Our expedition continues further towards the Bellingshausen Sea in the West, a very rough part of the Antarctic South Pacific Ocean. The Polarstern pushes slowly through pack ice, which is sometimes several metres thick. During the process of navigating around gigantic icebergs, some of them come alarmingly close to the ships hull.
Behind the vessel, a several kilometre long cable is towed along, filled with seismic sensors. Its purpose is to record seismic waves that are generated by huge airguns and reflect of rock layers under the ocean bottom. Hereby, a detailed picture of rock layers down to a depth of up to 10 km under the ocean bottom is created.