Your watch indicated that only three and a half hours had passed down there for you. Have they told you how long it was up here?
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A member of the Juneau Icefield Research Program, found 15 meters deep at time of discovery.
Item #: SCP-8215
Object Class: Euclid
Special Containment Procedures: Provisional Site Taku has been established around SCP-8215. The Juneau Icefield Research Program (JIRP) has cooperated with Foundation efforts to dissuade exploration of SCP-8215 by the general population. Civilians approaching the Site are to be turned away. Unauthorized access to SCP-8215's containment zone will trigger the on-site alarm system.
Retrieval of SCP-8215-1 instances is to be undertaken with the aid of the JIRP. Priority is given to instances higher up in the crevasse, as well as to Foundation and JIRP personnel.
Instances at a depth exceeding 21 meters are considered lost.
Description: SCP-8215 is a temporal phenomenon localized entirely within a crevasse at Taku Glacier in southeast Alaska, USA. The crevasse measures twenty meters wide at its greatest extent; its depth is estimated to be at least 40 meters, although more accurate measurement is currently impossible.
Any living organism (hereby referred to as SCP-8215-1) — as well as other matter in direct physical contact — which descends the crevasse to a depth of 5 meters or below is subject to alterations in relative time, such that SCP-8215-1 will appear “slower” to outside observers. This effect increases exponentially for every additional meter descended: at 5 meters, one second in SCP-8215-1’s time is equivalent to two seconds on the surface; at 6 meters, one second in SCP-8215-1’s time is equivalent to four seconds on the surface; and so on. Instances of SCP-8215-1 which return to the surface are routinely surprised by the disparity, claiming that their own perception of time was not affected while within the crevasse.
Rescue efforts of SCP-8215-1 instances become increasingly difficult the further they've descended: direct communication becomes nearly impossible, and withdrawal using ropes requires intense force in order to be completed efficiently, although this risks damage to the ropes and injury to the SCP-8215-1 instance.
SCP-8215 first came to Foundation attention in 2007, when agents embedded at the University of Colorado Boulder intercepted communications from the Juneau Icefield Research Project. Three JIRP members had apparently become trapped in the crevasse without apparent cause. MTF Delta-14 ("Winter Wonderland") was dispatched to the Taku Glacier to assess the situation, whereupon they confirmed SCP-8215's anomalous properties. Two of the trapped individuals (Halle Turner and Joseph Kabeya) were rescued within 7 days, as they had only descended 10 meters; the third (Doug Sanders), who had descended 15 meters, required over 10 months of continued efforts to finally retrieve from SCP-8215.
Addendum 8215-A: Attached is a reference sheet for the disparity between surface time and the relative time experienced by SCP-8215-1 instances at given depths.
DEPTH DESCENDED
DISTORTION FACTOR
SURFACE TIME ELAPSED IN ONE SECOND
5 meters
x2
2 seconds
10 meters
x64
1 minute, 4 seconds
15 meters
x2048
34 minutes, 8 seconds
20 meters
x65536
18 hours, 12 minutes, 16 seconds
25 meters
x2097152
24 days, 6 hours, 32 minutes, 32 seconds
30 meters
x67108864
2 years, 46 days, 17 hours, 21 minutes, 4 seconds
35 meters
x2147483648
68 years, 18 days, 3 hours, 10 minutes, 8 seconds
40 meters
x68719476736
2177 years, 215 days, 5 hours, 24 minutes, 16 seconds
Addendum 8215-B: The following interview was conducted with Doug Sanders after his retrieval from SCP-8215.
- Collapse Interview Log
Interviewer: Agent Mamani
Interviewee: Doug Sanders
[BEGIN LOG]
Agent Mamani: Good morning, Doug. How are you feeling today?
Sanders: Physically? Fine. But I'm still really confused.
Agent Mamani: That's understandable. Not a lot of people can say they've experienced what you have.
Sanders: But that's just it. I don't feel like I experienced anything. I went down there, a couple minutes later my rope snaps. I brace myself on the walls of the crevasse. I see two of my team members zip in after me and then vanish just as quickly. And then nothing, until I see that message you left for me.
Agent Mamani: So everything up above looked faster?
Sanders: Lightning fast. Couldn't really make out distinct shapes on the surface. Daylight was coming and going every couple seconds, so I couldn't really see down in the crevasse much either.
Agent Mamani: What could you see?
Sanders: There were definitely things further down. Animals mostly, I think. But they looked like they were floating.
Agent Mamani: Once our rope got to you, and started ascending — did you see anything noteworthy?
Sanders: It seemed like things up top slowed down the higher I climbed. Then just before I got out, they were back to normal. But I didn't see anyone I recognized when I got out, just you all. That was strange.
Agent Mamani: Fair.
Agent Mamani clears her throat and places her clipboard on the table.
Agent Mamani: Your watch indicated that only three and a half hours had passed down there for you. Have they told you how long it was up here?
Sanders: Almost a year, right?
Agent Mamani: Ten months, yes.
Sanders: Jesus. How's Mikayla? How's my wife?
Agent Mamani: Oh, she's doing just fine. Gave birth last month with no complications.
Sanders is silent for 14 seconds.
Sanders: She was pregnant?
[END LOG]