‘Life is tough in Antarctica. You can't predict how people will react when there's no life for miles'
'The Antarctic is often romanticised, but when people realise what's waiting for them… well, there's not a lot of people who feel they're up to it,' says South African geologist Dr Herman Van Niekerk. 'I've taken students out there and some of them just can't handle the isolation, the extreme and frightening weather conditions, the perspective you lose when you can't judge distances in the whiteness. As South Africans we're not used to that weather – I took out a student from the Limpopo Province three months ago who had never even seen snow before. We do conduct psychometric tests on expedition members before heading out there. But you just can't predict how that will affect people in reality when there's no life for miles.'
The 53-year-old senior lecturer from the University of Johannesburg has meltdowns on his mind because he only just returned from leading a two-month research trip to the Antarctic base SANAE IV, where, this week, members of a nine-strong team (set to overwinter there until December) have allegedly been pleading for rescue following claims that one of them has sexually harassed a colleague and threatened to kill another.
It's a terrifying situation – described as a 'real-life horror movie' by some members of the press – for a group of people completely isolated on the 1997-built structure, in the icy gloom of the polar winter, 2,500 miles from South Africa's closest coast.
In an email sent last week and seen by The Sunday Times, a team member described a colleague's descent into some 'deeply disturbing' behaviour, which had created 'an environment of fear and intimidation. I remain deeply concerned about my own safety, constantly wondering if I might become the next victim.'
Dion George, South Africa's environment minister, confirmed that a team member did assault SANAE IV's team leader. Although the individual responsible for the assault has reportedly since written an apology and the South African government claims the situation is under control, it must be worrying for the other eight team members.
Speaking from the comfort of his home in Johannesburg, Van Nierkerk says that the team at SANAE IV aren't really prepared to deal with violence. 'There's a doctor, mechanics and members of the South African National Space Agency. But there is nobody in charge of security, no firearms or anything like that.'
So in the event of an individual running amok, they'd have to group together to restrain that person? 'Yes, yes, I suppose so.'
He reminds me that Antarctica doesn't have four seasons, but two. Winter begins in March, plunging the base into almost ten months of darkness, with outside temperatures averaging -23C and winds reaching up to 135mph. 'When there's no daylight,' says Van Niekerk, 'you worry about people getting onto a different time cycle, with some people awake while everybody else is sleeping. It's an extremely difficult environment.'
Van Niekerk has been taking teams of students out to camp in British-made tents outside of SANAE IV for the past three Antarctic summers. He says there has usually been a good atmosphere inside the base, which comprises three blocks, each with two storeys. Block A houses laboratories, accommodation, a hospital, some storage space. Block C has 'all the things that keep the base alive: generators, water storage and purification, workshops. The hangers for the helicopters are connected to that too.' He says most socialising occurs in the central Block B where there is more accommodation, a kitchen and entertainment areas. 'There is a bar, a games room and a place where you can watch movies…'
Are there rules on drinking and sexual relationships between colleagues? Van Niekerk says there's a list of general rules on the wall of the dining room. He thinks that includes guidelines on alcohol and points out that resources are limited – 'you take what you need and have to make it last the whole season'. When it comes to romance he says 'it's spoken about and it's frowned upon. But,' he laughs, 'these are people and you can't predict what's going to happen. Relationships do start down there. I know of people who were down there in 2016-17: they met there and got married and they've got two kids now. '
When it comes to picking his own teams for Antarctic expeditions Van Niekerk admits: 'It might sound a bit creepy but I try to get to know them all months in advance. I try to involve myself in every aspect of their lives. I look at where they are, what they're doing, how often do they do things? I need to see who this person is before we commit.'
Even after paying close attention to candidates, he says he can pick the wrong students 'because people only reveal who they are when they're exposed to the extreme conditions'. On this last trip, he says, a student freaked out and he simply refused to leave the tent. 'We were camped about 200km from SANAE IV and we had to get him to the nearest, Norwegian, base about 100km away.'
But Van Niekerk also believes that part of the value of SANAE IV comes from revealing how humans cope under the region's extreme conditions. There's learning to be gained even from the moments when team members crack up. 'We are training people to work in extreme environments,' he says. 'We're thinking about the future of space travel and humans working on different planets. At Antarctic we are gaining experience, taking society forward.'
He says that the station is also conducting important research into climate change and that this summer the scientists witnessed 'a lot of melting, streams, waterfalls'. While he says climate change 'has happened and will happen' regardless of human activity, the 'pristine environment' allows researchers to measure the impact we're having. So it's possible that existential fears for the future of the planet have affected team mindsets.
As a husband and father of two daughters (now both at university), Van Niekerk says he's had his own moments of fear in Antarctica. 'Mostly when I'm out on snowmobiles. That's unsettling because you can't see the crevasses. The storms also come in very fast, even in the winter. There are a lot of unknowns.' He misses his family and they worry about him during his two-month absences 'especially because they're over the festive season'. But he says it helps that internet connections are very good on SANAE so he's always been able to stay in touch.
Van Niekerk says he 'speaks to the people I know on SANAE quite often' and none of them have mentioned the drama making headlines around the world to him. 'People can take things out of context. Or blow up the whole story,' he says. 'But the South African Antarctic programme started in 1959 and this is their 64th expedition. I know the people in charge are highly capable. There's a lot of experience when it comes to running these things so I am pretty sure they are on top of it.'
But if things do continue to go awry, does Van Niekerk think the team could be rescued? He sucks in air. 'That would be very difficult. It takes 10-14 days by boat and then a helicopter ride – weather permitting – for us in the summer.' And in the winter? 'It would be… difficult. I don't think we'll see those people again until December.'
Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
UPI
3 hours ago
- UPI
Childhood trauma linked to higher risk of endometriosis in adult women
1 of 2 | Endometriosis affects one in 10 women in the United States and can cause chronic and frequently severe pelvic pain. A new study has found that women who experienced childhood traumas are at heightened risk to develop the condition as adults. Photo by cottonbro studio/ Pexels ST. PAUL, Minn., June 11 (UPI) -- A suspected link between childhood trauma and the risk of developing endometriosis in later life was strengthened Wednesday with the publication of study that showed a greater chance of the condition among women with histories of difficult childhoods. The study of hundreds of thousands of women in Sweden found those who as children experienced substance abuse, had a teenage or mentally ill parent, financial problems or a death in the family were linked to a 20% increased risk of an endometriosis diagnosis compared to women who had not been exposed. However, the risk was much greater for girls exposed more than one of those factors, rising to 60%, while those who witnessed or were subjected to violence saw more than twice the risk of developing endometriosis later in life compared to women who had not been exposed, the Swedish authors reported. The study published in the British medical journal Human Reproduction builds on earlier findings that women who experienced physical and sexual abuse as children had a 79% higher risk of developing the painful condition, which affects one in 10 reproductive-age women in the United States. Lead author Dr. Marika Rostvall, a physician and doctoral student in the Department of Global Public Health at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, told UPI the findings provide more evidence of the strong connection between mental and physical health. The findings "support previous studies in other areas of medicine suggesting that the mind and body are intimately connected and that psychologically taxing events can have biological consequences," she said in emailed comments. Endometriosis usually affects women in their 20s and 30s, and while there are a handful known risk factors such as starting menstruation early and having a lean body type, the cause remains unknown. The problems stem from the behavior of tissues known as endometrium, which under normal circumstances are found only in the inner lining of a woman's uterus. Those tissues grow to a thick, blood vessel-rich layer during the menstrual cycle to prepare for possible implantation of an embryo, and then shed the blood at the end of the cycle if there is no embryo present. But in some cases, endometrium behave abnormally and start growing outside of the uterus. When they do so, they can attach themselves to the ovaries, fallopian tubes, bowel, bladder or other parts of the body, triggering frequently severe pelvic pain as they carry out their monthly thickening function. As a result, endometriosis can cause excessive bleeding and even infertility -- which is the case for up to half of women with the condition -- as well as cysts, scar tissue and adhesions. Those in turn can trigger chronic pain, including during with sexual intercourse as well as during urination or bowel movements. The Swedish researchers began by looking at the health records of more 1.3 million women born in in the country between 1974 and 2001, eventually narrowing it down to 24,000 who were diagnosed with endometriosis. They then tapped several national registers to track their childhood experiences, looking for evidence of trauma or difficulties, including crimes such as violence and sexual abuse. The results, they said, demonstrate the importance of considering "the whole person" not just the symptoms of endometriosis. The negative physical consequences of psychological trauma can perhaps be traced to a compromised ability of the immune system to protect against the condition, or even in how the body perceives pain, Rostvall said. "I think the immune system is an interesting part of the puzzle when it comes to trying to understand why some women develop endometriosis," she said. "Chronic inflammation is a big part of the disease, and it has also been shown that women with endometriosis have a higher incidence of autoimmune disorders compared to healthy women. "There is a lot of interesting research being done in the area, and a deeper understanding of exactly how the immune system functions in relation to endometriosis could potentially help bring forward new kinds of treatment." Like some other women's health issues, the pain of endometriosis is often dismissed and sufferers have reported negative experiences with healthcare professionals, often in the form of providers "trivializing" symptoms, which can cause feelings of loneliness and alienation. This, in turn, can make obtaining a diagnosis difficult and prompt some to choose to avoid engaging with doctors altogether. A British psychological-based study from last year showed some women who suffered symptoms felt they had experienced a form of "medical gaslighting" in which they were made to doubt their own perceptions of pain. Rostvall said these kinds of experiences are especially relevant when the patients are women who come from socially and psychologically traumatic backgrounds. "A lot of women presenting with pain, especially socioeconomically disadvantaged women and women with psychiatric comorbidities, who are more likely to have experienced childhood adversity, have their pain dismissed. They then have to wait for a long time to receive a diagnosis and treatment, potentially allowing the condition to worsen," she said. "I think physicians should be aware of the complex linkage between the mind and body in general and be more open to listening to their patients' stories, take their pain seriously, and offer a thorough physical examination."
Boston Globe
9 hours ago
- Boston Globe
Conrad ‘Gus' Shinn, first pilot to land at the South Pole, dies at 102
Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up Looking back on the flight, Commander Shinn said that getting to the pole was the easy part. Getting back proved far more challenging, requiring the use of more than a dozen small rockets to dislodge the plane from the ice and provide enough thrust for takeoff. Advertisement Friends said that long after he retired, when he was introduced to strangers as 'the first man to land at the South Pole,' he would gently note: 'Well, that's true. But more importantly, I'm the first man to take off from the South Pole.' By flying to the pole and back, Commander Shinn — who died May 15 at 102 ― helped open up a new era of Antarctic research, demonstrating that it was possible for personnel and supplies to be flown to one of the world's most desolate places. By his count, he made about 17 South Pole flights, providing assistance to Navy construction workers who began creating a permanent research base, a precursor to today's Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station, a few weeks after his first trip. Advertisement Scientists continue to conduct experiments at the pole, including on air quality, seismic waves, and elementary particles known as neutrinos. Tractors make the weeks-long trek to bring supplies overland from McMurdo Station. And supply planes continue to fly in and out, although the aircraft — ski-equipped LC-130s, carrying as much as 42,000 pounds of cargo — are more powerful and better equipped than the planes flown by Commander Shinn and his colleagues. 'Everything was critical in that day: attitude and altitude and air speed, weight and balance. We hardly stayed in the air,' he said in a 1999 interview for the Antarctic Deep Freeze Oral History Project. A North Carolina native who joined the Navy during World War II, Commander Shinn started out as a multiengine pilot in the South Pacific, transporting medical supplies and wounded men. He later flew military brass and other VIPs, ferrying flag officers, Cabinet secretaries, and friends of President Harry S. Truman, before volunteering for Operation Highjump, a Navy program that brought him to Antarctica for the first time in 1947. By then, the Navy had been involved in Antarctic exploration for years, supporting scientific research while also — amid a Cold War standoff with the Soviet Union — seeking 'to establish a foothold in a region of the world that could be strategically important,' said Hill Goodspeed, a historian at the National Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola, Fla. Advertisement To prepare for the mission, Commander Shinn took a transport plane equipped with skis and tested it on the ice in Edmonton, Alberta. He went on to fly a ski-clad R4D, the military version of a Douglas DC-3 airliner, off an aircraft carrier, taking it hundreds of miles over the ice to reach Little America, the Navy's makeshift exploration base on the Ross Ice Shelf. Commander Shinn lived on the ice for about a month, sleeping in a tent — designed more for the tropics than the Antarctic — and flying photographic missions that were intended to help map the continent. At the end of his tour, he was picked up by an icebreaker and joined the command ship of Rear Admiral Richard E. Byrd, who had made history in 1929 as the first person to fly over the South Pole. Commander Shinn accompanied the admiral on a triumphant voyage to the Washington Navy Yard, where Byrd shook hands with the secretary of the Navy and presented the National Zoo with a gift of two-dozen penguins. (When a crate burst open during unloading, three of the birds disappeared into the Anacostia River.) By 1956, Commander Shinn had returned to Antarctica as part of Operation Deep Freeze, a Navy mission that was launched in support of the International Geophysical Year, a collaborative effort promoting scientific research at the poles and elsewhere around the world. This time he lived in comparative luxury at McMurdo Sound, in a heated Quonset hut instead of a tent. Still, he noted that the solitude of the Antarctic could take a toll — 'people get angry with one another; there were a few mental cases' — and that even with his experience navigating high winds and whiteout conditions, the risks of polar aviation remained high. Advertisement During an exploratory flight near the Beardmore Glacier, his airplane was caught in a wind shear and 'fell out of the sky,' hurtling toward the ground before Commander Shinn turned to a rocket system known as JATO, for jet-assisted take-off, in which rockets are fired to provide additional thrust. 'The wing rolled and the wingtip touched the ice. I'm sure it added to the deafening blast of the JATO firing,' he said in the oral history. 'We were close enough to the surface to send up a huge balloon of ice crystals. The passengers must have been terrified. But we flew out.' Commander Shinn turned to the JATO system once again during his historic flight to the South Pole, aboard a propeller-driven R4D-5L named Que Sera Sera (Whatever Will Be, Will Be), after the newly released Doris Day pop song. The plane carried seven passengers and crew members, including Rear Admiral George J. Dufek, who stepped outside and planted an American flag into the ice. (Technically, they had landed about four miles from the geographical South Pole. Observers deemed it close enough.) The group set up a metal radar reflector, intended to help future pilots make their way to the site, and spent about 45 minutes outside before readying for takeoff. Commander Shinn was already prepared for a difficult departure by virtue of the pole's altitude, at more than 9,000 feet. But he was surprised to discover that while the plane's engines were running, the snow under its skis had melted and refrozen. Advertisement They were stuck. 'We just sat on the ice like an old mud hen,' he told the Associated Press in 1999. Overheard was an Air Force cargo plane, assigned to hang close and drop supplies in case of disaster. It wasn't needed: Commander Shinn was able to free the plane by firing JATO bottles, four at a time, enabling the Que Sera Sera to break loose and, at full throttle, take off — just barely. Commander Shinn and his crew flew through 'a cloud of ice,' using their instruments to navigate while unable to see out of the cockpit, before making their way back to base at McMurdo, some 800 miles away. After landing, his colleague John P. Strider downplayed their difficulties at the pole, joking to a reporter that he dealt with only one problem on the flight: 'My coffee wouldn't percolate at 12,000 feet.' As a result of the mission, Commander Shinn was awarded the Legion of Merit. Antarctica's third-highest peak, Mount Shinn, was named in his honor. 'I had been lucky,' he said in the oral history, looking back on his flying days in the Antarctic. 'Lucky — that's what I would call it.' The second of six children, Conrad Selwyn Shinn was born in Leaksville, N.C. — a mill town that is now part of the city of Eden — on Sept. 12, 1922. His father served in the infantry during World War I and worked as a YMCA secretary; his mother managed the home. As a boy, he idolized Charles Lindbergh and Wiley Post, pilot heroes of the golden age of aviation. His high school yearbook, which he edited, seemed almost prophetic in its title: The Pilot. Advertisement Commander Shinn graduated at age 16, first in his class, and studied aeronautical engineering at North Carolina State College, now a university. He enrolled in a civilian pilot training program, left school to join the Navy in 1942, and received his commission the next year. After World War II, he married Gloria Carter, with whom he had three children: David, Connie, and Diane Shinn. They divorced in 1954. Commander Shinn retired from the Navy in 1963 and settled in Pensacola, where he had been stationed. For years, he made regular visits to the National Naval Aviation Museum, where he was able to visit his restored former plane, the Que Sera Sera, and tell visitors about his flying days. Long after he retired, he continued to dress in military-style flight suits, preferring to avoid fussing over questions of personal appearance and style, according to his family. He remained especially concerned with safety issues, a theme dating back to his Navy days: If he couldn't sit in the pilot's seat as a civilian, he refused to fly at all, preferring to maintain control over maintenance and safety procedures. 'He always had the military demeanor,' his son David said, 'with one dramatic exception. While living in Florida, he developed the moniker Cat Man of La Rua,' after the street where he lived. 'He always had a dozen or two-dozen cats in residence. They'd come to his door, having heard about town that there was this man who would take care of them if he needed help.' Commander Shinn lived in the city until shortly before his death, at a nursing facility in Charlotte. His son confirmed the death but did not cite a specific cause. Survivors include his three children; a sister; a grandson; a great-grandson; and several of his cats, which he re-homed late in life. Asked in the oral history what he was proudest of from his time in the Antarctic, Commander Shinn replied: 'I would guess if I were going to have a tombstone I would put on it, 'He tells it like it is.' There's just no substitute for honesty and integrity.'
Yahoo
9 hours ago
- Yahoo
Haunting blood-red squid with large hooks drifts through Antarctic ocean's midnight zone in world-first video
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. An elusive species of deep-sea squid has been seen alive for the first time off Antarctica, National Geographic has announced. Researchers filmed the Antarctic gonate squid (Gonatus antarcticus) drifting through the black waters of the ocean's midnight zone, 7,060 feet (2,152 meters) below the surface, on Dec. 25, 2024. As first reported by National Geographic, researchers spotted the 3-foot-long (0.9 m) blood-red creature using a remotely operated vehicle (ROV), which had been deployed from the Schmidt Ocean Institute's research vessel, the R/V Falkor (too). They sent the footage to Kat Bolstad, head of the Lab for Cephalopod Ecology and Systematics at Auckland University of Technology in New Zealand, who confirmed it was an Antarctic gonate squid. "This is, to the best of my knowledge, the first live footage of this animal worldwide," Bolstad told National Geographic. Related: Elusive colossal squid finally caught on camera 100 years after discovery in world 1st footage — and it's tiny Scientists have known about the Antarctic gonate squid for more than 100 years, but they have previously only seen dead specimens caught in fishing nets or beaks that had been preserved in the stomachs of other animals. This is the first time scientists have observed the squid alive and in its natural habitat. The creature was in the bathypelagic or midnight zone, 3,300 to 13,100 feet (1,000 to 4,000 m) below the ocean's surface. No sunlight can penetrate that far into the ocean, so the midnight zone's only light comes from animals that can illuminate themselves with bioluminescence, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). RELATED STORIES —Watch extremely rare footage of a bigfin squid 'walking' on long, spindly arms deep in the South Pacific —Rare video shows elusive deep-sea squid cradling her gigantic, translucent eggs —Elusive 'octopus squid' with world's largest biological lights attacks camera in striking new video The squid released a cloud of greenish ink when the ROV approached, potentially startled by the presence of a large, bright vehicle in its environment. The researchers followed the animal for a few minutes, using the ROV's lasers to measure its size, before the squid shot away into the darkness, National Geographic reported. While researchers couldn't determine the sex or age of the animal, Bolstad confirmed it was an Antarctic gonate squid by observing the presence of a single, large hook on the ends of its two longer tentacles. "The impressive tentacle hooks are probably used for grasping and subduing prey during ambush predation," Alex Hayward, a senior lecturer in ecology and conservation at the University of Exeter in England who was not involved in the expedition, told National Geographic.
