All language subtitles for S01E08 The Epic Journey

Antarctica, a vast,
ice-locked continent

larger than the United States
and Mexico combined

This is the coldest; windiest
most lifeless place on Earth,

first explored by humans
just 100 years ago.

Today, this vast wilderness
has become a giant laboratory

for the most important
and cutting-edge science on our planet.

vijayvvb

Landing at the
geographical South Pole,

the southernmost place on Earth,
feels like visiting another planet.

Ahead lies the Amundsen-Scott
South Pole Station,

one of the most sophisticated

scientific research facilities
ever built.

Despite sitting on top of the icecap
at an altitude of almost 10,000 feet;

The station is maintained
at a comfortable 20 degrees centigrade

throughout the year.

It hosts scientists
from a whole range of disciplines

and is home to two of the most
powerful telescopes on Earth.

As well as housing hi-tech kit;
The base provides a life support system

for people to rest, work
and play in relative comfort.

This astonishing building is a triumph
of technology and engineering

and is as close to a space station
as you can find anywhere on Earth.

But a station this
big needs support.

Each summer; a convoy of tractors
brings in supplies

travelling along a snow road

nicknamed the McMurdo
South Pale Highway,

a journey that takes
more than four weeks.

The goods they bring will help sustain
the base for the next six months.

Not long after the convoy departs,
the sun sets for the last time.

The Antarctic winter has begun.

A long, dark night
that will last for months.

It's in the polar winter

that the comfort and safety
of the South Pole Station

really comes into its own.

Though the peak of research activity
is in the summer;

The station functions
all the year round

with a skeleton crew of 50 people,
who spend the whole winter here.

They have risen to the challenge
of making a habitable environment

in one of the most
inhospitable places on Earth

with a surprising installation,
a greenhouse.

Here, fresh fruit and vegetables
are grown under artificial lights,

while the rest of the continent
is in darkness.

Regulations prevent soil
from being imported to the Antarctic,

so the vegetables are grown
using a system of hydroponics.

Their roots are held directly
in contact with water

loaded with nutrients.

Inside here, it's a comfortable
25 degrees Celsius.

Relative humidity is about 55%.

Outside, the temperature will be
at least -30 degrees Celsius,

and as the winter
really starts to get going,

it'll get as far down
as -80 degrees Celsius.

So it's pretty cold outside.

And this will be
the brightest environment

one can find in Antarctica, I believe.

This greenhouse is so hi-tech

that the team can control the amount
of food and light the plants receive

from the comfort of their office
in the University of Arizona.

But to really appreciate
the achievements of modern science

at the South Pole,
one must go back 100 years,

to when science
and exploration began here.

In 1977, Robert Falcon Scott
and his team

built this but as a supply base

from which they would
set off on their quest

to be the first humans
to reach the South Pole.

Little has changed.
It's as if they only left yesterday.

Unlike modem visitors
to the South Pole,

these men had to bring everything
they would need with them.

Their crates of
supplies came by ship,

containing materials
to build the hut;

As well as food and
clothes for the men.

Ten thousand
of these items still remain.

All their food came in tins,
which still line the shelves today,

while the bunks that this 2.5 -man team
slept in during their first winter

still look much as they did
a century ago.

While Scott and his men
prepared for their race to the Pole,

the team carried out
a variety of scientific experiments.

They brought with them equipment
for studying meteorology, geology,

and collecting specimens.

Over the years,
the hut fell into disrepair

until recently, a team began work

on the world's most
remote restoration project.

Their mission is to save the hut
from being destroyed by the ice,

as well as to discover more

about early science and survival
in Antarctica.

The expedition was very well equipped
with equipment and technology.

And there was also a telephone,
which they ran across the sea-ice

and linked various
different places together.

There's quite an elaborate system
of switches and lights.

Interior-exterior electric light bulbs,

which would have been
very cutting-edge indeed.

And an enormous amount of
scientific equipment as well,

of all manner and all sorts.

We're very fortunate that
it's survived in the condition it has.

I mean, the house was only intended
to last for two, three years at most

and here we are, a century on.

So we have this fabulous
opportunity now if we act quickly,

to preserve what's here
for future generations.

Scott and his men left the hut

on the 1st of November, 1977,

to begin their journey on foot
to the South Pole.

Ahead of them lay 800 miles

of the most challenging terrain
on the planet.

The route they chose through
the Transantarctic Mountains

took them up the mighty
Beardmore Glacier.

Slowly they traversed
its appalling surface,

until finally,
they reached the ice plateau.

They still faced
a further 300-mile trek.

The achievement to finally
reaching the Pole was tainted

by the fact that the Norwegian
Roald Amundsen had got there first.

Scott and four others
perished on their return journey.

Sixteen kilos of rocks and fossils

specimens that they had
dragged back with them

were discovered
close to where they died.

Nobody stood at the Pole again
for 44 years, until 1956,

when the first scientific base
was established here.

A small party from
the United States Navy

landed supplies by plane

so they could build the first
Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station,

six wooden huts in the midst
of the barren icecap.

That same year,
a science party over-wintered,

the first humans ever to experience
the longest, darkest winter on earth.

The old wooden huts
were replaced in the 1970s

with this gigantic dome.

But this, too, has been superseded

its panels dismantled and removed
without trace in 2010,

as every manmade item
must be in Antarctica.

The most recent South Pole Station
is designed to withstand extremes.

I ts curved sides funnel the wind
and it stands on stilts

that can be raised to accommodate
the build-up of snow

which accumulates at a rate
of 20 centimetres every year.

All this is a far cry
from the bleak white emptiness

that confronted Amundsen and Scott.

They would be truly amazed
to see what exists here today.

Science has come
a long way in the last century,

yet the goals of those who come here
are in many ways still the same.

This is a place where scientists
look to the skies,

releasing weather
balloons twice a day

to collect vital data about the level
of ozone in our atmosphere.

The South Pole is also said
to have the cleanest air on Earth,

which has been sampled here

at the Atmospheric Research
Observatory for the last 50 years,

giving a long-term baseline for gases
such as carbon dioxide, or CO2,

data that is crucial
to modern climate science.

Climate change
is a really hot topic right now

and it's really important
that we monitor the levels of CO2.

Basically, we want to know
how much it's increasing

or how much it's decreasing or...

This long-term record
really displays that very well.

Especially down here,
we get a really good global average

because there's no local influences.

We can tell what the level is
without being next to a city.

And it's not just the
current climate

which can be studied here.

The ice of the South Pole
is the perfect place

to investigate our past.

This is the Ice-Cube facility,

the powerhouse for an enormous
underground system of sensors

that uses the pristine Antarctic ice

as a natural laboratory
in which to study

the beginning of the whole universe.

IceCube covers a cubic kilometre
but is buried deep below the surface.

A heated drill is used to melt holes

one and a half miles
down into the icecap,

a process that takes about 48 hours.

Into the holes are lowered
chains of photo detectors,

which look for tiny ghost-like particles
passing through the ice.

The particles are called neutrino,

formed billions of years ago
after the birth of the universe.

Neutrinos are
extremely difficult to detect;

But as they pass through the earth
and enter the pure, transparent ice,

they occasionally crash into atoms,

sparking tiny flashes of blue light
that re veal their existence.

IceCube is a neutrino telescope.

So, it's like a regular telescope.

We're trying to make
an image of the universe,

but instead of using light,
we're using particles.

What they learn

from mapping the direction
of these particles

will provide a fascinating insight

into the cosmos
and the very beginning of time.

While Antarctica's ice can help us
understand our past;

It also holds information
which is very relevant to the present.

This long-range DC-3 plane
was built in 1942,

but has been fitted with
very modern ground-penetrating radar;

Which can effectively
see through the ice.

The plane is a mobile lab,

from which scientists can map
the miles of unexplored landscape,

not just at the surface, but deep below
where the ice meets rock.

This airplane is called
an aero geodesical platform.

And a platform like this allows you

to combine multiple data sets.

In this case we have 14 instruments,
operating simultaneously.

And each of them
has a role in characterising

the geology and the glaciology

in the Antarctic region
that we're flying in right now.

Much of the ice that
covers Antarctica

is over two and a half miles thick.

It cloaks mountain ranges,
volcanoes and lakes

and in places, its weight depresses
the land far below sea level.

It's just incredible,
the things that are down there

that you would just never know
without these instruments.

When you look out the window,

all you see is ice
as far as the eye can see,

and you very well may be flying over

a mountain range
the size of the Rockies.

Being in Antarctica
is just a very special experience.

It's an honour to be
a part of a programme

that is acquiring
such important data

for building understanding
of our natural environment

that's hard to reach.

Far from being static,
Antarctica's ice is on the move,

flowing out from the thickest part
of the ice sheet towards the coast.

What's more, the ice
is changing fast.

It's hard to imagine,
but if all this ice melted,

it would contribute more than
60 metres to our global sea levels.

Scientific programmes
like this one are vital.

We need to know the
volume of this ice

and better understand haw it behaves

before we can predict
the long-term future of this icecap

and what that in turn
means for the rest of us.

The place where change
is happening most rapidly

is around the edges
of the ice sheet;

Where the ice flaws
out over the sea.

And that is where much
scientific attention

is now being focused.

Well, I've been
working down here for 25 years.

But I have never felt
such a sense of urgency

as I do with this
particular project.

We know the sea level
is rising right now.

It has been rising for the last century.

But it's rising faster now
than it was before.

And we expect that acceleration
to continue.

To understand what the ocean
is doing to the ice,

we have to get into the ocean.

And the path to get to the ocean
is through that ice shelf.

So, we use a hot water drill

to make a hole, just melt a hole
all the way through the ice shelf

And through that hole then
we can deploy our ocean profiler.

This ocean profiler is
a specially designed recording device

which is dropped through the ice sheet
to the ocean below.

It's a unique and expensive
piece of equipment.

It's about as tense
a deployment as I've ever made.

There's no spares of this thing.
So far, so good.

But you never really know
how it's all going to work out

until you're out here
in the field doing it.

Over the coming months,

the ocean profiler
will transmit information

about what's happening
below this ice shelf

back to a lab in Monterey.

It's going to be telling us
the type of water

that's coming in underneath the ice

and the type of water
that leaves the ice.

And from that difference,
we know what it's done to the ice,

how much ice has been melted,
because it's that melting of ice

that thins the ice shelf
and that ice shelf...

A thinner ice shelf can't hold
the ice sheet back as well.

So, once the ice shelf thins,
that glacier accelerates.

What we're doing down here
is so important because

sea level all around the world
will be affected

as Antarctica shrinks.

And almost half
of the world's population

lives close to the coast
and is affected by changes in sea level.

Antarctica may feel
like the other end of the planet;

But anything that happens here
affects us all.

We may think of this continent
as being frozen in time,

but in fact; the ice
has a life of its own.

And nowhere is that
more clearly illustrated

than at the South Pole itself

which before and since
mankind visited it,

has continued to be on the move.

Hi, first and foremost I'd like to thank
each and every one of you

for showing up here today.

It's fantastic to see
such a large turnout

for these traditions of the South Pole.

What we're here today for
is the annual remarking

of the geographic South Pole.

Now, as you all know,
the South Pole Station, our home,

sits on top of a 3,000 metre
deep polar icecap.

And that icecap moves at about
a rate of 10 metres every year.

Or if you prefer, probably about
2.7 centimetres every day.

It is my honour to present to you guys,

on behalf of the winter-over crew
of 2009,

the geographic South Pole marker
for 2010.

It carries the inscription of the name
of every member of the winter-over crew.

With this,
I would like to invite all of you

to participate in relocating
this marker,

the new, accurately placed
geographic South Pole.

The ceremonial marker
and Antarctic Treaties state flags

serve as a reminder that Antarctica
belongs to no one,

but is reserved
for the interests of science

and the progress of all mankind.

vvb