WSET.com - ABC13Secrets Beneath the Ice by Sean Sublette

Review: Secrets Beneath the Ice

Produced by Gary Hochman

NOVA (PBS), aired December 28, 2010  

I was curious about this documentary, figuring it would put real faces on the science of core drilling in the Antarctic.

You may have heard of the process.  Scientists from many disciplines use these cores of ice and rock as a type of history book, examining the composition of the cores to create a record of the planet's ancient climate.  Air bubbles in the ice and fossils in the rock provide great insight toward diagnosing past climates.

The documentary does a good job both illustrating the engineering issues associated with drilling these cores and explaining the fundamental science behind how they work.  There are several brief interviews with the scientists while they are working in Antarctica, and the camera is present during some of their more important discoveries.

I was able to watch the documentary in high-definition, and the views of the Antarctic landscape were tremendous.  There were breathtaking shots of ice sheets and glaciers, but also highly detailed shots of the lesser known barren landscapes of East Antarctica.

The program runs 52 minutes, so to view it online is a bit of a time commitment.  But if you have heard about ice cores or sediment cores and wondered how they are gathered and analyzed, you will get a lot out of this documentary.  Admittedly, at the very beginning and end, there are emotional tugs on the viewer that will probably make skeptics of mainstream climate science frown, but the middle keeps the focus on the scientists, why they are there, and how they get this job done in such a hostile environment.  

You can watch the documentary in its entirety at the following link: 

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/earth/secrets-beneath-ice.html