Antarctic System Science

Whaler's Bay

Deception Island. The island received this name because on casual observation it appears to be similar to the other surrounding islands. On closer inspection, the island is shaped like a ring, and there is a narrow entrance that allows access to the inner bay. The entrance is named Neptune’s Bellows. Once past the opening, it opens up to Whalers bay. The entrance to Whaler’s Bay was discovered many years after the island itself. The cruise through the narrow opening was quite an experience. Deception Island is the largest of three active volcanoes in the South Shetland Islands. The most recent eruptions were in 1956, 1967, 1969 and 1970. During the heyday of whaling in the 1800s the protected waters of Whaler’s Bay was a prime location for the processing of the large animals.
	The remnants of the whaling station and its large boilers remain there today. Processing plants like this were used before larger self-contained factory ships were made. These larger ships would travel with other smaller ships that would hunt the whales and then bring them to the larger ship to be processed. This was much more economical then land based operations.
The island used to be the home of a Chilean station and a British station. The eruptions of 1967 destroyed the Chilean station and the eruption of 1969 destroyed the British station. In addition to the abandoned whaling station, there were parts of a British Antarctic Survey (BAS) base. In addition to the buildings, a dilapidated airplane that was once used by BAS was left there. The historian on our boat, Charles Swithinbank once used the plane to conduct research on Antarctica. Charles was one of the youngest members of the early expeditions on Antarctica, and grew to become a prominent glaciologist. He has published several autobiographical books about his Antarctic experiences, along with many scientific papers. He told us stories of the exciting work that he once did here.
	The plane was used to transport people and supplies to remote work camps. This includes taking sleds and dogs in the plane that would be used to travel and conduct research. Most of the work that he conducted using this plane was mapping the surface of the continent. The plane was installed with cameras and radar sensors that were flown over the ice to detect the thickness of the ice sheet. Throughout his career, Charles was instrumental in mapping Antarctica and providing scientific information about the movement of glaciers and ice sheets. He told us that this plane had conducted some of the first remote sensing work ever on Antarctica. Besides from the small plane that was left at Deception Island, Charles told us of many different planes that he used, and different types of radar antenna that he used to conduct his work.
Because Deception Island is still an active volcano, the ground is heated by a geothermal source. By digging just a few feet below the surface, steam began to rise, and warm water flowed into the home. A group of the students and some of the other passengers stripped down and entered the bone chilling Southern Ocean. Quark Expedition crew members dug the “hot tub” deeper while Justin goes for a swim.
	A few seconds of the ice-cold Antarctic water was enough for most of us, we then quickly retreated to the warmth of geothermal hot tub.
This picture was taken looking out to Neptune's Bellows, the entrance to Whaler's Bay.