False claim Operation Highjump was to explore Antarctic ‘ice wall’ | Fact check

The claim: Operation Highjump was a mission to find out what was beyond the ‘ice wall’ of Antarctica

A Feb. 24 Facebook video (direct link, archive link) shows a man talking about Antarctica and a 1946 expedition to explore the continent.

“Did you know in 1946 the U.S. government sent a fleet of Navy ships down to the Antarctic ice wall, and not continent, in a little operation called Operation Highjump?” the man says. “They say that operation was about potentially seeking out and destroying a German base down there, but what I believe it was is exploration past the ice wall and seeing what was beyond.”

The video was shared more than 400 times in nearly two weeks. 

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Our rating: False

Historical records show Operation Highjump was a naval operation conducted to establish a base in Antarctica. There is no evidence it was sent to investigate an “ice wall.” There’s overwhelming evidence that Antarctica is a continent, not an ice wall.

Operation Highjump was the largest expedition to Antarctica

Operation Highjump was an expedition to Antarctica led by Rear Admiral Richard H. Cruzen, according to the U.S. Navy. It took place from 1946 to 1947 and was primarily intended to establish the Antarctic research base Little America IV. The operation was the largest naval expedition to the continent in history and involved 13 ships, 23 aircraft and 4,700 men, according to Smithsonian Magazine.

Dozens of documents, photographs, maps and charts related to the expedition can be found in the National Archives and elsewhere. Operation Highjump was also documented in the 1948 film “The SecretLand,” which shows military members in Antarctica during the expedition. None of these historical records provide any evidence of an “ice wall” or any German bases on the continent.

Other objectives of the mission included training Navy personnel, testing equipment in cold conditions and determining the “feasibility of establishing and maintaining bases in the Antarctic,” according to the National Archives and Records Administration.

There is no credible historical evidence that suggests the operation was conducted to explore an “ice wall.”

Evidence shows Antarctica is a continent, not an ‘ice wall’

The Facebook video references the debunked flat Earth conspiracy theory that Antarctica is an “ice wall” surrounding Earth. But there is overwhelming evidence this is not the case.

Glacial geologist Bethan Davies previously told USA TODAY it would be impossible for such a wall to exist without being attached to a landmass.

Antarctica is “fringed by floating ice shelves, which have previously been mistaken by flat earth theorists as these ice walls,” she said. “Ice shelves have to be attached to the mainland. … A circular ice wall would be unstable and due to lack of inflowing glacier ice would rapidly thin and disintegrate.” 

Satellite images also show what Antarctica looks like. The NASA Worldview tool shows a daily picture of what the globe looks like, and users can zoom in on every continent, including Antarctica. The satellite shows that it’s clearly a landmass, not a wall. 

Peter Jacobs, a climate scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, told USA TODAY the center also sent Earth scientists down to Antarctica to collect GPS data to compare it with data taken from a satellite. The scientists’ experiences were shared in a NASA blog called Notes From the Field.

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USA TODAY reached out to the user who shared the post for comment but did not immediately receive a response.

Our fact-check sources:

• Peter Jacobs, March 5, Email interview with USA TODAY
• NASA Worldview Tool, accessed March 5, Global Map
• NASA Worldview Tool, accessed March 5, Antarctica
• NASA Earth Observatory, Jan. 3, 2020, Notes From the Field
• Naval History and Heritage Command, accessed March 7, Polar Exploration
• National Archives, Sept. 27, 2017, Operation Hi-jump: Exploring Antarctica with the U.S. Navy
• National Library of Medicine, September 1947, Army observers’ report of Operation Highjump: Task Force 68, U.S. Navy
• Smithsonian Magazine, July 2007, Operation Highjump
• Syracuse University, accessed March 7, Maps and Cartographic resources: Antarctica – photos & aerial photography
• United States Antarctic Program, Summer 1946-1947, Operation Highjump Photograph
• IMDB, accessed March 7, Photographs and trailer for The Secret Land

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