Sights & Scenes of Antarctica

Much of this footage was shot around the Palmer archipelago in January 2025, off the western coast of Graham Land on the Antarctic peninsula.

Once a place which would be visited by whaling boats, the remains of many of those boats are now bleached wooden 'bones', historical artefacts. Visitors are not permitted to disturb them or approach the penguins.

The deep, nebulous shades of blue in the ice tends to be acquired after millions of years of pressure which is exerted by layers of ice continually being piled on top of each other. Seventy million years ago Antarctica was covered in semi-tropical jungle which was just beginning to suffer from freezing polar winters. Those winters were soon to take hold all year-round to produce the Antarctica of today.

The snow-capped mountainous backdrop is typical of this part of Antarctica, although it was not particularly cold at the time of shooting, a relaxed three or four degrees Celsius during the southern polar summer.

Images and text copyright © John De Cleene & Clare De Cleene except where stated. An original feature for the History Files.