Antarctic scientists for help after colleague’s alleged attacks

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A team of scientists stationed at an isolated Antarctic base for 10 months sent an email begging to be rescued after one of their colleagues “assaulted” one colleague and “threatened to kill” another.

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The nine South African researchers were dispatched to Sanae IV base, a research station in Antarctica, to study its climate.

The extreme weather doesn’t allow for the group to leave or enter the base, which takes about two weeks to reach from Africa, and they are alone for at least 10 more months.

However, one of the researchers sent out a troubling email in which they claimed a team member attacked them and posed a threat to the entire group.

Members of the group are “living in fear” of the individual whose “behaviour has escalated to a point that is deeply disturbing,” the unidentified researcher wrote in the email shared with South Africa’s Sunday Times, which also did not identify the alleged attacker.

“Specifically, he physically assaulted [X], which is a grave violation of personal safety and workplace norms,” the email read.

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“Furthermore, he threatened to kill [X], creating an environment of fear and intimidation,” the email continued.

“I remain deeply concerned about my own safety, constantly wondering if I might become the next victim.”

The team member was also accused of sexually assaulting another researcher.

The author expressed immense concern over the colleague’s “increasingly egregious” behaviour and called for “immediate action” to ensure the safety of the team.

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South Africa’s environment minister Dion George said he would speak personally with the team to assess the situation.

“There was a verbal altercation between the team leader and this person. Then it escalated and then that person did physically assault the leader,” George told the Times.

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“You can imagine what it’s like. It is close quarters and people do get cabin fever. It can be very disorientating.”

George noted that the researchers were required to undergo rigorous psychological evaluation to determine their suitability for the remote, harsh environment, which he likened to outer space.

Alan Chambers, an explorer who completed a 1,125-km skiing expedition to the South Pole last year, said that from a “psychological perspective,” it is a “very very lonely place.”

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With little interaction with other humans or animals, “everything becomes heightened,” he detailed.

“It’s all white. There’s no colour, no noise and nothing you would see as normal so everybody’s behaviour — including your own — gets magnified and the little things become the big things.”

Chambers noted that the “loneliness of the continent has a huge impact” on a person’s behaviour, adding that the team is “imprisoned by choice and so relationships and behaviours become really, really important.”

He continued: “You really have to be happy with yourself because in the Arctic or the Antarctic, you spend a lot of time inside your mind. So if you have a small issue with somebody or something, it can become magnified into a large problem.”

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