Freaky Friday Files: True Anomalies from Antarctica

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5 min read

Disclaimer: Topics discussed in this blog post may be distressing to some readers. Reader discretion advised.

Hi friends, happy Fri-YAY! Growing up in Christchurch, New Zealand, I met a lot of people who had been or were going to Antarctica (usually for work), and I even took an Antarctic Studies class in first-year uni (which had lectures at 8 am; it was rough), so I've always been intrigued by the ice. Unfortunately, my health issues have meant that I can't go and work there, but maybe one day, Luke and I can go on the tourist ships and see the penguins (before the whole thing melts). Anyway, considering that Antarctica has been the inspiration for a lot of horror, like The Thing, the X-Files episode "Ice", Alien vs Predator, and Whiteout, I thought we could take a look at some true anomalies from Antarctica, and I wanna say it's probably a lot safer to go to Antarctica than what pop culture makes it out to be.

I don't talk about third man syndrome in this post, but I recently did a Freaky Friday Files on that topic; you can check it out "here".

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True Anomalies from Antarctica

Blood Falls

Blood Falls (pictured below) were first discovered in Antarctica around 1911. However, it wasn't until 2017 that researchers were able to "solve" this mystery. Brine saltwater that flows from the glacier contains iron - and when iron comes into contact with oxygen, it oxidises and, in turn, gives water a deep crimson colour that looks like blood. The easiest way to think about this is to think about when iron rusts; it turns a dark red colour. I think some people created a rumour about vampires or just referred to the Blood Fall as Vampire Falls.

Glacier face streaked with rust-red meltwater above icy shore, with a tiny yellow-blue object in the foreground. — Blood Falls

Antarctic Sea Spiders

Interestingly, Antarctica is home to some creepy crawlies - that is, the sea spiders that live on the ocean floor and can grow up to 50cm in length. The sea spiders breathe through holes in their legs. I don't think they're technically classed as spiders, but are a marine arthropod (I'm not a biologist).

Sea Pigs

Sea pigs are a type of deep-sea cucumber (Scotoplanes), and I saw someone say that it's what you get if you combine a piglet with HP Lovecraft's Cthulhu, and I can't unsee it. They live at the bottom of the ocean. The deep ocean is very creepy and unsettling sometimes.

New Swabia

New Swabia refers to an area of Antarctica that was explored by Nazi Germany (which had the intention to claim it) between 1938 and 1939 as a secret mission to secure independent whale oil supplies and animal fats. However, Norway had already claimed the land just days prior, and all claims for a Nazi base in Antarctica were abandoned post-WWII.

Ross Island Plane Crash

I actually don't know how I didn't know about this, but this refers to the Mount Erebus disaster in 1979. On the 28th November, 1979, Air New Zealand Flight 901 flew into Mount Erebus on Ross Island and k*lled 237 passengers and 20 crew. Air NZ had been operating Antarctic sightseeing flights since 1977. The plane left Auckland Airport in the morning and was scheduled to spend a few hours flying over Antarctica, before returning to Auckland via CHCH.

This was a big f*ck up for Air New Zealand, as hours before departure, an airline navigation coordinate was changed to shift the flight path 27 nautical miles east, towards Mount Erebus, instead of down McMurdo Sound. The flight crew were never informed, and they entered into a massive whiteout area and crashed. Before they investigated this, they blamed the pilot.

It wasn't until 2019, when PM at the time, Jacinda Ardern, formally apologised to the families involved on the 40th anniversary.

Visitors to Ross Island have claimed that they have heard ghostly footsteps and voices as well as alleged sightings of flight victims wandering the landscape (giving off a very Lost vibe).

The Ghost of Shackleton

I don't wanna go into too much detail about Ernest Shackleton, as I've spoken about him before and I think it's common knowledge who he is. Anyway, Sir Edmund Hillary said something interesting about Shackleton that I wanted to relay here: "I remember when I first went to Shackleton’s hut—and I’m not a person who really sees things very much—but I went inside the door … when I opened the door—it’s a rather sort of bare hut inside—but I distinctly saw Shackleton walking towards me and welcoming me and then it all sort of flashed away and he was gone."

Another quick ghost tidbit is that of Scott's hut, located on Cape Evans; many visitors say that the hut gives them an intense feeling of dread when they go inside, and there are reports of creepy noises.

Singing Ice

The largest ice shelf in Antarctica is a piece of floating ice that is the size of the country France and is connected to some of the permanent landmass; it communicates with Antarctic explorers in a bit of an eerie way. The rough surface lets out a continuous hum of low tones as the wind passes across. The vibrations aren't loud enough for human ears, but recordings have revealed the sounds that were likened to the sound of a didgeridoo.

Real Life Reddit Stories

I thought we could finish off with some Reddit comments from people's time in Antarctica and what they thought about being there/what it was like.

After being asked about ghost stories, Reddit user AngryManBoy said: "There was a guy that passed away a few years ago in the barracks where NPP stays. Apparently people have seen him wandering the halls of the barracks from time to time. An NPP friend of mine stated that he would see a shadow figure often and would feel a weird presence at times in his room. He lived next to the room where he died. I never heard them but apparently you hear dogs barking at random times around station."
GhostOfConeDog said: "There is currently a small field camp in west Antarctica called Byrd Surface Camp. It's... on the surface. It gets several feet of snow accumulation each year. It's on the site of an old US naval station from the 1960's. The old structure was used for years and it was designed to function while buried under the snow. Eventually it was buried under so much snow that it was abandoned. The last time anyone dug down and entered it was in the 90's. It is still possible to see the outline of the station using the traverse's ground penetrating radar. I have it on good authority that Byrd Station houses a nice record collection, some comfy couches, a pool table, and a Cat stretch-8 bulldozer. The only catch is that it's buried under 50 feet of snow."
Dangerdoux said: "I once swept the floors in this one building in McMurdo. It was a gymnasium, but it wasn’t always like that. According to legend it used to store the bodies recovered from New Zealand Flight 901. I was told this before I went in so my brain was primed. I turned off the lights and looked around in silence. I gave it a number of minutes. Let my eyes adjust the best they could, but it was almost pitch black in there. I could “see” faces of people I didn’t know. 15-20 of them. Not a joke- but not necessarily supernatural either. I’m sure my brain invented the faces. But what if they were the faces of the passengers."

I also know that there's a giant whale graveyard in the Diamantina Fracture Zone (a 1200 km deep-sea chasm between Antarctica and Australia) that contains almost 500 whale fossils, which was discovered in March 2023, and papers were published in June 2026.

Thank you for reading this week's edition of Freaky Friday Files. I hope you enjoyed something a little bit different.

Stay safe,

Ash x

References

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Poster reading Freaky Friday Files: True Anomalies From Antarctica, with a penguin on icy blue icebergs and snowflakes. — SAVE TO PINTEREST

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