Sign up for free

Newsletters

Once a month
get new photos
and expert tips.

Photography
Main Photo Galleries Wallpapers Photo of the Day Photographers Photo Tips Buy Prints

Scuba Diver, McMurdo Sound, Antarctica, 1986

A crack in the ice shelf, called a lead, gives a diver access to (and escape from) the frigid waters of Antarctica's McMurdo Sound. Those who brave the water temperatures of 28 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 2.2 degrees Celsius) here are rewarded with unsurpassed visibility and unique sea life that has developed in isolation for some 40 million years.

(Text adapted from and photo shot on assignment for, but not published in, "Under Antarctic Ice," April 1986, National Geographic magazine)

Buy a print of this photo.

Photograph by Bill Curtsinger