Inside Neumayer III: How Engineers Keep Germany’s Antarctic Station Above the Ice

Neumayer III, Germany’s 16‑year‑old Antarctic research station, rests on 16 hydraulic stilts that lift its 20,000‑sq‑ft, 2,200‑ton structure above more than 650 feet of ice. Its two predecessors were abandoned after snow and ice shifts in 1992 and 2008. Technical lead Thomas Schenk shared a viral video showing the team loosen braces, lift bipod legs with hydraulic cylinders, blow snow under them, and realign the station weekly. Using this system developed with IgH, the base is raised about 6.5 feet each summer to maintain a permanent presence on the ice.

11:10 PM, 12/02/2025Science

Inside Neumayer III: How Engineers Keep Germany’s Antarctic Station Above the Ice

More than two weeks have passed since the sun set at Germany’s Neumayer III research station — a reminder of the extreme latitude and the planet’s axial tilt. The 16‑year‑old station operates in a rapidly changing and hazardous environment, where ice‑shelf disintegration and shifting floes have even nudged parts of the facility closer to the ice shelf’s edge.

Neumayer III sits atop more than 650 feet of ice on the Ekström Ice Shelf and is one of roughly 70 permanent research stations on Antarctica. Its two predecessors, Neumayer Station and Neumayer Station II, were vacated in 1992 and 2008 after snow and ice shifts undermined them — lessons that informed the current station’s design.

Rather than resting directly on the snow, Neumayer III is supported by 16 hydraulic stilts that carry the roughly 20,000‑square‑foot, 2,200‑ton building along two parallel steel tubes. That elevated structure lets the base remain operable as the surface beneath it compacts and drifts.

Keeping the station level and above the accumulating snow requires regular, precise maintenance. Engineers periodically loosen horizontal braces, lift individual bipod legs with hydraulic cylinders, clear or blow fresh snow under the raised leg, and then transfer the load back once the leg is set. The process is repeated across legs to preserve balance and level alignment.

"Everything here in Antarctica that isn't built on rock will inevitably sink into the snow sooner or later,"

wrote Swiss engineer Thomas Schenk, the station’s technical lead since 2024, who demonstrated the maintenance routine in a video that has since gone viral.

The 16 stilts are part of a more complex lifting system developed with German engineering firm IgH, which supports the twin steel tubes that bear the building. Schenk says the team aligns the station weekly to keep it perfectly level. "Every now and then, one of these bipods wanders off — then it's time to lift and realign," he says.

According to Schenk, the station is typically raised by about 6.5 feet each summer through this repeated lifting-and-refilling procedure. That combination of deliberate engineering and constant maintenance enables Germany to maintain a permanent research presence in one of Earth's harshest and fastest‑changing regions.

Why it matters: Neumayer III is both a scientific platform and a demonstration of adaptive engineering — a mobile, elevated structure designed to survive in a landscape that is literally shifting beneath it.