What its really like to live on an Antarctic base: Meltdowns, claustrophobia and -40 degrees
With six months of continual darkness, sub-zero conditions and supreme isolation, the Antarctic is the perfect setting for a horror flick in which the environment drives inhabitants to madness.The frigid ice-mass on the bottom of the world is a magnet for ambitious scientists as well as adventurers who’ll work as janitors for the privilege of getting to live there.But 600 miles from the southern tip of South America and even further to the nearest point of civilization, some short-term residents lose it under the place’s pressure and isolation.Because one thing that can still run hot in the frozen land are tempers.A South African scientist on a two month expedition at the SANAE IV base recently snapped, made death threats and assaulted his colleagues after bad weather meant they would be stuck there longer than expected.
His colleagues pleaded for help and the country’s authorities are currently mediating a solution.And the angsty South African is not alone.“There was also the time when a kitchen worker didn’t get his winter bonus,” Peter Doran, a Louisiana State University professor of geology and geophysics, who’s done field work at McMurdo Station, the primary American hub in Antarctica, told The Post.“He attacked his boss and injured him.The man got taken away and the FBI was called in.”Humans do not inhabit Antarctica full-time, leaving the 5.5 million square-mile continent with no permanent population.
Scientists are sent there for as long as six-months to carry out ecological and biological research.They find the virtually untouched environment invaluable for experiments, but the cramped conditions and isolation are not for everybody.
“What they say about people in Antarctica is that you shake the Earth and all the weird people fall out and land there,” Byron Adams, a Brigham Young University professor of biology, who’s spent several stretches at McMurdo, usually staying for two- to three-months, told The Post.While fistfig...