Feel What It’s Like to Live on an Antarctic Icebreaker for Two Months

In February 2013 Cassandra Brooks, a marine scientist with Stanford University, landed at McMurdo Station, a U.S. research station on the shores of Antarctica’s Ross Sea. For two months she worked on a ship, the icebreaker Nathaniel B. Palmer, cruising through the Antarctic sea. Brooks documented her life on the ship for National Geographic, and now she’s compiled two months of travels into a gorgeous time-lapse video. It gives a rare look at the onset of the fall season in one of the most remote places on Earth.

Don’t miss the end, where Brooks’ camera caught the ebb and flow of penguins going out to fish—a odd scene to watch in time-lapse.

Brooks’ cruise was intended to track what happens to all the phytoplankton that grow in the Ross Sea during the summer as the sun sets for the long polar winter.

This isn’t the only time-lapse that Brooks has put together, either. Here she shows what its like to do science from the ship as they cruise the Ross Sea.

Two months breaking ice (in under five minutes)

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Sampling The Ross Sea Time Lapse: A Day's Work Condensed Into 60 Seconds

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H/T Deep Sea News via BoingBoing

More from Smithsonian.com:
Underwater Antarctica
68-Year-Old Explorer Plans to Cross Antarctica…in Winter

Colin Schultz | | READ MORE

Colin Schultz is a freelance science writer and editor based in Toronto, Canada. He blogs for Smart News and contributes to the American Geophysical Union. He has a B.Sc. in physical science and philosophy, and a M.A. in journalism.