Narrative Of An Expedition In H.M.S. Terror, By Captain George Back 1838 After His Arctic Expedition

Beautiful C O L D Places by:

© b.simon

GUYS NO

Pictures from the British Antarctic expedition (1910-1913) + 1993 suggestion for long-term nuclear waste warning messages

men don’t die in antarctica like they used to

Examples of Inuit clothing. The ironic problem of wearing linen and cotton clothing in the arctic was sweat. Activities such as manhauling, warping the ship, and preparing camp were strenuous, and the men would sweat from the exertion. The problem came when they stopped. In low arctic and Antarctic temperatures the sweat would freeze almost instantly, leaving the unfortunate individual wearing what was more or less a sheet of ice.This, of course, ended in frostbite and hypothermia. Several explorers accounts recall clothing and sleeping bags that were like sheets of iron, thawed only with more exertion. The Inuit not only relied on dogs for hauling thus saving unnecessary exertion, they also overcame that tropical adaptation to cooling off all humans have with their clothing. Hides do not absorb sweat as readily, and were softened by chewing. Anoraks also are designed to ventilate, as discovered and described by Amundsen when he began wearing Netchili clothing. The air running through it evaporates the sweat and ends up leaving the wearer virtually free of ice garments.

In temperatures that drop below -20 degrees Fahrenheit, along a route occasionally blocked by wind-driven ice dunes, a hundred miles from any other people, a team led by two of our scientists are surveying an unexplored stretch of Antarctic ice. 

They’ve packed extreme cold-weather gear and scientific instruments onto sleds pulled by two tank-like snow machines called PistenBullys, and after a stop at the South Pole Station (seen in this image), they began a two- to three-week traverse.

The 470-mile expedition in one of the most barren landscapes on Earth will ultimately provide the best assessment of the accuracy of data collected from space by the Ice Cloud and land Elevation Satellite-2 (ICESat-2), set to launch in 2018.

This traverse provides an extremely challenging way to assess the accuracy of the data. ICESat-2’s datasets are going to tell us incredible things about how Earth’s ice is changing, and what that means for things like sea level rise.

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com. 

The perfect gift for your budding polar explorer: Game of to the North Pole by Air Ship, new for 1897!

The game is possibly inspired by Swedish explorer Salomon Andrée's 1897 attempt to reach the North Pole by balloon (which did not go well). Presumably it was made before Andrée's grim fate was known.

Is this Greenland (because it's green), or Svalbard? Either way, the objective appears to be nestled in a verdant mountain valley. Just like the real North Pole!

“The ice was here, the ice was there, The ice was all around.” (S. T. Coleridge)

A digital painting based on a 19th century engraving.

Print available on Inprnt

Hi, I’m new here. Here’s a little ship with some tall icebergs.