scientists, it s fantastic. anthony: in just a few hours, we cross the ross ice shelf, fly up the beardmore glacier into the heart of antarctica the polar plateau. how many miles from mcmurdo to the pole? around female pilot: 735 miles. anthony: scott walked that? what was going through his mind? male pilot: they loved to suffer. anthony: the first explorers who got here or came close, raced across the continent, striving to be the first. amundson made it before anyone in 1911, beating scott by only 34 days. amundson wisely used huskies to pull his sleds across the ice. scott didn t and his team never made it back alive. the south pole. what you might not know or be prepared for is the south pole is high, like 9,000 feet above sea level and it s cold, real cold, but you knew that. you feel the altitude.
michael: everything that lives here lives in the soil. we study the soil organisms mostly the animals the animals that live here, but also the microbes that those animals feed off of. anthony: right. byron: this is just a marker that tells us to stay on this trail. these soils are so sensitive that if we walk off the trail or whatever we could completely jack up the soils organisms that live below there. anthony: oh like that guy? byron: yeah, like that dude he s totally he s going to get wipped out. michael: when scientist came and fit started studying they thought that these soils were sterile, but we ve dispelled that myth when the glaciers melt and the streams flow, that s where you find life. anthony: so why is this area look like this? where s the ice? how come the ground is sort of soft and spongy? byron: the polar plateau where most of the ice accumulates starts to spread out toward the edges of the continent, but the transantarctic mountains form a barrier. s
and it s important to scientists, it s fantastic. anthony: in just a few hours, we cross the ross ice shelf, fly the heart of antarctica the polar plateau. how many miles from mcmurdo to the pole? around female pilot: 735 miles. anthony: scott walked that? what was going through his mind? male pilot: they loved to suffer. anthony: the first explorers who got here or came close, raced across the continent, striving to be the first. amundson made it before anyone in 1911, beating scott by only 34 days. amundson wisely used huskies to pull his sleds across the ice. scott didn t and his team never made it back alive. the south pole. what you might not know or be prepared for is the south pole is high, like 9,000 feet above sea level and it s cold, real cold, but you knew that.
built the station actually came on one of these c-130 s. they had to build it with trusses and pieces that could fit in the confines of an lc-130. male pilot: it s a fun job, and it s important to scientists, it s fantastic. anthony: in just a few hours, we cross the ross ice shelf, fly up the beardmore glacier into the heart of antarctica the polar plateau. how many miles from mcmurdo to the pole? around female pilot: 735 miles. anthony: scott walked that? what was going through his mind? male pilot: they loved to suffer. anthony: the first explorers who got here or came close, raced across the continent, striving to be the first. amundson made it before anyone in 1911, beating scott by only 34 days. amundson wisely used
goosef. what are you looking at here? everything that lives here lives in the soil, mostly the animals that live here, but also the micros that the animals eat off of. this is a marker to tell us to stay on these trail. these soils so sensitive, if we walk off the trail, we can jack up the soil organisms. like that guy. they thought these soils were sterile, but we disspelled that myth. when the streams flow why does this area look like this? why it s like this? the polar plateau where most of the ice accumulates starts to spread out. but the mountain form a barrier of the ice sheet hits the mountains and can t get through. the other thing there are these