The Arctic Affair

In regards to: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7417123.stm

The snowmobiles ranged wide across the shelf,
Of country vast and empty; naught but ice,
Which coldly lingered, left alone with self,
Those men whose visit was like Eurydice,
A quickened sortie, over in a trice,
With one exception: they would soon return,
Not back to Hades, but to somewhere nice,
And leave the barren ice floes there behind,
Although the cracks in them left little peace of mind.