The changes in the ice cover at Earth's South Pole remain a key issue in global climate research. Polar researcher Horgan will return to the Antarctic in the southern summer of 2025/2026.

For one thing, the water from the ice would have to go somewhere, which would cause global sea levels to rise 190 ft (58 m). Even odder, the ice cap weighs a staggering 24.759 quadrillion tonnes.

On a brutally cold Halloween evening in 1956, a plane landed at the ice-covered bottom of the Earth, touching down at the South Pole for the first time in history. It was nearly 60 degrees below zero.