It’s been over two weeks since the Sun has set on Germany’s Neumayer III base in the Antarctic, due to the Earth’s axial tilt at the extreme locale. In that eerie landscape, the 16-year-old base has to contend with otherworldly hazards, like ice shelf disintegration and shifting ice that’s moved it over a foot closer to the frigid continent’s coast. In fact, the 16-year-old station’s two predecessors — Neumayer Station and Neumayer Station II — already succumbed to shifts in snow and ice, and were vacated in 1992 and 2008, respectively. In an astonishing video, Swiss engineer and Neumayer III technical lead Thomas Schenk — who’s been stationed at Neumayer III since 2024, where he oversees overwintering procedures — shows how the system works. More on the Antarctic: Horrible Things Are Happening at Antarctic Facilities