Hmm: Video shows open water "in the middle of the Arctic Ocean" in the 1950s

Climatescience.tv Website: Scientists in the Field | The Yale Forum on Climate Change & The Media

We’re going to put up a video [1957-1958] from Ice Station Alpha, which was the first drifting ice camp in the Arctic that [polar geophysicist] Norbert Untersteiner put together. And there’s this scene in it where a nuclear sub comes up through the ice and basically leaves a patch of water next to their drifting ice station. [The video actually shows a large natural lead] They’ve been stuck on ice two or three months at that point, and they feel they must do something with this water. So they strap Norbert to a plank of plywood and drag him around on a boat in the water. And Norbert’s not a particularly good swimmer, and the water’s freezing, but they seemed to think this was a good idea, and it was captured on film. And it captures that spirit of adventure that is part of climate science [Editor's note: Watch the scene starting at minute 26 of this video.]

International Geophysical Year, 1957 – 1958: Drifting Station Alpha Documentary Film

Station Alpha drifted in an area of the Arctic ocean located 500 km north of Barrow, Alaska USA from April 1957 to November 1958; the film covers this entire time period.