bbc.

com

Antarctic base waits on 'Halloween' ice

crack
By Jonathan Amos BBC Science Correspondent
7-8 minutes

Media playback is unsupported on your device

Media captionBBC Horizon: Halley VI is one of the most remote scientific
research centres in the world

Restricted operations at the British Antarctic Survey's Halley station

may have to continue for some time to come.

The base, which ordinarily stays open year-round, is currently

closed because of uncertainty over a developing crack in the ice
shelf on which it sits.

1 of 7
Scientists are using automated ground instruments and satellites to
monitor the fissure from afar, and plan to reoccupy Halley from
November.

Whether that is just for the length of the Summer season, though, is
unclear.

Image copyright BAS

Image caption Halley serves as a support link to exploration in the
Antarctic interior. It is also renowned for its atmospheric research

"That decision will have to be based on our observations; and these

processes, because they are ice-related, are often painstakingly
slow," BAS glaciologist Jan De Rydt told BBC News.

The UK has had a permanent presence on the Brunt Ice Shelf since
1956, and scientists would be loath to see their operations routinely

2 of 7
reduced to just a few months a year.

Halley VI, as the base is known in its latest incarnation, will feature in
a colourful BBC Horizon documentary on Wednesday.

Filmmaker Natalie Hewit spent three months at the turn of the year
recording the huge effort to shift the station's futuristic-looking
buildings to a new location.

Tractors dragged the eight modules a further 23km from the ocean's
edge, to put them in a more secure spot.

"It was an incredible sight," recalled Natalie. "We have some

amazing drone shots, taken from up high, of one of these blue
modules moving across the ice, but you can't see where it is going
because this place is so expansive, so huge, so desolate - all the
way to the horizon is just white. And it really reminds you how teeny-
weeny we are.

"This programme, though, is about more than just moving some

buildings; it's very much about the people who work at the end of the
world to do their science."

3 of 7
Image copyright BAS
Image caption Natalie Hewit spent three months recording life at the "end
of the world"

Image copyright BAS/P.BUCKTROUT

Image caption The move was made possible by a hydraulic leg and ski
system

Image copyright BAS

Image caption Scientists are keen to return to year-round operations - but
they will be led by the ice observations

4 of 7
Halley base is geared up to be mobile. It has a hydraulic leg and ski
system that allows it to be raised above the annual snowfall, and
towed. Without this mechanism, the station would eventually be
buried and carried to the shelf edge where it would then be dropped
into the ocean inside an iceberg.

Halley bases I to V were abandoned to this fate or demolished. The

latest design represents a novel solution, and the recent move was
its first implementation.

The relocation was initially ordered because some long-dormant

chasms in the Brunt Ice Shelf to the south and west of Halley had
started lengthening again. This turned out to be serendipitous
because a completely different fissure system then opened to the
east.

This new crack - dubbed the Halloween Crack because it was first
discovered on 31 October last year - propagated rapidly and now
extends for about 60km.

It poses no immediate threat to Halley but the uncertainties

surrounding its likely future behaviour are what prompted the
temporary withdrawal of staff. This was seen as a sensible
precaution given the dangers of trying to fly planes in and out of the
base during the polar winter, when nights are long and weather
conditions deteriorate.

5 of 7
BAS experts now have to decide whether November's returning
teams can once again take up permanent residence or limit their
stay to just the length of the southern summer.

The Halloween Crack is propagating roughly eastwards, broadly

parallel to the continent, and away from Halley. It is the other end,
though, close to the ocean, that is concentrating minds.

This tip is currently held up at a location known as the McDonald

Rumples - a raised area of seafloor that catches on the bottom of the
floating ice shelf. Dr De Rydt explained: The Brunt Ice Shelf is
pinned at the rumples; it's where the shelf runs aground. The
rumples are an anchor point that keeps everything in place and
stable."

Glaciologists are waiting to see if the crack will break past the
rumples, and on which side. They should then get a clearer idea of
the longer term reaction of the shelf to the changes that are
presently in play.

Ultimately, the Halloween fissure will probably calve a huge iceberg

into the ocean.

"In the 1970s, we had a similar event where a crack happened very
close to where we see Halloween Crack today," Dr De Rydt told BBC
News.

6 of 7
"That crack ended another 20km or so towards the east of where the
tip of Halloween is now. And that created a berg of several thousand
square kilometres."

Halley's mobility means it should not be anywhere near this great

block of ice when it cuts free.

Antarctica - Ice Station Rescue is broadcast on BBC Two on

Wednesday, 7 June, at 21:00 BST.

Image copyright BAS

Image caption Halloween Crack is monitored by automatic in-situ
instruments and by satellites

Jonathan.Amos-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk and follow me on Twitter:

@BBCAmos

7 of 7