Curiously Polar

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In this year's review of the year we look back on an interesting but exciting year with 37 episodes that brought us plenty of ice, the mysterious case of a lost propeller blade, the almost uncovered largest oil spill in the Arctic, the impact of COVID on polar research and of course our little cultural getaway with the Voices of the North 5-part mini series. Thanks to all of you who tune in and send us feedback and Happy New Year 2021!

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Updates: Sevmorput, A86a (iceberg)

For centuries Christmas plays a large role in cultures around the globe and when the early explorers set sails to Arctic and Antarctic those traditions came along one way or the other. But given the extreme circumstances in the polar regions, the limitations of transport and logistics but also the packed expedition schedules, how did Christmas actually looked like for Peary, Amundsen and Scott and what delicacies were to expect? Pemmican

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Even the most remote continent without a native population and only roughly a thousand scientists during wintertime is not free from crime. And maybe it is precisely the desolate location and seclusion that drives some people out of their minds. Enclosed in a very small space with a handful of people who cannot be chosen with six months of total darkness people are under significantly higher stress and the stress induced by harsh winter conditions on the continent has been known to take its toll on residents and explorers of the Antarctic. If you’re stuck there with somebody you really can’t stand, too bad. You’re stuck with them. And if you’re missing somebody who’s far away, too bad. You’re stuck without them. Apart from that, Antarctic stations are largely not designed to be your fancy home away from home, they can be dull places to live. They’re designed to minimise construction cost, rather than keep people amused, interested and comfortable, and extreme weather can make stepping outside for a change of scenery difficult, dangerous or impossible.

Under these conditions, some people thrive by developing a sense of solidarity and teamwork. Others may become depressed and change their behaviour. One station cook began serving unpalatable meals to his crew-mates after a love affair with a co-worker went sour until the group revolted and frightened him back into line. In an extreme case at Russia’s Vostok station in 1959, a scientist became unhinged after losing a game of chess, and murdered his opponent with an axe. Chess was subsequently banned at Russian Antarctic stations. And in 2000 an Australian astrophysicist died mysteriously from methanol poisoning at the Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station. Due to complicated jurisdiction in Antarctica the scientist’s body was held for nearly six months over winter before it could be flown to Christchurch, New Zealand, the base for American activities in Antarctica, for autopsy. Until today, the circumstances of his death remain a mystery.

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With its first research station established in 1956, the Russian Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute today operates eight year-round stations and four summer stations under its continuous Russian Antarctic Expedition. The most isolated of them all, Vostok Station, is also the second oldest, 1500 km away from the sea, at 3500 meters above sea level and only 1,301 kilometres short of the Geographic South Pole but near the Southern Pole of Inaccessibility and the South Geomagnetic Pole and at the southern Pole of Cold, with the lowest reliably measured natural temperature on Earth of −89.2 °C (−128.6 °F; 184.0 K), making it one of the optimal places to observe changes in the Earth's magnetosphere. Founded during the International Geophysical Year 1957, the station is now getting on in years and even the annual repairs and improvements can no longer hide the fact that the station is decaying. Because of the low temperatures at Vostok nine months of the year the station operates in full autonomy, without any possibility to access it either by air or land. The functioning of the station is totally dependent on the supplies delivered during summer season by the transport-sledge convoys.

The station consists today of four buildings mounted on piles in 1978 with renovations carried out from time to time, including frame structure change, mounting of heat-insulated panels, repairs to the living rooms and laboratories. However, throughout the years the station buildings become worn out, making the construction of the new wintering complex necessary. Since the fall of 2018, the issue of creating a new wintering complex for Vostok has been discussed at the government level. After financing was secured mainly through Novatek, Russia's second-largest natural gas producer, and the seventh-largest publicly-traded company globally by natural gas production volume, the new station was commissioned in April 2019 and construction was completed by the Pilot Plant of Building Structures located in Gatchina End of August 2020 with the intention to finish the reconstruction of the whole station in East Antarctica by 2024. The complex got dissembled into 133 block modules and loaded onto Nuclear lighter- and container carrier Sevmorput, the world’s only civilian nuclear-powered cargo ship, which left St. Petersburg on October 5th. On October 16 or 17, the speed of the Sevmorput got reduced to 6 to 7 knots. Following an unusual zick-zack-track along the coast of Africa, the ship stayed just outside the Angolan port of Luanda. Even though Rosatomflot, the operator of all Russian civil nuclear ships, kept silent regarding the incident, message got through Russia's Facebook clone Vkontakte, confirming that the ship has lost a propeller blade, of the only propeller used for propulsion. How, in principle, it is possible to break a blade designed to work in ice, being in clear water and open sea at a distance of 500 miles from the coast, where the average depth is 2 thousand meters after the ship just completed dock repairs in January and passed all certifications, nobody dares to explain.

Russian divers flew to Angola to assist in cutting off a second blade in hope of restoring the balance and Russian newspaper Kommersant now confirms that the divers’ repair attempts were unsuccessful and as the time-window for reaching the Antarctica summer season is about to close, it is decided to call Sevmorput home. In addition, this year the spring in Antarctica is warm, and the fast ice around the dedicated destination Progress Station is unreliable. This breakdown could delay the renewal of the only inland Russian scientific station in Antarctica, Vostok, for at least a year.

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In Episode 95 we got a little impression of the world's largest iceberg currently floating in our oceans. Since then, A-68A has moved on his journey and left the vicinity of the Weddell Sea and entered the South Atlantic following the paths of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current. With an area of still roughly 4.700 square kilometres, the iceberg is heading with a speed of approximately 1 kilometre per hour towards the island of South Georgia, part of the British Overseas Territory [South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands]https://www.gov.gs/). The slightly smaller island covers an area of 3,528 square kilometres and houses more biomass per square kilometre on the coastal terrain of South Georgia than on any other place on Earth, being home to approximately 5 million seals of four different species and more than 1.5 million penguins, including the second largest of all penguin species, the king penguin](https://oceana.org/marine-life/seabirds/king-penguin). Its surrounding waters serve as an important habitat for migrating whales and diverse fish populations.

It is remarkable that the 150 kilometres long but only 200 metres thick A-68A has stayed pretty much intact despite over three years of drifting in the Southern Ocean given its area-to-thickness ratio that is approximately the same as a few sheets of copier paper stuck together. But it is this feature that makes the iceberg so dangerous. The particular shallow waters host a diverse marine life that plays a critical role in balancing global climate as it acts as a carbon sink. If the iceberg approaches these shallow waters, it has the potential to scrape the seafloor and thereby significantly disrupt the important ecosystem. This would disturb the wildlife and release carbon into the water and ultimately into the atmosphere with the potential to upset the balance for years to come.

The British Antarctic Survey fears that the closer the iceberg comes to the shores of the remote island, the higher the chances of a large negative impact that might happen during a critical time of the breeding season when the seal pups and penguin chicks are growing fast and require frequent meals from their parents. As a result, the parents have a time limit to find enough food during their foraging trips and get back to their offspring before they starve. The iceberg could disrupt this process in several ways. All these factors could lead to very few young penguin and seals surviving this year. Even more frightening is that the sheer size of the iceberg means that it could be around for a number of years, which could lead to the collapse of many penguin and seal colonies on South Georgia.

However, scientists stress that it is hard to predict which way the giant iceberg ultimately takes. The chances are somewhat 50:50 that A-68A follows the fate of its smaller breakoff A-68C on a route around the southern end of the island until it reaches the open waters of the South Atlantic heading into warmer waters, where it could break apart much faster.

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Emperor penguins are probably one of the most difficult animal species to reach, as they are true Antarctic penguins that spend the winter on the ice around the southern continent to hatch their young. They breed in large colonies, the largest ones being at Coulman Island in the Ross Sea and at Halley Bay in the Weddell Sea. Over the past 60 years that researchers have been observing the Halley Bay colony, between 14,300 and 23,000 pairs have flocked to the site’s sea ice to breed. But since 2016, breeding failures have been “catastrophic” and the penguins appear to have abandoned what was once a reliable haven.

In 2015 the strongest El Niño in decades began disrupting Halley Bay’s “fast ice,” that is anchored to the shore or ocean floor. Between April and December, the penguins depend on fast ice to provide stable ground for mating, incubating eggs and caring for chicks. But in 2016, the ice broke apart before the baby penguins would have developed the feathers they needed to swim. Thousands of them appear to have drowned. The ice failed to properly reform in 2017 and 2018, leading to the death of almost all the chicks at the site each season. And now, the colony at Halley Bay has largely disappeared.

The Brunt Ice Shelf at the colonies' edge is traversed by a crack. Previously stable for about 35 years, this crack recently started accelerating northward last year as fast as 4 kilometers per year.

Today the large Chasm 1 crack is only [within a few kilometers]((https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-10-09/formation-of-brunt-ice-shelf-iceberg-in-antarctica-captured/11370748?nw=0) of the McDonald Ice Rumples and the Halloween crack. If the cracks merge, the area of ice lost from the shelf will likely be at least 1700 square kilometers (660 square miles).

It seems that many of the adult emperor penguins have travelled elsewhere to find more reliable breeding ground. Satellite data shows that a colony of emperor penguins at the nearby Dawson-Lambton Glacier suddenly experienced a “massive increase” in numbers starting in 2016.

At the same time, scientists have been looking for new colonies for the last 10 years. Through satellite mapping technology they know have located 11 previously unknown emperor penguin colonies based on mapping the brown-red guano stains the birds leave on the ice. So it's literally the penguin poo seen by satellites that leads to the discovery of these previously unknown emperor colonies in Antarctica. There are now known to be 61 emperor penguin colonies scattered around the continent.

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The world’s largest seasonal event is the change from summer to winter ice in Antarctica. Every year a magical event happens largely unnoticed by the general public. When the summer comes to an end, the already low Antarctic temperatures drop even further and start a process that is truly astonishing. When the water temperature drops roughly below a negative 1.7 degrees Centigrade the ocean starts freezing over despite its salty waters. By the end of the Antarctic summer, only about 3 million square kilometres (1.1 million square miles) of sea ice remain, largely in the Weddell Sea, in the Amundsen Sea off Ellsworth Land, off the probably windiest place on Earth - the George V. Coast and around Enderby Land. But during this world’s largest seasonal event, the ice undergoes a change in area from 3 million square kilometres to up to 18 million square kilometres (6.9 million square miles) in the winter. Unlike the Arctic—an ocean basin surrounded by land—the Antarctic is a large continent surrounded by an ocean. Because of this geography, sea ice has more room to expand in the winter. But that ice also stretches into warmer latitudes, leading to more melting in summer. Considering the permanent ice cover of the continent al year-round of about 14 million square kilometres (5.4 million square miles) this means that the total ice cover doubles from summer to winter. In early spring the sea ice breaks up and retreats back to roughly 3 million square kilometres again.

Picks of the week: Marquardt International Pinhole camera and a documentary about Iceland's remote Eastfjords, feel free to check them out.

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It’s not so much heroic exploration but rather [scientific research that leads to the discovery of three new species of penguin](Their DNA alone is a dead giveaway, confirming these groups are not breeding with each other. This basic difference suggests all four species are now evolving independently of one another.The four groups of penguins look superficially very similar. But when we measured their skulls, bills, flippers, and legs we found that they were significantly different in size, with those living on the Antarctic Peninsula being smallest and those on the Falkland Islands largest.These physical and genetic differences are great enough that the former gentoo penguin (Pygoscelis papua) is now recognised as four distinct species: P. papua from the Falkland Islands, P. ellsworthi from the Antarctic Peninsula, P. poncetii from South Georgia, and P. taeniata from Kerguelen Island.The four species inhabit distinct environmental conditions across a large range of latitudes. P. ellsworthi lives on the cold, icy Antarctic Peninsula at a latitude of around 65° south, in stark contrast to the milder conditions experienced by P. taeniata at 49° south. The four species also consume different diets, with the more southerly species eating more krill and fewer fish.). First described in 1781, the gentoo penguin was considered one species with two subspecies, one that lives in the Falkland Islands (Pygoscelis papua papua) and one that lives in the South Shetland Islands and Western Antarctic Peninsula (Pygoscelis papua ellsworthi).

Now it seems that one species has been split into four. Despite sharing roughly the same appearance, in habitats not so far apart, the gentoo penguin appears to have divided itself into four populations that have little to do with one another, according to new research.

For the first time, scientists have shown that these penguins are not only genetically distinct but that they are also physically different too. Gentoos tend to stick close to their home colonies, and over hundreds of thousands of years have become geographically isolated from each other to the point where they don't interbreed with each other, even though they could easily swim the distance that separates them. And that's essentially the concept of a species: an interbreeding group reproductively isolated from other such groups.

Using genome data and measurements from museum samples, researchers found clear differences in the genes and morphology of gentoo penguins. The differences are great enough that the authors think both recognised 'subspecies' should be elevated to their own species, while two new species should also be added. They look very similar to the untrained eye, but when we measured their skeletons we found statistical differences in the lengths of their bones and the sizes and shape of their beaks.

Their DNA alone is a dead giveaway, confirming these groups are not breeding with each other. This basic difference suggests all four species are now evolving independently of one another.

The four groups of penguins look superficially very similar. But when we measured their skulls, bills, flippers, and legs we found that they were significantly different in size, with those living on the Antarctic Peninsula being smallest and those on the Falkland Islands largest. These physical and genetic differences are great enough that the former gentoo penguin (Pygoscelis papua) is now recognised as four distinct species: P. papua from the Falkland Islands, P. ellsworthi from the Antarctic Peninsula, P. poncetii from South Georgia, and P. taeniata from Kerguelen Island. The four species inhabit distinct environmental conditions across a large range of latitudes. P. ellsworthi lives on the cold, icy Antarctic Peninsula at a latitude of around 65° south, in stark contrast to the milder conditions experienced by P. taeniata at 49° south. The four species also consume different diets, with the more southerly species eating more krill and fewer fish.

Tyler J, Bonfitto MT, Clucas GV, Reddy S, Younger JL. Morphometric and genetic evidence for four species of gentoo penguin. Ecol Evol. 2020;00:1–11.

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In 2008 a Norwegian-lead expedition to the seafloor of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between Greenland and Norway brought to light an extraordinary finding: The northernmost deep-sea hydrothermal vents within the Arctic Circle. Dissolved sulfide minerals that solidify when vent water as hot as 300 °C (570 °F) hits the icy cold of the deep sea have, over the years, accumulated around the vent field in what is one of the most massive hydrothermal sulfide deposits ever found on the seafloor. The accumulation of the chimneys assembles the shape of a fantasy castle what led the scientists the name it Loki's Castle, referring to a Norwegian god renowned for trickery.

At a depth of around 2,352 metres (7,717 ft) the cluster of five hydrothermal vents, also called black smokers, the whole deposit is about 250 metres (825 ft) in diameter at its base and about 90 metres (300 ft) across on the top and might turn out to be the largest such deposit seen on the seafloor. Given the massive sulfide deposit, the vent field must surely have been active for many thousands of years.

The more spectacular findings, however, is that scientists discovered a new group of Archaea, the Lokiarchaeota (or "Loki" for short), and identify it as a missing link in the evolutionary lineage of eukaryotes or all complex cell organisms. In this context, the discovery of the Lokiarchaeota, with some but not all of the characteristics of eukaryotes, provides evidence on the transition from archaea to eukaryotes. Because of that, some scientists think the vents would have been great locales for the origin of life on Earth.

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In summer 1944 one of the last manned stations (code-named Haudegen) was established on Svalbard at Wordiebukta, Rijpfjorden, Nordaustlandet. A party of 11, led by geographer Dr Wilhelm Dege, collected and transmitted weather data from 14 September 1944 to 5 September 1945; the party also explored and mapped the ice-free corridor extending south across Nordaustlandet to the head of Wahlenbergfjorden and much of the north coast from Kapp Loven east to Finn Malmgrenfjorden. World War Two ended in Europe with the unconditional surrender of the German high command on May 7th, 1945 in Reims. What no one realises is that a tiny, forgotten outpost of the Third Reich was holding out in the eternal daylight of the Arctic summer, over 3200 kilometres (2000 miles) away from the ruins of Berlin. Wilhelm Dege later wrote the book "War North of 80: The Last German Arctic Weather Station of World War II."