Deception Island Story

Deception Island is an active volcano in the northern peninsula area of Antarctica. Part of its rim wall and the center collapsed below sea level, so our ship was able to sail right inside the volcano. It's still active. The black sands are warm and steaming. You can swim in the heated waters. Water temperatures range from near boiling to below freezing. These temperatures may exist only a feet apart. 

All around the Deception Island are the remains of human activities -- the remains of research stations, a destroyed graveyard site, an airplane hanger, rusting whale oil tanks, wooden boats half-buried in the wind-blown volcanic black sand, and thousands of barrel staves from disintegrating whale oil barrels. Small boats were used to row barrels of oil out to transport ships or fetch water. In 1931 whaling ended, but the barrels, boats and most everything else are still there. Since it's so cold in Antarctica, no bacteria live there. Wood doesn't rot. The food left behind in the buildings doesn't spoil. There are no roaches or mice to nibble the food either.

  In the distance are thousands of barrel staves.

Whale bones are lying around all over Antarctica.