Danger on the Ice
 by Peter Tyson

 As can be seen in the photograph at left, one of the most remarkable aspects of Frank Hurley's images of the Endurance expedition is the seeming serenity apparent in the faces and scenes he caught on film. Yet the perils of surviving on sea ice hundreds of miles from civilization through the long, dark, bone-numbingly cold Antarctic winter are as rife as squawks in a penguin rookery—and the men of Endurance knew it.

Here, click on the labels to learn just what they were up against.





Peter Tyson is Online Producer of NOVA.

 Note: Survival information in this piece was drawn from the National Science Foundation's booklet Survival in Antarctica, 1984 Edition (Washington, D.C.: National Science Foundation, 1984).

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