Music] it is the elephant seals largest of all the seals pieces that have drawn this team of scientists [Music] the seals are sedated and fitted with transmitters that will gather data about parts of the ocean that are impossible for humans to access during the winter months [Music] [Applause] these three and a half ton animals are returned to their normal lives only now they'll be acting as scientists two thousand meters below the surface [Music] the information gathered by the seals complements the oceanographic research that takes place on the essay against the instruments that are deployed measure ocean temperature salinity and pressure these factors are key influences in driving the global climate [Music] further south the angry seas of the southern ocean give way to a serene world of drifting sprinkled ice in winter the size of the continent effectively doubles with the freezing of the sea ice which can extend for more than a thousand kilometers from the coast i'm just spellbound yesterday i'd never been snowed on in my life now i'm sitting here being snowed on surrounded by ice all over the water and the sea has gone incredibly still because of the ice absorbing the energy of the waves we've still got the birds wheeling around us but it's utterly surreal i can't describe it the better word the ice rim is a dynamic frozen kingdom home to surprising signs of life that surfaced for a breather on the ice [Music] the seas beneath the pack ice are the coldest and densest in the world formed when ice melts and seawater sinks these deep cold currents have a dramatic cooling effect on tropical and temperate seas across the globe [Music] the secret to all life in this freezer lies buried in the ice this murky brown ice algae forms the start of a critical food chain it provides food for krill a form of zooplankton which in turn sustains fish whales seals and birds [Music] our ship is strengthened to move through ice but is not an icebreaker the ship skates through the ice as it gets thicker and thicker until it is nothing but a solid white [Music] expense ultimately this nearly 7 000 tons of steel and cargo is brought to a grinding halt it's one o'clock in the morning it's sunny shining midnight sun you might call it we're stuck in the ice the view is spectacular the whole experience is almost overwhelming almost mystical no night endless horizon all the way around you feel a certain loneliness but also a certain affinity towards earth towards your place in the solar system in the universe if you like no place on earth is quite like this each voyage is a triumph of determination and spirit and crossing the antarctic circle has long been seen as a mark of human conquest decades of maritime tradition request king neptune's blessing when entering these waters [Music] [Applause] [Music] yeah it's quite significant that we've come now across the antarctic circle at 66 degrees 33 minutes south it was always a great challenge for the explorers to come this fast all first timers must face the ritual no rank is failed [Music] king neptune has been appeased and the tides open up pathways through the ice to allow the ship to pass the elements are in control here the expedition is at the complete mercy of the ever-changing currents winds and weather conditions nature follows her own schedule [Music] just being in the ice and being this serene environment is a i think it's a small boy's dream to to do something similar to what shackleton did and scotland and those guys did and it brings things just a bit closer home knowing that we approaching this the bottom of the earth the bottom of the world [Music] the crew remained vigilant searching for safe channels of warm upwelling water known as pollinias [Music] closer to the continental ice shelf massive icebergs start to drift by towering ice mountains that were once attached to the glacial mainland and now journey slowly out to sea [Music] [Applause] [Music] an average burg has a life of perhaps four years and as they age they split along natural lines of weakness and may roll over as they become unstable [Music] on observing these gigantic icebergs for the first time i really stood kind of gobsmacked dumbfounded because of the sheer magnitude and size the fact that you look at this iceberg which almost in size one can compare to to scale down table mountain it's really kind of uh awe-inspiring and it's it's quite intimidating to some extent because you feel like passing through these sentinels kind of guiding access to this almost forbidden continent after three long weeks at sea the expedition reaches the ice shelf the ship is dwarfed by the sheer enormity of the shelf a dazzling white wall of ice as far as the eye can see [Music] this is the birthing ground of icebergs literally a shelf of thick ice hinged from the continent [Music] beginning of the biggest logistical challenge on the expedition is to get the hundreds of tons of cargo onto the shelf the cranes can't reach the top of the high cliff so another plan must be made [Music] up for against years bez berzadenholt has been in charge of creating a ramp onto the ice shelf it's a task that requires intense skill and nerves of steel the team must pick a stable part of the shelf and lower the ice wall to a level where the crane operators can safely offload the cargo uh uh [Music] [Music] the team weighed on board with baited breath watching every critical load of ice scooped up by the jaws of the bulldozer and then cascading down the 50 meter high shelf horn after four days the ramp is finally built then the massive task of offloading begins the ship's crane lifts most of the heavy cargo onto the ramp before the bulldozers take over 290 tons of cargo and 350 tons of fuel must be taken off the ship enough equipment to resupply the base for two years the helicopter helps with smaller loads faring five tons of cargo onto the top of the shelf a temporary depot is set up before moving the cargo inland nothing will be easy in this new white environment the crew quickly learned that everything is a challenge a logistical obstacle to overcome after five days everything is offloaded and now the expedition team prepares to leave the ship the crew get their first taste of life on the continent everyone must be dressed and equipped for any possible emergency every time they venture outside flight operations in antarctica are tricky and only take place in optimal weather conditions the south african base is 170 kilometers inland a one-hour flight that's coordinated so that the helicopters and overland cargo arrive together [Music] for the land convoy which is left a few days earlier it's almost a full day slog across the endless rugged ice plains the team are swallowed into another realm the coldest driest windiest and most inhospitable landmass in the world antarctica is five times drier than the karoo and it's not uncommon for the wind to reach 200 kilometers an hour in winter the destination is faceless cafete a flat topped mountain that's home to sennhai four the fourth base of the south african national antarctic expedition this world-class base is 10 years old now but still one of the best design in this region of antarctica its design is unique as it's raised above the ground to prevent snow buildup [Music] i think in comparison to other bases on the continent it is certainly one of the largest based on previous experience south africa has been involved for many years in an article the present design is really quite different and radical from other stations and also in my view has served as a basis for designs of newer stations which are now being erected the base has three interlinked sections and is thickly insulated to keep out the extreme external cold the coldest recorded temperature in antarctica has been minus 89 degrees celsius and one needs to wear thick layers of protective clothing until one enters the base and moves into a comfortable heated living environment the heart of the base is the communal dining area the storeroom holds enough food for two years and the shopping list includes almost 5 tons of meat 140 kilograms of oven chips and 30 kilograms of cheese bread two chefs work tirelessly to keep over 80 mouths fed over summer in compliance with the antarctic treaty nothing can be left here so all waste must be separated compacted and taken back to south africa ironically the biggest challenge to living in antarctica is the availability of fresh water as all water is locked up as ice we have to conserve water here because the problem is twofold firstly we have to make the water melting melting the snow but secondly also to process the water we can only process a limited amount of water each day we discard the wastewater over the edge of the mountain and it's got to be absolutely clean to be returned back to the environment in the old days they used blocks of snow which they cut and then had to melt on the stove and i think that was quite cumbersome because you can only do that much the process that we have here is far better and it's it's mostly automated uh we can make if you really try out about 8 000 liters of water a day [Music] waste water from the base passes through a purification plant before being discarded over the edge of the mountain where it forms an impressive frozen waterfall the base affectionately calls it the lolly [Music] eye samples are collected regularly during summer and tested in a lab at the base scientists ensure that whatever is returned to the environment is acceptable according to the antarctic treaty the base is so remote that it must be totally self-sufficient there's even a full surgery and a dental facility and of course a hard working crew needs some time to unwind the a block is the scientific hub where researchers from all fields process their data many of the scientists here are working on international polar year projects collaborating with researchers from around the world as a space physicist coming to antarctica has actually some somewhat of a pilgrimage for me it's almost a combination of one's life's work high frequency radars are scattered across both poles forming an international project called superdom the data from these radars are synchronized to create real-time maps of the environment of outer space as part of international polar year a group of south african space physicists are installing one of the most sophisticated magnetometers in the world this will record activity in the magnetic field lines surrounding our earth [Music] this information will be used to predict how space weather may impact life on our planet [Music] most people are aware of the fact that the sun actually drives the earth's climate and the weather but what very few people understand is that the sun also drives the space weather and the sun has a life cycle of its own it the sun breathes it breathes out it breathes in and it breathes out and in with a cycle of approximately 11 years and at the moment we are entering into a phase of what we refer to as solar max and we can actually expect increased solar phenomena such as coronal mass ejections such as solar flares shooting out into space and interacting with our atmosphere space weather has an impact on satellite networks electrical power grids and communication systems the foundations on which so much of our modern world operate all antarctic bases carefully monitor the weather patterns that sweep across the continent everybody needing to work in the field realizes how quickly the weather can change storms literally appear in minutes [Music] in this last true wilderness the weather cannot be tamed the skies speak a strange language and the winds own the land we have long been at the mercy of these brutal and ever-changing conditions but now scientists are starting to see the potential in their energies the irony of course is that this freezing cold wind that chills us to our burns is actually what we're using to produce heat antarctica provides a testing platform um of probably the most extreme type of winds the coldest conditions so anything that works here you can be pretty sure it would work anywhere else in the world a group of scientists are pioneering a wind turbine prototype specifically designed for sennai which will create sustainable power out of a limitless resource so an array of 10 to 20 of these turbines could easily power base like satellite for so south africa must most definitely look at renewable energy and everybody knows that we have not very significant wind resources here but a very very significant solar energy resource and possibly one of the best in the world an area which if you look on the map looks very small which has like a 50 kilometer side length would currently be generously sufficient to supply all the electrical power which us africa currently needs so that gives an idea how much potential there is and therefore the research which has happened here is very fitting in that context the base is currently powered by three diesel generators the heat from these is not wasted but used to warm the base in the future the team hope to do away with fossil fuels completely to the point that diesel generators will soon be used merely as a backup the plan is to inspire everybody who doesn't have energy or who does have energy but they are not using renewable energy that there is another alternative source of energy out there which can actually make a huge difference in our environment as you know we are suffering from a lot of global warming [Music] it is difficult for scientists to access remote parts of the continent but these south africans are building a versatile portable base a two-person sledge designed for extended periods of self-sufficient field research [Music] today was a very exciting day because we finished our project called lilo which is uh which means the well of fire and it's a power sledge 2.5 kilowatt power sledge which uses wind and solar energy we've got six panels on the machine and one whisper wind turbine which is a 900 watt whisper turbine and the sledge actually is for field research studying further afield will open up endless new possibilities for scientific research taking scientists deeper into the heart of this powerful mysterious continent geomorphologists are studying the shifting landscape to understand our changing climate although less than two percent of the continent is ice-free antarctica's rock layers and landforms are an ancient archive of our earth's climatic history over the last hundred years antarctica has warmed by an average of one degree just one degree can change the state of our most precious resource affecting landforms dramatically through the thawing and the freezing of ice what we're doing is we're looking at ground temperatures to get an idea of how much of the ground falls out during summer and this would give an indication of the the depth at which you may find liquid water in the ground the second component is to then look at how quickly rocks uh break down into gravel or sand and this can then uh give us an idea of what sort of landforms we're going to find on iceberg areas in antarctica the continent's topography is difficult to map as it's an ever-changing landscape shaped by shifting glaciers [Music] but now for the first time space geodesists are using sophisticated radar reflectors to determine heights above sea level and accurately map the continent one comes here with certain preconceived ideas and uh you realize very quickly when you step away from from the base and you step away from the the area that we become so familiar with that the place is just enormous and every time i look across the snowy landscape i have to i have to eliminate that thought from my mind it's not a snowy landscape it is what we're seeing around us are these tiny little peaks of enormous mountains sticking up through the most colossal mass of ice [Music] when you come inland to antarctica the vast majority of the area is ice but scattered amongst the ice you get these islands of rock called noon attacks and on these noon attacks if you look really hard and really carefully you do find life it's not going to come jumping out at you but if you start picking up some rocks and looking underneath them you find some very small organisms there these creatures survive the harsh conditions by either producing antifreeze or they go into a state of frozen hibernation in the coldest temperatures and literally defrost when it gets warmer they may suffer minimal damage to their cells but nothing irreparable the ice is essentially sterile there's nothing for animals to eat within the ice you maybe get a few pockets of microorganisms the invertebrates you find here feed on the main vegetation groups which are mosses and lichen rocky noon attacks are tiny oases in this vast frozen desert as the ice slowly moves over these mountains it twists stretches and deforms until the eyes cannot keep up with the movement and the surface cracks open to create deep crevasses [Music] the crevasses open up chambers which reveal years and years of compressed ice causing structural changes in the crystals which create a magical spectrum of blue [Music] in the crevasse we're out of the sunlight and are surrounded by this intense blue light and the blueness of the light of course is because the sunlight is being filtered by all this ice around us and filtered and reflected down and the blue is the only color that comes through you get this glow coming out of the very walls of the crevasse and as we descend further it goes from a pale blue to a deeper blue eventually to a violet color that just permeates everything it's quite beautiful [Music] crevasses are feared by many explorers to the continent as they are often hidden at the surface by fragile snow bridges [Music] as each snowflake falls it captures current atmospheric information which becomes locked into the underbelly of the continent scientists in antarctica have drilled down three kilometers and have been able to reveal the vast history of our earth's climatic past antarctica is the storehouse for 90 percent of the world's eyes and approximately 70 percent of the world's fresh water most of this water remains trapped in glaciers slithering frozen rivers gradually sliding towards the sea one of the aspects of life in antarctica is that the power of nature is felt very much in our daily lives here the weather dictates what we can do and what we cannot do and the weather changes very fast even the smallest outdoor task is treated with caution as conditions can change within minutes wind speeds can pick up suddenly and whiteouts make visibility impossible these storms are very familiar to eric williams and reginald sally who are local heroes at the base we were constructing the base and we were all intense and then we hit a blizzard and then while going to the bathroom coming back i slipped and i started for a yard i had no goggles on to and i turned with my back towards the wind the snow started coming around my face too and weather coming around the face it felt like an ice mouse around it uh i crossed my arms to life better would be easier for them to put me to the body bag friend reginald sally did not give up hope and kept motivating for teams to go out looking for him eric was buried in the ice for 14 hours before reginald found him alive but others have not been as fortunate and every year they give thanks for those that survived and remember those that gave their lives to this unforgiving land the icy continent's power is undeniable but it also has a subtle magic that's revealed in unusual ways the early explorers discovered that footprints became frozen and preserved even after storms and they used these magical ghost prints to track through the snow what happens is when you walk on the snow you compress the snow and the snow around your footprint is still soft and the wind comes and erodes the soft snow away and then you get the icy icy snow left where you can see the perfect footprint [Music] we are very isolated here at our banks but we're not entirely cut off from the rest of the world and within the the neighborhood the area of antarctica known as queen moordland in which our base is located there are bases belonging to several other countries if we were to throw a radius of say a thousand kilometers you would find the russian airstrip novo you'd find the indian base um we've got the british base hali about 800 kilometers from us and then the german base neumeier which is 226 kilometers as the crow flies and really is our most accessible nearest neighbor the german station is our rescue base there's a strong spirit of cooperation and camaraderie between the different international bases a continuing legacy of the antarctic treaty system this station is quite different from the sanai station so from the south african research this is uh below the ground and the reason for this is you don't have to deal with the wind forces underground stations have a very limited lifetime because of the ice pressure every year ice is build it up on the station and therefore the station goes more and more deeper to the ground usually about after 10 years such a station underground station has to be given up this base is moving at 100 meters per year towards the ocean in just two years it will reach the edge of the ice shelf and the new base will have to be built our south african team is collaborating with the german base to develop new sources of energy germany was the first base to harness wind energy in antarctica and together we're developing further sustainable energy strategies international polar year focuses the world's attention on the critical role that the polls have on environmental change and celebrates the legacy of collaboration that has defined the antarctic continent since the early explorers first arrived the norwegians were the first people at the south pole and their presence is still felt strongly in this region of the continent i know we use south africa as a place where to actually start our expeditions here we prepare all the equipment that we are sending into the antarctic by ship usually the first south african base the sun i won was given to south africa from the norwegians south africa has long been involved with voyages to antarctica and were one of the original 12 signatories to the antarctic treaty our first independent expedition arrived on antarctic shores in 1960 the first team was led by hannes lehranji a south african meteorologist who was part of the first ever trans-antarctic crossing senai one took over an old norwegian base and has since maintained a year-round presence on the icy continent [Music] dogs have been very much a part of antarctic history since the first expeditions dogs have been used to pull sledges across the ice and the first voyages to the south pole were only possible with the dog's help but in 1994 all alien animal life was banned from antarctica and an era came to an end [Music] today modern technology has replaced the dogs and skidus herald in a new age of exploration on the continent we are now more than ever able to investigate and understand the importance of this living laboratory at the end of summer the sun dips below the horizon for the first time in three months and we enter a strange zone of twilight that signals the coming months of darkness the summer teams are on their way home but they leave behind them a group of custodians 10 dedicated men and women who will keep the south african flag flying for 11 long months set aside for peace and science a vast living laboratory where time zones converge and no one nation owns the land antarctica orchestrates the rhythms of life on our fragile earth this strange place of ice and magic has the power to inspire and guide us in creating a sustainable future for our changing planet [Music] you

Channel: Spark

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Keywords: Spark, Science, Technology, Learning, education, documentary, factual, mind blown, full documentary, bbc documentary, Science documentary, nature documentary, documentary movie, wildlife documentary, english, hd, discovery channel, national geographic, natgeo wild, nature documentaries - topic, planet earth, david attenborough, antartica, penguins, polar bears, seals, south pole, antarctica animals, antarctica wildlife, climate change, penguin documentary, blue planet ii, blue planet 2

Id: upgQp2AX_k8

Length: 50min 38sec (3038 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 27 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/snarcasm68]

Beautifully done. Very interesting.