A chip off the old block
January 24, 2011
Baffling: How did this block of wood end up on top of an iceberg? (Credit: Jodie Smith)
I've heard the Southern Ocean attracts a hardy individual but a block of wood on an iceberg is ridiculous.
This lonely piece of timber was spotted on the top of a small berg at 66 degrees south, just north of Commonwealth Bay.
Wildlife watchers near Aurora Australis' bridge first thought it was a relaxing seal but it was soon apparent it was rectangular in shape.
How it got to such a prominent position, instead of just floating around, is anyone's guess.
A wider view of the baffling block. (Credit: Jodie Smith)
Since it is lifeless and non-magnetic, its baffling position won't be due to the fact that we are very close to the south magnetic pole.
Yes, we are near the wandering point in the earth's surface where the geomagnetic field lines are vertical, rather than lying across the planet from pole to pole.
Normal compasses don't work in this region. The one I have brought on board is now confused by all the iron in the ship.
The south magnetic pole was positioned on the Antarctic continent 100 years ago. It has since wandered out to sea due to changes in the Earth's magnetic field.
Do you have a theory on how the block of wood came to rest on the iceberg? Leave it in the comments.
Comments (158)
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Quinn
Jan 24, 2011 at 09:50 AM
Perhaps the piece of wood was floating directly above an ice berg that had detached itself from a deeper segment of an ice sheet? The dislodged berg then floats to the surface, and picks the wood up on the way.
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Phillip
Jan 24, 2011 at 09:55 AM
Yikes, looks a little bit like a coffin!
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Yeah right!
Jan 24, 2011 at 09:58 AM
It must be part of Noah's Ark! :)
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Sue Perrior
Jan 24, 2011 at 10:05 AM
Shades of 2001 a Space Odyssey!
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*
Jan 24, 2011 at 10:17 AM
how about a wave washed the piece of debris on top of the ice berg. not that baffling really.
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Brad
Jan 24, 2011 at 10:19 AM
Is it possible it was originally frozen on the continent, down a ravine or somesuch some long time ago, and worked it's way upwards like a splinter?
If not, one word: Aliens.
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Ainslie
Jan 24, 2011 at 10:32 AM
The piece of wood is being post modern.
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Joan Webster
Jan 24, 2011 at 10:36 AM
Perhaps a worker at Antarctica dropped it onto an ice sheet, or onto snow above ice, which then broke off and floated away.
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merry
Jan 24, 2011 at 10:37 AM
Shocked and in awe.......Noooo! The movie 2001 is true!!! What ever you do don't throw a rock at it..............'My God it's full of stars....' lol
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Robert
Jan 24, 2011 at 10:43 AM
Deposited by a migrating swallow?
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Clint Logan
Jan 24, 2011 at 10:48 AM
Has anyone read Mary Shelleys Frankenstein?
Didn't they find him in a coffin in the arctic...
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Adam
Jan 24, 2011 at 10:48 AM
I suspect this is yet more evidence of the thriving timber plantation and sawmilling industry located in Antarctica! A cynical multinational conspiracy has been leading us to believe that Antarctica is no more than an icy waste while IN FACT many parts of the continent are capable of sustaining many forms of life. Remember those huts that various 'explorers' are supposed to have built and lived in? Timber-workers' accommodation, I believe. After all, who really believes those ludicrous pieces of fiction about 'explorers' traversing what they knew to be a frozen continent?! They were just stories to cover-up the truth: Antarctica is a very habitable place (as long as you stay away from the frozen edges) and capable of accommodating many millions of people. We may find that this is where Elvis and one Harold Holt have been living for all these years! No surprise then, that a lump of sawn timber ends up carelessly dumped on the sea-ice (or was perhaps carried there by an enterprising albatross who wished to use it as nesting material) only to be carried away as the ice broke up. It all makes perfect sense!
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Adam
Jan 24, 2011 at 10:51 AM
A question: did anyone think to look UNDER the timber? This may well be an example of an early manhole cover, hiding an extensive network of stormwater drains or Russian spy tunnels. Just a thought.
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Singo
Jan 24, 2011 at 10:57 AM
it's what left of my first three houses .. count the rings (( o))
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Bert
Jan 24, 2011 at 11:00 AM
It's the monolith from 2001 A Space Odyssey - it's gotta be!
Is there any possibility of attempting a recovery?
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Peter
Jan 24, 2011 at 11:08 AM
The real question "isn't how did it get there?" but "what are the penguins building?".
I for one will be assuming the worst and barricading myself from what is clearly the first signs of an impending all out assault from said penguins. I don't know if they've built a rocket, a battle ship or just bought a whole bunch of guns from the Americans but it's clear that they plan to invade and will have already taken New Zealand by the time we realise what is happening.
From there they are likely to gain military support from the seals and dolphins, at which point I fear it will be too late to stop them.
This is the end people.
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Ash
Jan 24, 2011 at 11:11 AM
It's a door - and when you open it there's a staircase, which leads to a secret passage way to the North Pole. I thought everyone knew about this!
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Mick C
Jan 24, 2011 at 11:20 AM
Actually it is mine. I was wondering where I'd left it. Thanks for finding it.
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Tim
Jan 24, 2011 at 11:22 AM
I have greatly enjoyed the answers above but I have to say that I am the incurably curious type. I would not have been able to leave it there. Did they retrieve it? It sounds like they didn't. It might have been possible to date the wood.
My guess, just for fun: An empty packing case left on the ice shelf some time between 1860 and 1960 by whalers, sealers or penguin harvesters. The ice broke off and floated away - as it does.
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Stephen Gloor (Ender)
Jan 24, 2011 at 11:23 AM
Robert - "Deposited by a migrating swallow?"
African or European?
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Angus
Jan 24, 2011 at 11:38 AM
What I see is a block of wood left on the ice before the section broke off from area previously attached!
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Donald
Jan 24, 2011 at 11:39 AM
How on earth did my door stopper get there?
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Robyn
Jan 24, 2011 at 11:41 AM
They collect meteorites off of the Antarctic ice sheet, so surely this block of wood fell also from space.
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Rob
Jan 24, 2011 at 11:45 AM
Japanese Whalers of course...the Japanese have no respect…
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Janet
Jan 24, 2011 at 11:51 AM
Stephen, a European swallow couldn't possibly have carried something that large. He obviously means African. Sheesh.
For mine, I suspect skuas. Much stronger than swallows.
Alternatively, if it is indeed a door to the north pole, I imagine it was built by polar bears keen to take a proactive role in their own conservation.
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Eddie
Jan 24, 2011 at 11:54 AM
OK, you are getting cabin fever and a decent day comes along.... wow, look, this bit of ice is about to break off.....let's put something on it to spook the living heck out of .... yo, look, it worked...way cool
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mozza
Jan 24, 2011 at 11:54 AM
An in-joke cooked up a few years ago by Stanley Kubrick, Arthur C Clarke and their publicist.
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Pete L
Jan 24, 2011 at 12:03 PM
@Stephen Gloor: African swallows are non-migratory.
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Reuben
Jan 24, 2011 at 12:06 PM
@ Robert
African or A European Swallow? -
Andrew
Jan 24, 2011 at 12:10 PM
Well I suppose a simple answer should be presented. The box, as looking closely at the image it appears to be a box, probably came off a ship at some time and given the massive seas that can and do occur in the Southern Ocean, it was deposited on the berg by a rather large wave.
Then again perhaps Happy Feat is building something, raising an army and getting ready to take on the humans who insist on stealing the fish. Or perhaps it contains the farewell message from the Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy Dolphins.
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Sharon
Jan 24, 2011 at 12:12 PM
It is a rudimentary penguin surfboard
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roo
Jan 24, 2011 at 12:16 PM
It is obviously a part of the baffle plate from under the Tardis.
Now the Tardis makes this aweful racket when it time shifts.
Better tell you know who about it... :P
roo
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Jeltz
Jan 24, 2011 at 12:17 PM
My best guess is a poorly executed hoax. The width/height ratio is suspiciously too close to that monolith dimensions in 2001 A Space Odyssey even though it is in fact it too thick to be a replica worthy of hoax status. The author of the article also has inexplicable knowledge of the artefact being "lifeless and non-magnetic" in spite of no-one having apparently examined it closely (the assumption of it being solid wood just on outward appearance from afar is unworthy of a science reporter). Also a lack of snow/ice cover might indicate it has not been there very long.
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Darren
Jan 24, 2011 at 12:18 PM
Hasn't anyone seen Surf's Up! It's obviously a penguin's surfboard.
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Tony Wood
Jan 24, 2011 at 12:21 PM
Talk of swallows carrying it are crazy - they are much too weak. But two swallows flying parallel with a vine between them, carrying the wood might just work. But it's only a model anyway - it is a silly place
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Simon Peters
Jan 24, 2011 at 12:22 PM
it is the final nail in the coffin of the climate change madmen.
it is clear from this evidence that these so called 'icebergs' that are allegedly breaking free from a melting polar ice cap are in fact man-made.
large wooden constructions, this one has not been properly painted and now the truth is out.
this can now sit alongside such other great hoaxes as 911 and the Last Supper.
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Darren
Jan 24, 2011 at 12:26 PM
That's not timber, it's a desktop pc case. It appears that Good Game are trialling the ultimate cooling system for serious gamers.
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Tom Riddle
Jan 24, 2011 at 12:28 PM
It's a surfboard owned by a young surfer from ancient (and much warmer) Antarctica.
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King of Cool
Jan 24, 2011 at 12:29 PM
According to National Geographic, container ships lose over 10,000 containers each year usually during storms and I guess other ships have been dumping litter into the sea for thousands of years.
Other debris would reach the sea from urban storm drains and flood run offs.
I am sure that some of this would reach the Antarctic or from ships operating in that region.
So, unless the wooden block has a hidden message from Tim Flannery that the Antarctic will melt by 2013 unless we stop all coal mining I would say that the person who suggested that it is merely flotsam washed up by a wave is correct.
I would also suggest that all other man made litter observed by the ship be recorded as I believe this may be a bigger problem in the Antarctic in the next 100 years than any rise in temperature.
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Matey Boy
Jan 24, 2011 at 12:36 PM
Dude It's the MONOLITH. Prepare to be invaded!
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kiv
Jan 24, 2011 at 12:39 PM
Damn Aliens
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matilda
Jan 24, 2011 at 12:40 PM
How many times have you seen a penguin sitting? All that flat ice and no where to sit. Right! It must be a park bench for penguins and what a great view.
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Mathew
Jan 24, 2011 at 12:51 PM
put there deliberately perhaps as a magnet to use nuclear energy.
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Researchers - right back at ya
Jan 24, 2011 at 12:57 PM
The whales are bulding a Trojan seahorse to take onboard the Japanese 'research' ships...
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linz
Jan 24, 2011 at 01:04 PM
some pesky little penguins are up to a prank with plank. They knew they would get airtime coz the media will report on anything. Just wait for the sequel... a seal with tyre...
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Mike Mongo
Jan 24, 2011 at 01:08 PM
"Aslan is on the march."
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commonman
Jan 24, 2011 at 01:19 PM
A few days ago I saw in my stable block a large white mark on the stableyard floor, I thought that the stablegirl...sorry stableperson had spilled some lime. When I asked her...sorry it about it (not her, the white powder) she said that the Martians had attacked with Lime Bomds, I thought this a little implausable-now I think that they are upping the anti, to wood! -
Simon
Jan 24, 2011 at 01:19 PM
Interesting opinions, but an explanation perhaps a tad more boring...
Just north of Commonwealth Bay? My guess is it's part of the timber detritus (storage boxes, structural materials etc) left behind by Douglas Mawson's original crew from the 1911-1914 AAE.
Immediately in front of Mawson's Hut at Cape Denison, there is a gully full of rubbish, with additional 100-year-old artefacts scattered elsewhere around Cape Denison. If it's not part of Boat Harbour, that freezes over every year then gradually thaws again each summer, and a bergy bit has drifted north, then a hurricane wind (taut) has picked up a piece of timber and by fluke has deposited it on a bergy bit floating out in Comm Bay.
Sorry to kill the Alien Elvis lines of thought. I just hope the timber isn't part of the main hut that we've been trying to fix up over the past 10 years.
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tqft
Jan 24, 2011 at 01:30 PM
It is a door to the Old One's abode
[Lovecraft] -
Paul
Jan 24, 2011 at 02:00 PM
The penguins have somehow gained construction skills and starting building small homes. I for one welcome our new overlords.
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A. Hitler
Jan 24, 2011 at 02:00 PM
You vill ALL schtop lookink at ze exit hatch for our Untergroundt UFO-Schnaffenfatzer NOW!
A. Hitler -
Paul
Jan 24, 2011 at 02:01 PM
I knew the Australian housing bubble was making it hard for buyers to get a house close to Sydney CBD, but this is RIDICULOUS.
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Jason
Jan 24, 2011 at 02:06 PM
What you can see is just the tip of the iceberg...
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Soxy Fleming
Jan 24, 2011 at 02:17 PM
this is not a block of wood. It is obviously a NEW SPECIES of Seal!! don't you have any scientists with you????
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CATS
Jan 24, 2011 at 02:48 PM
How are you gentlemen!! All your berg are belong to us. You are on the way to destruction. You have no chance to survive, make your time.
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MM
Jan 24, 2011 at 02:54 PM
A Qantas engine?
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muthaz
Jan 24, 2011 at 02:56 PM
We are all familiar with the sense of loss. http://www.flickr.com/photos/7347550@N06/5383466742/
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Guy Smith
Jan 24, 2011 at 03:09 PM
Between 1911 and 1914 Douglas Mawson was preparing to open with his new magic trick.
" SAWING A SEAL IN HALF ".
The trick was seen to be in poor taste and the props sent adrift on ice burgs. -
KCampbell
Jan 24, 2011 at 03:14 PM
It's just the thin end of the wedge ...
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Bob Steel
Jan 24, 2011 at 03:23 PM
Perhaps that french artist Christo? ( wrapped white sheets around Bondi's cliffs in the 70's )has been down in the southern ocean and decided to throw a piece of wood in the berg !.
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Gilberator
Jan 24, 2011 at 03:31 PM
Was it spotted during the morning hours and did it disappear as noon approached? If so, I have a theory, though in an environment as cold as this, I wouldn't think it possible...
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ozogg
Jan 24, 2011 at 03:35 PM
Karen BARLOW did say, in her first sentence :
"... it is lifeless and non-magnetic ..."So why all her naff fussing about magnetic lines of force.
Does she not really understand magnetic or non-magnetic ?The excellent spoofing there after, from intelligent ABC fans,
just emphasises her woo-woo techno-ignorance.No cheers,
ozogg -
JUDY
Jan 24, 2011 at 03:41 PM
With global warming the animals are making sure there are floatation devices on all of the melting iceburgs
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KlausD
Jan 24, 2011 at 03:44 PM
It's not a block of wood. It's an EYE. Fill in the rest yourself.
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Bingo
Jan 24, 2011 at 04:08 PM
Debris from the flood?
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Charlie
Jan 24, 2011 at 04:17 PM
It looks to me like a crate full of unopened bottles of scotch whiskey!
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Karen Barlow
Jan 24, 2011 at 04:30 PM
Your comments are all fantastic. I have been told it was an ice floe, not an iceberg (to be correct), but it was quite high up.
And yes it may not really be generally baffling, but this is all new to me. The wood has caused quite the laugh here on the ship. KB
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Zarathrusta
Jan 24, 2011 at 04:31 PM
isn't that the preverbial "short plank"
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Matt
Jan 24, 2011 at 04:33 PM
It is an art installation which was intended to have no audience, as part of the special meaning of the work. Karen Barlow has stuffed it up by reporting it.
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AJ
Jan 24, 2011 at 04:43 PM
Thats not a block of wood, it's a space station
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Giiiiiitfuxced
Jan 24, 2011 at 04:56 PM
@Adam, extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.
I believe it is most likely something from a settlement or one of the various ice smashing boats that traverse the area.
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voetoneforpedro
Jan 24, 2011 at 05:11 PM
CATS - "All your berg are belong to us". PERFECTION!
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Dave
Jan 24, 2011 at 05:23 PM
It's a sea anomolie. We learned about them in Year 9 geography.
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tony wyatt
Jan 24, 2011 at 05:27 PM
Who knows if it's really "wood"? It looks like the top of a rusty sea container to me. The other eight-ninths of it... oh well, you know the rest.
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Paul Huxford
Jan 24, 2011 at 05:29 PM
If my memory serves me correctly, in chapter 8 of Mawson's memoirs, he tells of finally completing his hut in Antarctica. However to his consternation, the piece of timber needed to support the kitchen sink was nowhere to be found. Could this be Mawson's missing piece of timber?
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having a laugh
Jan 24, 2011 at 05:40 PM
No matter were you go, there is always someone polluting our water ways.
Get the finger prints and have him punished is what I say. Find the culprit.To me it looks like the end of a surboard ( after a shark attack) that was chewed up in the beaches south of Perth, back in time when woodden surfies were on the planet. The piece has finaly found a spot to live in.
Maybe it might grow to be a tree in due couse. -
Skip G.
Jan 24, 2011 at 06:00 PM
A case if Scotch from the Shackleton expedition?
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Dan
Jan 24, 2011 at 06:19 PM
It's litter.
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mckfish
Jan 24, 2011 at 06:24 PM
Maybe the rare and endangered ooowarrr bird laid it and died in the process.
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Ann
Jan 24, 2011 at 06:39 PM
Any sense of what the scale is? Is the block about a meter long, or much more or less than that?
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Darryl Youzefowich
Jan 24, 2011 at 07:54 PM
A perfect storm? A huge wave depositing it. Or someone on a helicopter or aircraft shoved it, dropped it. Or migrating ice flows from a long forgotten expedition left it, the iceberg broke off. Or, A puzzle for us earthlings, the aliens are having a good laugh at our expense, watching us puzzle over it.
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God
Jan 24, 2011 at 08:11 PM
I left it there.
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michael
Jan 24, 2011 at 08:41 PM
Hey Karen! How did you put it there without getting out of the ship? You did a good job anyway, and it has sure started some comments!
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Intrigued
Jan 24, 2011 at 09:00 PM
This isn't as brilliant and imaginative as the others above but it's simple this plank of wood was frozen within this iceberg many a century ago and as we all know they are melting so as time has gone on it has finally been able to reveal itself, sparking this great topic!
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Leonie
Jan 24, 2011 at 09:49 PM
Some of these answers are brilliant and hysterically funny. So glad to see that none of us have lost our senses of humour.
I hope it was nothing as mundane as a bit of flotsam but is actually a secret door for polar bears or a penguin surfboard or the whales building a trojan seahorse... too many funny ones to recount.
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Mick Jones
Jan 24, 2011 at 10:17 PM
Finally, something actually entertaining to read on the web......I was going to go for the Monty Python bit on the swallow which cracked me up so for what it's worth.....i 'm going to go for a research helicopter resupplying a station or something like that....the chopper has left this crate on the thingy.....and had a great old laugh flying off thinking "can't wait till someone tries to figure that one out!!!!" HA HA HA...Good one.
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Sally
Jan 24, 2011 at 10:58 PM
I cant believe the obvious hasn't been said; It's a part of Santa's Sleigh...
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scallywag
Jan 25, 2011 at 12:08 AM
But whether it’s Elvis’s hideaway home or a piece of timber deposited by migrating swallows, one theme in these theories is common to nearly them all. As one commenter, going by the name ‘Peter’ noted “This is the end people.” Like always. -
Mal
Jan 25, 2011 at 12:41 AM
Has that iceberg got a chip on it's shoulder ?
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McCoy
Jan 25, 2011 at 01:18 AM
Well, it's obvious to me that it's some remnant of the presence of the Old Ones...Cthulu will want that back...
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brian
Jan 25, 2011 at 02:56 AM
I think it likely was accidentally teleported there. Apparently it and a penguin switched spots......as you can tell from this mysterious video of a penguin at the top of a very large tree in Mexico!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cj6KMY-Fc74 -
Victor Nunnally
Jan 25, 2011 at 04:25 AM
Why was there no camera zoom on the box? Perhaps it fell from an aircraft. Perhaps a marker of some sorts. Is there a way to retrieve it?
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shedim
Jan 25, 2011 at 06:19 AM
The guy who shot the picture droped it there.
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brain
Jan 25, 2011 at 08:58 AM
maybe god dropped it there
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Evan Blair
Jan 25, 2011 at 09:14 AM
This is 'dunnage'. Dunnage is packing timber used in shipping for various purposes. I suspect it got washed up there by a wave somehow. Ships lose dunnage over the side all the time, along with shipping containers, 44 gallon drums, life rafts, rigging, etc etc etc.
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BrainB
Jan 25, 2011 at 09:35 AM
this is an iceberg demonstrating its support for all of your "outside the box" thinking ;)
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kris
Jan 25, 2011 at 09:52 AM
clearly it is a very large stake - because of global warming, this little berg kept floating away. Krill of the deep south use icebergs to hide from whales but the things keep moving when they least expect it. A determination by the "Krillus-Antarctica Research Escape Network" (KAREN) saw the implementation of more radical means to maintain ice positions. Its quite simple - you can read about it in their monthly publication - "Cleverly Handled Ice Pack".
If you stare at the image you will easily see this is only a small protrusion from the post below.
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Lori
Jan 25, 2011 at 10:09 AM
A polar bear dragged it up there to play with. Simple.
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Rich
Jan 25, 2011 at 11:14 AM
Photoshop
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Bee
Jan 25, 2011 at 11:22 AM
This looks suspiciously like a periscope, perhaps a Russian remnant from the cold war
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