Raising the Mammoth Page #3

for digging in the cold.

Finding a woolly mammoth carcass

hidden in the tundra is a rarity.

Preserving it in its frozen state

almost unheard of.

If they succeed, it will be the find

of the century.

Like hunters from another age,

they hope to reap the spoils

of victory.

Radar will provide a two-dimensional

image

of the animal the Dolgans found.

It's programmed to detect the shape

of the mammoth,

the presence of flesh and bones.

Let's go 12 meters to the left side,

and then we go on this way.

If the animal is here,

Bernard wants to dig as close to it

as possible.

Ay, yay, yay yay...

It's very, very clear also that you

have between...

Bernard has enlisted the help of

a Swede named Per Wickstrom,

a specialist in ground-penetrating

radar.

It's the first time this method

will be tried

to take readings in permafrost.

Interesting...

Dolgan will call you shaman

because you can see!

Encouraged by the initial results

Bernard has his team clear away snow

from the research perimeter.

The next radar sweep will be

even more precise.

Per narrows the grid to sections

spaced only inches apart.

Are you ready?

Yes!

Start!

Mark, mark, mark...

He'll use a smaller antenna to

locate shapes called anomalies.

...mark, mark, and finished.

Something's visible on the screen.

There's definitely something

down there.

Boris Lebedev, the outdoorsman

artist and poet

is to Bernard the quintessential man

of the tundra.

Without his calming presence and

his strength,

an expedition in such harsh

conditions would be unthinkable.

A breeder of sled dogs,

Boris admires authors such as

Jack London

and James Fenimore Cooper,

who also chronicled life

on the edge of civilization.

And to hunt a giant in the ice

perhaps a fitting quest.

From the mammoth that you have

begun to...

As the team prepares to break ground

Per interprets the data from the

latest radar surveys.

The findings will determine whether

or not Bernard gives the go-ahead

to carry on with the dig.

The results couldn't be better.

Five, seven, six...

Six, six meters totally.

Six meters totally.

But down quite deep here,

at approximately two point five

to three meter

there is a very large anomaly.

There on the screen is proof that

entombed in the permafrost

is something the size of

a woolly mammoth.

If they can find the ancient animal

imprisoned in the earth,

the plan is to carve a block

around it

build a steel frame under it

and airlift it to Khatanga by helicopter.

Penetrating earth as dense as

concrete is no easy task.

Permafrost, layers of clay,

silt and water compressed over

millennia, give way slowly,

even to the menacing teeth of

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes