Back in 2011, the Polar Record forecasted that the special day will fall in 2250 or thereabouts. The particular chunk of the ice shelf holding the remains of Scott and his men is expected to break off into an iceberg (or possibly a mini version called a growler or bergy bit) before they get to the front of the ice shelf at the water. As the Ross Ice Shelf advances further out to sea, every 50 to 100 years it can no longer support its own weight and the shelf calves off an iceberg. It’s tempting to imagine that once the bodies meet the edge of the ice shelf in about two and a half centuries, they’ll just slide out of the melted ice and splash into the ocean. The ice is not as thick at the front of the shelf as it is where the cairn began its journey, and so they could be embedded low by the time they get to the water. By then, they’ll be encased in more than 325 feet of ice. ![]() Within another 250 years or so, the bodies of Scott, Bowers, and Wilson will have at last traveled to the edge of the Ross Ice Shelf, where it meets McMurdo Sound in the Ross Sea. No one seems to have pinpointed exactly where they are, but glacierologists who have weighed in on the topic generally believe the bodies are still preserved intact. As such, the cairn, the tent, and the corpses have traveled about 39 miles away from their original geographic location, and they’re still on the move. The north edge of the ice shelf also grows and shifts, as the entire plate moves slowly toward the water’s edge. Assuming the rate of accumulation has been approximately the same for the last five years, they’re about 55 feet inside the ice by now. ![]() As of 2011, according to the Polar Record, it was buried under approximately 53 feet of ice, as the surface accumulates more ice and the bottom of the shelf melts and refreezes. That’s because it was erected on top of a 360-foot-thick section of ice-the Ross Ice Shelf, which is constantly fed by glaciers on either side. ![]() In the century and change since Scott and his comrades died, the cairn-tomb has been slowly moving. “The Lord gave and the Lord taketh away blessed be the name of the Lord.”īut something even more curious happened next. Oates of the Inniskilling Dragoons, who walked to his death in a blizzard to save his comrades about eighteen miles south of this position also of Seaman Edgar Evans, who died at the foot of the Beardmore Glacier. Also to commemorate their two gallant comrades, Captain L. Inclement weather with lack of fuel was the cause of their death. This they did on January 17, 1912, after the Norwegian Expedition had already done so. Bowers, Royal Indian Marine-a slight token to perpetuate their successful and gallant attempt to reach the Pole. This cross and cairn are erected over the bodies of Captain Scott, C.V.O., R.N., Doctor E. Before they left, surgeon Edward Leicester Atkinson, a member of the search party, left a note in a metal cylinder at the site: A cross made of skis was added to the top. When their frozen corpses were discovered on the ice shelf by a search party the following November, a cairn of snow was built around them, tent and all, as there was no soil in which to bury them. The makeshift camp in which the last three men died was only 11 miles from a supply depot. Captain Scott, Lieutenant Henry "Birdie" Bowers, and Doctor Edward Adrian Wilson subsequently died in late March of a vicious combination of exposure and starvation. ![]() Captain Lawrence Oates, suffering severely from frostbite, voluntarily left the camp one night and walked right into a blizzard, choosing to sacrifice himself rather than slow the other men down. Petty Officer Edgar Evans suffered a head injury, a serious wound on his hand, and frostbite before dying at a temporary campsite on the return journey. Ultimately, all five men perished before they reached the camp. Among other setbacks, the Scott expedition was plagued by technical difficulties, infirm ponies, and illness during their 800-mile trek across the Ross Ice Shelf back to their base camp in McMurdo Sound. You may know the sad story of Captain Robert Falcon Scott, the British explorer who aimed to be the first to reach the South Pole-only to arrive in January 1912 to find a Norwegian flag had been planted by explorer Roald Amundsen five weeks prior.
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