078 The Conundrum of Time

What this episode covers

Time can be a tricky conundrum in Antarctica. There are such extreme cycles of day and night, with close to 24 hours of light in the summer and the opposite in winter. And as you move towards the south pole, lines of longitude get closer and closer together until they meet. The result is that the normal indicators we use to help tell the time aren’t particularly helpful. For scientists working in Antarctica, they generally stay in the time zone of the port they departed from, but this can mean that neighbouring stations are on very different time zones if they come from different countries. To add to the confusion, Australia’s Mawson, Casey and Davis stations are all on different time zones! For travelers on expedition cruise ships, we generally stay on Ushuaia time - unless we’re traveling to the Falkland Islands and South Georgia. Then we adjust to their local times, changing as we travel south.