A team of UK specialists is undertaking a 9,000-mile journey to Antarctica to protect a British science base threatened by climate change. The UK Antarctic Heritage Trust (UKAHT), a Cambridge-based charity, is in its second year of a three-year mission to save Port Lockroy.
The goal is to restore the site, which houses the world's southernmost Post Office, a museum, and over 1,000 gentoo penguins. This year's team will install beams and props to help the buildings withstand increased precipitation and snow loading, and will also monitor the penguins.
Port Lockroy, which is more than 80 years old, faces structural deterioration due to rising temperatures and extreme weather on the rapidly warming Antarctic Peninsula. Initial assessments previously revealed serious structural weaknesses at the site.
A team of eight will spend five months at Base A, Port Lockroy, on Goudier Island. A field team of six specialists will also travel further south to conduct a comprehensive survey of Wordie House, another British heritage site where one of the continent's longest continuous climate records began.