085 Deathly Hollows: How to Find the Coldest Place on Earth

The Arctic and the Antarctic are privileged locations for observers interested in understanding how our world is shaped by the forces of nature and the workings of history. These areas have inspired countless humans to undertake epic expeditions of discov

The icy turtle shell of East Antarctica provides the perfect ground for the coldest place to find on Earth. A hundred little pockets of exceptional cold scattered across the highest parts of the ice sheet. The coldest spots were in shallow depressions in the ice, little hollows where the surface isn’t perfectly smooth. That’s probably because cold air sinks into these depressions as it sinks into a river valley or a canyon. During the long, dark polar winter temperatures are reached scientists think they are about as cold as it can possibly get in our corner of the solar system.