Ice flow nowhere to go

January 14, 2014 2:00 PM

Stuck in the Antarctic ice we set out to study - Erik van Sebille of the Australasian Antarctic Expedition 2013 describes his fieldwork in Antarctica. The Guardian has extensive coverage of the expedition, including visiting the remains of a previous expedition, how they became icebound, and their rescue.
posted by Artw (17 comments total)

Lost in the blinding whiteness of the tundra.
posted by komara at 2:19 PM on January 14, 2014 [3 favorites]

I saw a column in a Tory newspaper (I guess that's what they call the right in England?) devoted to what the writer saw as the hilarity of this event. Global warming cultists! Trapped in ice! He seemed to have put some work into making it a metaphor for the entire theory, too.
posted by thelonius at 2:57 PM on January 14, 2014 [1 favorite]

The execrable Bolt and his gaggle of sycophants has been on that jazz, making themselves look even stupider than usual by remaining wilfully oblivious to the differences between sea ice and land ice, the fact that the South Pole is in the middle of a thumping great continent, and the likelihood than an increase in the extent of winter Antarctic sea ice is an indication that the Southern Ocean's salinity is being somewhat reduced due to an increased summer melt rate of Antarctic land ice.
posted by flabdablet at 3:35 PM on January 14, 2014 [3 favorites]

flabdablet, what you wrote right there summarizes the problem. Bolt* and his readers just look at that and they think, "Global warmists trapped in ice! Haw!" Just to note that it's apparently more difficult than one would expect to put that small set of facts together and come up with an understanding of the issue. And "salinity" is kind of a big word.

*Please substitute Fox, The Daily Mail, or The National Post where appropriate.
posted by sneebler at 3:47 PM on January 14, 2014 [1 favorite]

I read an account of the rescue in the Guardian the other day, which gave me the impression that it was a fairly breathless last minute escape. However, the article ended with a note to the effect that the Russian crew was just going to sort of... stay behind, and carry on making pelmeni for tea.

Was it not actually a hugely dangerous situation, or is the crew just spectacularly stoic?
posted by lucidium at 3:51 PM on January 14, 2014

In the early days of polar exploration, they'd just wait until they got unstuck at thaw time. Side effects may include madness, cannibalism, and scurvy.
posted by thelonius at 3:54 PM on January 14, 2014 [2 favorites]

they'd just wait until they got unstuck at thaw time.

Isn't part of the problem that it's currently Summer in the antarctic and so it might not thaw for years?
posted by localroger at 4:29 PM on January 14, 2014

Newly refurbished ($90M) 40-year-old, 75,000 horsepower US icebreaker Polar Star was on its way to attempt to rescue the stuck CN and RU ships. But looks like both got free on Jan. 8. Seems a nice warm NW breeze saved the two from a PR coup.
posted by Twang at 5:15 PM on January 14, 2014

In the early days of polar exploration, they'd just wait until they got unstuck at thaw time. Side effects may include madness, cannibalism, and scurvy.

In the early days of polar exploration, the ship would have been crushed to smithereens. See, eg, Shackleton's Endurance.

THEN the madness...etc (although Shackleton got all his guys home alive, even though it took 2 years).
posted by His thoughts were red thoughts at 5:20 PM on January 14, 2014 [2 favorites]

The 2000 PBS documentary Voyage Of Endurance is well-worth-watching for those unfamiliar with the remarkable Shackleton story. Part 1. Part 2.

Now, if they'd only do one to explain Operation Highjump (Byrd's 1946 journey with 5000 sailors aborted early) ... strange affair indeed.
posted by Twang at 5:33 PM on January 14, 2014 [4 favorites]

isn't part of the problem that it's currently Summer in the antarctic and so it might not thaw for years?

they have internet
posted by thelonius at 6:19 PM on January 14, 2014

2nding Twang's linked Shackleton documentary. One night I came home very tired and flopped on the couch and started watching that. "Hmm, this must be about Shackleton's voyage." Two hours later I was still there and my eyes were this big around:

[________________________________]
posted by sneebler at 7:01 PM on January 14, 2014 [1 favorite]

Isn't part of the problem that it's currently Summer in the antarctic and so it might not thaw for years?

Actually, this is sort of interesting, as the news stories I had seen did not discuss the sea ice problem except as it affected the ship. This is the first I've heard that they were actually investigating the disturbance of the ice shelf caused by the collision of the massive iceberg B09B. Right now it is sort of bumping against the former tongue of the Mertz Glacier, which became iceberg C28 (there's an annual alphabetic system used here), trapping a lot of sea ice that would otherwise calve off the shelf and float off northward. C28 has since broken up somewhat, but B09B remains, apparently partially grounded. The long term prospects of this iceberg is probably to further break up and eventually stop playing prison guard for all the sea ice, but it's fascinating to see what the icebreakers were trying to deal with.
posted by dhartung at 12:07 AM on January 15, 2014 [1 favorite]

Here is a satellite image from Jan 2013 showing how B09B is acting as a cork, bottling up sea ice.
posted by dhartung at 12:13 AM on January 15, 2014 [1 favorite]

I started watching the Shackleton documentary, got to the part where they realize they'll be wintering in the ice. I'd never realized how many dogs they had with them until just now. I saw the dogs, put two and two together, and NOPENOPENOPEd my way to the back button right quick.
posted by tigrrrlily at 4:07 AM on January 15, 2014

The sea freezes quickly and long in the antarctic. My great uncle was second mate and navigation officer on the 1912 German antarctic expedition, which ended icebound. Grim times. The captain died (syphilis) and the first mate went mad. As the only tee-total on board, my great uncle was left with the unenviable task of defending the liquor cabinet at gun point. He was also challenged to a duel, which, happily, was postponed to their reaching civilization, by which time cooler heads prevailed.

His son told me that after the whole thing was over, all agreed never to speak of the matter again.
posted by BWA at 7:16 AM on January 15, 2014 [2 favorites]

> I saw the dogs, put two and two together, and NOPENOPENOPEd

Mrs Chippy
Noooooo Mrs Chippy
posted by The corpse in the library at 2:27 PM on January 15, 2014