Thirteen members of the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) were trapped and in danger of freezing to death when their base, Halley VI, lost power. Power went down on July 30th and is now partially restored. The BAS waited to report the incident until power came back up, however now reports that the incident was so serious that all science activities have been suspended and emergency contingency plans to abandon some of Halley’s eight modules and attempt to shelter in a remaining few have been prepared.
The incident is particularly serious, as the station is likely completely cut off from rescue for months. The incident occurred during the height of the Antarctic winter while southern sea ice is at or near record highs (Marc Morano has details at Climate Depot).
One Survey member, Anthony Lister, managed to send a out a “tweet” when power came back up, reporting that the outage occurred while the station was experiencing record cold temperatures of -55.4° C (-67.72° F). (h/t Rai news)
It is not possible to survive for long at the station without power, placing the 13 members of the expedition in danger of freezing to death, although they remain safe while they can keep the power running.
Halley VI is located on the Brunt Ice Shelf on 150 meter thick ice, just off the coast of Antarctica. Temperature there never climbs above freezing and this time of year the sun never climbs above the horizon.
Halley VI became operational in 2012 and consists of eight modules supported by hydraulic legs on skis. The skis are designed to permit the BAS to periodically reposition the station using bulldozers in the hopes of escaping the fate of past stations which were lost when they became buried under vast accumulations of ice and snow. In the past the station was a major source of reporting on the Antarctic “ozone hole.”
The Halley VI power loss serves as a stark reminder of the incredibly harsh and dangerous cold conditions Antarctic researchers brave. It also can’t help but remind us of Chris Turney’s ill-fated Antarctic expedition which became trapped in rapidly expanding sea ice last 
December. Drama ensued when both the ice breaker carrying the expedition and the ice breaker initially sent to rescue it both became trapped. A third ice breaker was ultimately able to evacuate the passengers using a helicopter.
While the BAS researchers stationed at Halley VI have a higher degree of professionalism and are better prepared, their situation will be far more dire should they lose power again. Halley VI is located beyond the likely ability of rescuers to reach it until this year’s particularly cold and harsh Antarctic winter subsides.
Let’s all send our hopes and prayers that the BAS team at Halley VI will be able to keep the power running and remain safe until conditions improve and they can be reached.
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its ice,it’s cold and always will be.research done,go home when able.do go back.you can pull ice cores forever but the planet will do it’s thing and no research will stop that.huge money waster.
What the need is some warming. Quick if everybody in the world would just double their fossil fuel usage for a day we can warm the antarctic up from -67.72F to -67.719999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999F
Loss of power = Death. Metaphor anyone?
Did their windmills stop?
Ah Yes global warming why do these IDIOTS worry hunker down in your hut smell each others farts
Or light each others’ farts if the power goes off again.
“The BAS waited to report the incident until power came back up”
No… really?
Just a guess but they probably have battery backup for their communications. It would be a foolish oversight if they didn’t.
“It would be a foolish oversight if they didn’t.”
Very true.
But wouldn’t it be even more foolish not to report the outage as soon as possible, just in case something else went wrong? Batteries don’t hold a charge well as temperatures drop…
Reporting the problem would drain the batteries further – and to what end? Their focus was rightfully on restoring power generation, just as a pilot in an emergency should be focused on flying the plane – not reporting the situation to someone who is in no position to help.
“the station is likely completely cut off from rescue”
The key word being “likely”.
It’s amazing the ways people have found to render aide in
“impossible” situations. But whether help is possible or not, the one sure thing is that it WON’T be provided unless you let someone know that you need it (while you still can).
And that assistance need not be “rescue”.
As for your plane analogy… perhaps you have heard of the Apollo 13 mission? It is perhaps the best example (of many) where people in a bad situation have used radio communication to receive assistance that “saved” them. Would you argue that the crew of the Apollo 13 was too busy saving the craft to let ground control know that they had a problem? Restoring power to the BAS probably consisted of repairing some sort of generator. I daresay that having the person who designed that generator on the line might aid in such a task. I’m also not sure what critical constructive action you thought ALL thirteen people were taking that would preempt ONE of them from making a short radio call.
I could go on about this, but at the risk of sounding sarcastic, I am going to close with a question. Given that they were trapped on the ice with primary power out and
temperatures at 55.4° C (-67.72° F), what exactly would you have them save hypothetical backup comm power for? For when things get REALLY bad??
(snicker)
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RPS is the last guy I would want to be with in a remote, critical situation.
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Fishing crews often face this situation and much worse. The better the crew & skipper, the better the chance at survival.
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Having been both, let me say that as rough as they are, fishermen are more resourceful and better to have around in SHTF scenarios.
OK, I’m puzzled. My assertion was that your first obligation was to fix the problem – not to complain to someone else about it. Sounds like how your skipper and crew would act.
Believe me. It we lost power or steering in similar circumstances at least one of us would be announcing MAYDAY before we were rolled or swamped by a wave. The radio and seaphone would still be working if water had not penetrated the engine room and shorted the batteries. We would be reaching out any way we could. We could last for some time in survival suits, but we would surely die, survival suit or not, if we entered the water and no one knew our situation or position.
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Once we had given our position and situation to the Coast Guard or other help, we might have every man working on the solution. Even then we would establish a period for regular check ins.
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A problem in the engine room would not be helped by having 5 guys in each others way.
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A severe icing problem probably would tie up every crewmember save the guy steering.
Key point: you could radio someone who could provide help (rescue efforts), and you could potentially survive till help arrived. An airline pilot is in contact with an air traffic controller, not the coast guard. Their situation is over in minutes, not hours (you DID see that storm approaching, didn’t you?). Their is simply no one on the other end who can help and their is no need for the distraction.
No, the key point is that rescuers have information about your location and situation.
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Whoever the pilot is in contact with will relay a message to the CG.
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Whose situation is over in minutes? If it is the airliner, he still needs to communicate about his situation and location. People will come looking, even if his situation is over in minutes.
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Someone on the other end can always send help.
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I’ve heard about people with your frame of mind in survival schools. Instead of thinking about some way to signal potential rescuers, they just start walking. It is far better to communicate with rescuers.
This was the same hull type I spent most of my time working.
The likelihood of losing communications in sloppy conditions was a real possibility.
Better to announce your situation and position to the rest of the world when you can. If we lost power in bad weather, even if we knew the cause and that we could likely fix it, we would still advise other boats and if possible the Coast Guard of our situation, just in case.
After rereading the article, I don’t think the issue of deciding to ask for help was an option. The sentence in the middle: “One Survey member, Anthony Lister, managed to send a out a ‘tweet’ when power came back up,” suggests that they had no usable power.