flNiTflRClID A NEWS BULLETIN published quarterly by the NEW ZEALAND ANTARCTIC SOCIETY (INC)

A New Zealand geochemist, Dr W. F. Giggenbach, descends into the inner crater of Mt Erebus on December 23 last year in an unsuccessful attempt to take gas samples. Behind him in the lava lake of the volcano where the temperature is 1000deg Celsius. On his rucksack he carries titanium gas sampling rods. Photo by Colin Monteath

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ANTARCTIC September 1979 NEW ZEALAND PLANS FOR SEASON New Zealand's Antarctic research programme for 1979-80 includes the largest project undertaken so far—drilling two holes into the seafloor of McMurdo Sound to obtain core samples of the sediments which will provide a record of the early history of Antarctic glacia tion. Nearly 40 scientists, drillers, and technicians will work on the project, among them guest scientists from Australia, the United States, Japan, and West Germany.

Known as the McMurdo Sound Sedi marine biology. ment and Tectonic Study (MSSTS) the New Zealand will support or take part project was initiated by the Antarctic in other international projects this and Geophysics Divisions, Department season besides MSSTS with the United of Scientific and Industrial Research, States, Japan, and West Germany. A I Victoria University of Wellington. It New Zealand geologist and a field co is an extension of the Dry Valley Drilling ordinator will join the West German ex Project, a programme developed bet pedition to Northern Victoria Land, and ween 1971 and 1975 by scientific organ New Zealanders will work in the Ells isations in the United States, New worth Mountains and the Horlick Zealand, and Japan to obtain a better Mountains with United States scientists. understanding of the Cenozoic geo Japanese scientists will work with New logical history of the McMurdo Sound Zealand support on Mt Erebus and in the dry valleys.

Publication of the September issue of "Antarctic" REMOTE PARTY has been delayed because of the Editor's absence One of the most remote field parties in overseas. Readers will find that some reports refer to the New Zealand programme will be two events in October and early November. scientists from the Soil Bureau, Dr G. G. Claridge and Mr I. B. Campbell. They Cracks in the annual sea ice round the will work with the major United States drilling rig, the presence of gas contain earth science project in the Ellsworth ing 38 per cent methane, and an increase Mountains more than 2100km from in temperature, ended the first attempt Scott Base on the Weddell Sea side of to drill in McMurdo Sound in the the continent. Their investigations will 1975-76 season. Drilling stopped after cover the distribution and chemistry of two weeks when 65m of core had been salts with Ellsworth mountain soils, and recovered. the nature of the chemical weathering This season the New Zealand research process. programme is slightly smaller than last Another remote project is the expedi season's because of economic con tion to the Ohio Range of the Horlick straints. Twelve projects have been Mountains 525km from the South Pole. cancelled, and 145 men and women will Led by Mrs Margaret Bradshaw, the work in the programme compared with Canterbury Museum's geologist, the 167 last year. But all the continuous party will spend more than two months scientific studies are being maintained, in the field to make a sedimentological and the programme covers a wide range and paleo-ecological examination of the of disciplines, including glaciology, Devonian Horlick Formation which out geology, vulcanology, hydrology, and crops only in the Ohio Range. With Mrs September 1979 ANTARCTIC 37

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•: 20 km •;•; •:•:•:•: \ . I C E S H E L F Bradshaw will be Dr Lucy Force and through 2.2m of annual sea ice, and Karl Kellog, of the United States lowered the drill through 180m of water. Geological Survey, and Graeme Ayres, The first core samples were recovered on an Antarctic Division field leader. October 22. The Ohio Range is at 84deg 45min S, Both holes in MSSTS will be drilled to between llldeg and 117deg W, and lies depths of 400m below the seafloor. at the southern end of the Transantarctic MSSTS 1 is expected to pass through Mountains. It is the only locality in An 280m of glacial sediment before reaching tarctica where abundantly fossiliferous "pre-glacial" strata. MSSTS 2 which is marine sediments of Devonian age 16km into New Harbour near the main (345-395 million years) can be found. An supply depot at Rig Point on the main American stratigrapher, Dr W. E. Long, land, will probably be entirely glacial. was the first to discover marine Devo Both holes are expected to penetrate nian fossils in the area in 1958. strata more than 10 million years old. Ohio State University parties worked MSSTS has been planned to obtain a in the Ohio Range during the summers record of the early history of the East of 1969-61 and 1961-62. In 1960-61 they Antarctic ice sheet, and to date its initia discovered five coalbeds ranging in tion in the Ross Sea region. The other thickness from .9m to 3.6m, petrified purpose is to relate the offshore sed tree stems up to 7.3m long, and .6m imentary sequence in McMurdo Sound thick, plant fossils, and tillite, which is to the strata cored inland by DVDP, and till, the unconsolidated material deposit obtain measurements of the rate of ed by glaciers that has become rock. uplift of the Transantarctic Mountains. DRILL SITE Core samples from MSSTS should After weeks of arduous work and five provide a link between the offshore supply trips from Scott Base over 75km sedimentary sequence in the Ross Sea of rough sea ice in temperatures as low drilled by the Glomar Challenger in as minus 45deg Celsius, the first drill site 1973, and the strata cored by DVDP. for MSSTS was established 22km south Traces of natural gas were encountered east of Marble Point. Drilling began on in the Ross Sea drill holes, and small October 18 after the drillers had cut quantities are expected during this ANTARCTIC September! 979 season's drilling. The scientific results of a structural-metamorphic analysis of the the drilling will be useful in assessing the Blue Glacier region. The first phase of hydrocarbons in the McMurdo Sound the project includes detailed study of area although that is not the aim of basement rocks flanking the Blue MSSTS. Glacier. GUEST SCIENTISTS Using motor toboggans and dog Field activities for MSSTS are the sledges, Messrs Findlay, K. Brodie and responsibility of Mr Garth Varcoe, of A. Daly, and G. Hill (field leader) will the Antarctic Division, who is the pro spend 60 days in the field with United ject manager. The science manager is Mr States Navy helicopter support. They Brian Sissons, Victoria University of will visit localities below Mt Lister, and Wellington. There are 10 Ministry of the heads of the Ward, Miers, and Works and Development drillers led by Hobbs Glaciers. If the weather holds Mr Jack Barclay, who is drill supervisor. helicopter support will also be provided Assisting them are six men from VUW. for mapping near Bettle Peak and the Sixteen scientists will participate in mouth of the Blue Glacier. MSSTS, 10 of them being from other This work follows on directly from countries. Two New Zealanders head the mapping done by Dr D. N. B. Skinner scientific teams. They are Dr Peter Bar and Mr Findlay between the Renegar rett, director of the VUW Antarctic and the Blue Glaciers in the 1977-78 research centre, who is responsible for season. It will lead eventually to the MSSTS 1, and Dr Barrie McKelvey compilation of regional geological maps (MSSTS 2). Both have worked as project between the Skelton Glacier and the geologists with DVDP. Dr McKelvey is a Taylor Valley. former VUW geologist, now with the New Zealanders will return to work University of New England, Armidale, on Mt Erebus again this summer in an New South Wales. international project with a United Specialist studies will include measure States party, but no sampling of gases ment of gas composition and the dating from the inner crater of the active of core (Dr K. Komura, geochemist, volcano will be attempted. A small New Kanazawa University), diatoms (Dr H. Zealand group led by Mr Colin Brady, Macquarie University), foramin Monteath, field operations officer, An ifera (Barbara Ward and M. Leckie, tarctic Division, will spend two weeks at paleontologists, Northern Illinois the new summit camp hut after ac University), physical properties of the climatisation at the Fang Glacier. core (P. Froggatt, geophysicist, VUW), SEISMIC STUDIES and paleontological measurements (Dr Two Lands and Survey Department D. Elston, U.S. Geological Survey). surveyors, Messrs C. Fink and M. Dun- Other United States associated with nett, will join the group to continue ef the project are Dr Lyle McGinnis, a forts to make a detailed map of fhe geophysicist from Northern Illinois caldera at the summit of Erebus. Some University, who has been involved in the ground markers were laid around the Dry Valley Drilling Project from the main caldera rim last season ready for beginning, and Dr Hsin Yi Ling (paleon aerial photography by a United States tologist) also from Northern Illinois. Navy Hercules aircraft. More markers Japanese guest scientists are Dr Y. Usa will be laid this season in readiness for and Dr S. Nakaya, and the West Ger photographic runs expected to cover the mans are Dr H. Miller and Professor A. whole Erebus-Cape Royds area. Schmidt. A New Zealand geologist, Dr Philip MAPPING WORK Kyle, now at Ohio State University, who New Zealand's programme of detailed began his studies of Erebus several years geological mapping of the Ross Depend ago, will lead the United States group. ency will be continued this season by There is another New Zealander in the three geologists led by Mr R. H. Findlay, group—a geochemist, Mr J. R. (Harry) of the Antarctic Division, who will make Keys who is on his sixth visit to Antarc-

'-vv September 1979 ANTARCTIC

MSSTS drill camp on the sea ice in McMurdo Sound 22km south-east of Marble Point. Below is one of the camps on the 75km journey from Scott Base to the drill site. Antarctic Division photos. tica. A Japanese member of the group, be in the McMurdo Sound area. They Dr Katsutada Kaminuma, will make a will monitor the McMurdo Ice Shelf survey of small-scale seismic activity at movement poles again, using a dog team the summit and base of Erebus. from Scott Base, and initiate the Volcanic activity associated with the McMurdo Ice shelf pressure roller study. persistent anorthoclase lava lake will be This is a detailed study of the geometry monitored by the American group. It of the pressure rollers and associated will also make audio-visual observations fracture zones near Pram Point. A strain and temperature measurements of the net will be established across the rollers lake, perform heat flow studies, and to study localised deformation. take samples of material ejected from A mapping project for the Cape the active inner crater of the volcano. Evans-Cape Royds area, begun two PRESSURE ROLLERS years ago, will be finished off. This in Most of the work of the surveyors will volves laying out ground markers at ANTARCTIC September! 979 various sites along the Cape Evans-Cape scale weather variations in the Ross Royds coasts, and on the sea ice. Other Dependency. This will be done in co surveying tasks will include laying out operation with the United States meteor building pads for new buildings at Scott ological office at McMurdo Station. Base, and fixing drill sites for MSSTS. This season a physicist and two Vanda Station in the Wright Valley technicians from the physics department will be operated for the summer only. A of the University of Canterbury will programme of daily meteorological ob complete the installation of equipment servations, and measurements of wind at Scott Base and Arrival Heights for and temperature variation in the free air studies of the normal and disturbed above the valley floor will be continued ionospheric D-region Observations will by a team of three led by Mr Gary be recorded automatically during the Lewis. In addition the station will pro winter, and the project is planned to vide support for a Ministry of Works continue for 10 or more years. and Development hydrologist, Mr A. New equipment will be installed for Oliver, and a field assistant, Mr P. Hall, the micropulsations programme at Ar who will have the help of field assistants rival Heights. This programme, which and surveyors, to continue the monitor records minute fluctuations of the ing programme in the dry valleys, docu earth's magnetic field caused by distur menting long and short term climatic bances in the ionosphere, has been variations. operated for several seasons. It will con LAKE LEVELS tinue for another year. To document short-term climatic variations the levels of Lakes Vida, Van ALL-SKY CAMERA da, House, Joyce, Bonney, Henderson, Auroral observations will be con Hoare (formerly Chad) and Fryxell, will tinued with the all-sky camera at Arrival be measured at the beginning and end of Heights, and Dr C. R. Wilson, of the summer. In addition automatic record Geophysical Institute, University of ing of summer water levels will be con Alaska, will continue his observations of tinued on Lakes Bonney and Vanda. On auroral infrasonic waves at Windless Lake Vanda ice thickness and ablation Bight, 27km north-east of Scott Base. measurements will be made as part of This is a joint United States-New the summer water balance. Flow mea Zealand experiment started in the surements for automatic water level re 1976-77 season. corders will be continued on the Onyx By early next year the feeding of hungry snow melters to provide fresh River at both the Lower Wright and water for Scott Base, which has been a Vanda weit sites. full-time job for two men every season For the longer-term climatic varia in the last 23 years, should be a thing of tions glacial measurements will be made. the past. A team of six men from the These will include mass balance studies Ministry of Works and Development on the Heimdall Glacier, comparative will instal a reverse osmosis unit to distill ablation measurements on the Upper fresh water from sea water. This filter Wright, Clark, and Lower Wright Glac plant will produce between 4000 and iers. Photo-theodolite surveys of 16 6000 litres of fresh water daily. In selected glacier margins will continue at reserve is a new ice melter unit installed five-yearly intervals. last season and warmed by waste heat Established laboratory research pro from the powerhouse, which can pro grammes in atmospheric physics and duce 2000 litres of water daily. earth sciences will continue at Scott Base Preparations for the third stage of the and Arrival Heights this season and next base rebuilding programme—the con winter. During the summer a Meteor struction of new sleeping quarters and ological Service technician will carry out ablution facilities for 40 people—will a new programme of studies of weather begin this season. Landscaping and variations in the New Zealand- preparation of building pads for new McMurdo Sound region, and of smaller- buildings will be carried out during the September 1979 ANTARCTIC summer, and materials for the new T'Two representatives of youth organ building will be shipped south by sea. isatiisations will share in the summer team's Courses in basic snowcraft and sur- duti«duties around Scott Base for about a vival techniques will be provided as in monmonth. Mark Aldridge (Boys Brigade) past seasons for United States air crews, andand Lance Risk (Scout Association) will United States Coast Guard icebreaker sailsail 1 from Wellington to McMurdo Sound crews, and American and New Zealand abocaboard the United States Coast Guard research staff. The courses will be con- icebiicebreaker Northwind about the middle ducted by an Antarctic Division field ofof December. E leader and two field assistants.

Winter team at Scott Base A former leader at Scott Base, Mr B. Hagan (24), Palmerston. Fitter- M. M. Prebble, of Nelson, who wintered mechanic. He is an automotive engineer in 1966, is the officer in charge of the with a motor firm in Waikouaiti. New Zealand Antarctic research pro R. Hendry (24), Turangi. Fitter- gramme for the 1979-80 summer. When electrician. He is a construction electri the season ends in February, Mr Prebble cian at Turangi. will hand over his responsibilities to the senior laboratory technician, Mr C. A. L. B. Slattery (26), Christchurch. He Roper, of Christchurch, who will be in is a supervisor in one of the city post of charge for the winter of 1980. fices, and worked at Scott Base in the 1973-74 season. Mr Roper, who is 49, is a senior tech nical officer with the Physics and En A. Hayden (24), Invercargill. Senior gineering Laboratory's Geophysical Post Office technician. He is a radio Observatory, Department of Scientific technician at Invercargill. and Industrial Research. He has worked C. Faber (24), Wellington. Assistant in the sub-Antarctic at the meteor maintenance officer-carpenter and dog ological and ionosphere station on handler. He is a carpenter with a Welling Campbell Island, and has made regular ton construction firm. visits to Scott Base each summer in the course of his duties for several years. Eight men have been selected to winter at Scott Base through 1980 under Mr Roper's leadership. Four are from the North Island, and four from the South Island. Their ages range from 24 to 28. Members of the winter team are: Ross Sea record P. A. Turner (25), Tauranga. Laboratory technician. He is an elec A new record low barometric reading tronics technician with the Ministry of for the Ross Sea of 939.61 millibars was Transport in Tauranga, and was an recorded aboard the Antarctic cruise ionosphere observer on Campbell Island ship Lindblad Explorer just after she in 1976. crossed the international dateline on her voyage from the Antarctic Peninsula to a catering chef with the Royal incw Zealand Air Force at Hobsonville. 942 millibars for the area was made in P. Warren (28), Christchurch. 1934 aboard the Bear of Oakland, one Mechanic. He is a development engineer of the two ships of Byrd's second ex with a Christchurch firm. pedition in 1933-35. ANTARCTIC September 1979 SCOTT BASE LEADER RETURNS A former Scott Base leader has been Before he returned to New Zealand reappointed to the post he held 14 years early in 1968 Mr Prebble was able to ago. Mr Michael Prebble, who has spent cross the Arctic Circle when he worked four summers and one winter in Antarc at the Tarfala glaciological station in tica, will be officer-in-charge for the Sweden which is at 67deg 55min N. He 1979-80 season. also lectured at Bristol and Birmingham Mr Prebble, who is 41, began his Universities on New Zealand research in duties with the Antarctic Division last the Antarctic. month, having been granted leave of Mr Prebble is a long-serving member absence from Nelson College where he is of the New Zealand Antarctic Society, head of the geography department. He the New Zealand Alpine Club, and the was born in Wellington, and is a graduate Tararua Tramping Club. In recent years of Victoria University College of Well he has been responsible for the outdoor ington where be gained his B.A. with education programme at Nelson College. honours in geography in 1961, and his Another member ofthe Prebble family M.A. in 1965. has also worked in the Antarctic. Michael Prebble's brother, Warwick, is a geol In the 1960-61 season Mr Prebble ogist who was a member of the Victoria went south for the first time as one of University of Wellington expedition in the New Zealand Antarctic Society's the 1962-63 season, and leader of the volunteers in the party which restored 1963-64 and 1964-65 expeditions. He is the historic huts on Ross Island. He now a lecturer in geology at the Univer returned the next season as a member of the summer support party at Scott Base, sity of Auckland. and was the dog handler there. Mr Prebble was appointed deputy leader at Scott Base for the 1964-65 season. He was leader for the 1965-66 season, and remained at Scott Base for the 1966 winter. Late in 1965 he became the second New Zealander to visit the Soviet station, Vostok, as a passenger aboard a United States Navy Hercules aircraft which flew from McMurdo Sta tion. After his winter at Scott Base Mr Prebble took up a Rotary Foundation fellowship awarded to him in 1965 to study polar research overseas for a year. He received the fellowship after the publication of his thesis on New Zealand field activities in Antarctica. Mr Prebble spent the 1966-67 academic year at Darwin College, Cambridge, and studied Antarctic geography and glaci ology at the Scott Polar Research In stitute. His studies also included a com parison of New Zealand field work in the Ross Dependency with the British Antarctic Survey's work in Graham Land, and winter work at Scott Base. MIKE PREBBLE September 1979 ANTARCTIC SUMMER FIELD PROJECTS New Zealand scientists will work in the Ellsworth Mountains on the Weddell Sea side of the Continent, and in the Horlick Mountains 525 km from the South Pole this season. Closer to Scott Base, others will work at the summit of Mt. Erebus, on the Ross Ice Shelf, and in the dry valleys of Victoria land. They are members of field parties in the Antarctic research programme for the 1979-80 summer which, in cluding support and construction activities, will call on the services of up to 145 men and women. Research will be conducted by scien tists from four New Zealand universities, and the programme will draw on staff There are eight women in the pro gramme this season, two of them, Dr from the Antarctic Division, Geophysics Lucy Force and Barbara Ward, from the Division, Physics and Engineering Lab United States. Dr Force will work with oratory, New Zealand Oceanographic Margaret Bradshaw in the Ohio Range, Institute, Soil Bureau, Meteorological and Barbara Ward, who is a paleon Service, Lands and Survey Department, tologist, will be one of the guest scien Post Office, National Film Unit, Minist tists with MSSTS. ry of Works and Development, New Zealand Army, and the Royal New Two of the eight women will be engag Zealand Air Force. The programme will ed in studies of the marine ecosystem also include guest scientists from under the permanent ice of the Ross Ice Australia, United States, West Ger Shelf with the University of Canterbury party. One is Jane Fournier, who spent many, Canada and Japan. last summer on general duties at Scott Men and women in the programme will work at or from Scott Base, on the Base; the other is Lynley Pierce. Ross Ice Shelf, in Victoria Land, and in McMurdo Sound. New Zealanders will work with Americans in the Ellsworth Mountains, and in the Ohio Range of the Horlick Mountains. They will also work with Americans on Mt. Erebus, and with Japanese in the dry valleys. Vanda Station in the Wright Valley, 130 km west of Scott Base, is basically a summer station, but winter parties have worked there in 1969, 1970 and 1974. This season it will be operated again for the summer only by a team of three men led by Mr Gary Lewis, who wintered at Vanda in 1970. GARY LEWIS A major contribution to the main pro Members of the summer staff at Scott ject in the New Zealand research pro Base are Leigh Muggeridge and Greta gramme—the McMurdo Sound Sedi Barnhardt. While the cook, Warwick ment and Tectonic Study—will be made Bull, is with the MSSTS team in McMur this season by the Ministry of Works do Sound, Leigh Muggeridge will in and Development. It has provided a clude cooking for the Scott Base team in team of 10 drillers who will drill two her general duties. Greta Barnhardt's holes in the McMurdo Sound sediments, general duties will include running the working from a drilling rig based on sea base canteen. Mrs Thelma Rodgers of the Physics opment. Glaciology and hydrology in and Engineering Laboratory, who was the dry valley area. A. Oliver, P. Hall the first New Zealand woman to winter (field assistant). in the Antarctic this year, will return to Lands and Survey Department. Two Scott Base later this season. She will surveyors will work on a variety of pro continue the observations she made last jects at Scott Base, Cape Evans and summer and during the winter. Cape Royds, on the McMurdo Ice Shelf, SCOTT BASE on Mt Erebus, and in the dry valleys. C. M. M. Prebble, Nelson. Leader. Fink, M. Dunnett. E. W. Robinson, Christchurch. NZ Oceanographic Institute. Study of Deputy-leader. He is 40 and has been in super-cooled water through ice holes on the Police Force since 1967. In Christ Ross Ice Shelf. P. Wilson, R. Goldring church he is a search and rescue (field assistant). Sampling of phyto- specialist. plankton in McMurdo Sound either through ice or in waters off permanent D. Reese, Te Anau. Assistant main ice edge. Dr D. Burns, J. Mitchell, J. tenance officer. McConchie and R. Goldring (field R. J. Thompson, Nelson. Assistant assistants). maintenance officer. Meteorological Service. Observation R. Matheson, Tapanui. Assistant programmes at Scott Base and Vanda maintenance officer. Station. Scott Base, M. Sinclair. Vanda Station, G. Leech. G. Keown, Palmerston North. Store National Film Unit. A team of four keeper. will visit Scott Base and field parties to M . R . S i n c l a i r , D u n e d i n . produce three films: a general film for Meteorological officer. Antarctic Division, and a major two- N. S. Roberts, Christchurch. Inform part scientific documentary for world ation officer. wide television release. The documen tary will be made with the Canadian Greta Barnhardt, Wanaka. General Broadcasting Commission's co duties. operation. L. Diggle, M. Rathbone, B. Leigh Muggeridge, Napier. Assistant Watson, G. Morris and an Antarctic cook. Division field assistant. W. Zwart, Wellington. Post Office Physics and Engineering Laboratory. technician. Continuation of upper atmosphere studies at Scott Base and Arrival J. Ross, Motueka. Post Office clerk. Heights. Seismic studies, and VANDA STATION measurements of low frequency radio G. H. Lewis, Christchurch. Leader. signals. C. A. Roper, P. Turner. He is a 40-year-old senior technical Antarctic Division. Structural- officer with the Physics and Engineering metamorphic analysis of the Blue Laboratory's Geophysical Observatory Glacier region in continuance of New in Christchurch. His first summer at Zealand's programme of detailed geo Vanda was in 1969-70, and he was senior logical mapping of the Ross Depend technical officer there for the 1970 ency. R. H. Findlay (leader), K. Brodie, winter. He returned for six weeks in the A. Daly (geologists), G. Hill (field 1973-74 season, and was at Scott Base in leader). 1976-77. Adelie penguin census at Cape Royds G. P. Leech, Wellington. Meteor ological observer. rookery, a site of special scientific in terest, by Scott Base staff for annual J. Robinson, Dunedin, Meteorological reports to Scientific Committee on An technician. tarctic Research and Antarctic Treaty University projects are outlined else nations. Continuation of Weddell seal where. Other projects and the partici population census in Scott Base to Cape pants are: Ministry of Works and Devel Royds region. September 1979 ANTARCTIC Snowcraft and survival training for technical staff from Antarctic Division, United States and New Zealand staff. H. Victoria University of Wellington, Logan (field leader), K. Woodford, D. Geophysics Division, and drillers from Thomson (field assistants). Ministry of Works and Development. Scott Base staff will continue at the Guest scientists from Japan, West Ger base and Arrival Heights the University many, Australia and United States. of Canterbury mechanical engineering Geology of Ohio Range in Horlick department project to determine the ef Mountains. Canterbury Museum project fect and degree of atmospheric corro to make a sedimentological and paleo- sion on aluminium. ecological examination of Devonion Antarctic Division, Victoria Universi Horlick Formation of Ohio Range. Mrs ty of Wellington. Professor A. J. W. Margaret Bradshaw (Canterbury Taylor, professor of clinical psychology, museum geologist), Dr Lucy Force and will continue psychological testing of K. Kellog (United States), G. Ayres Scott Base winter teams (1979 and 1980). (field leader). International projects. A small New Ellsworth Mountains project. Dr G. Zealand group will join a United States Claridge and Mr I. Campbell, Soil party led by Dr P. Kyle for two weeks Bureau, D.S.I.R., will spend two weeks for observations on Mt Erebus from the with the major United States earth new summit camp hut. Two surveyors science project to study distribution and will continue efforts to make a detailed chemistry of salts with Ellsworth moun map of the summit caldera. Antarctic tain soils, and nature of chemical Division, C. Monteath (field leader), C. weathering process. Fink, M. Dunnett (surveyors), H. Logan A Japanese Antarctic Research Ex (field assistant). pedition party will work in the dry McMurdo Sound Sediment and Tec valleys with New Zealand assistance. Dr tonic Study. Two holes will be drilled in T. Torii will continue geochemical the McMurdo Sound sediments to ob studies, assisted by Mr S. Saito. Dr K. tain a record of the early history of the Komura is the third member of the par East Antarctic ice sheet. Scientific and ty.

Four huskies die at Scott Base

Scott Base now has a husky popula In the winter of 1911 the original Julik tion of 17, including three pups. This is disappeared from Cape Evans for a two less than last season because of month. He came back late on the night deaths during the winter. Three dogs, of August 27, but where he had been Huke, Hone, and Teia, died, and also since July 27 remained a mystery. Kate, a five-year-old bitch. Three pups from a litter of seven born on Junel4 Julik was sighted by Gran and Pont were retained. ing coming over an ice floe from the Nimrod, Rehua, and Julik, the pups, north. His ruff was coated with seal have an Australian father. Their mother blood, he smelt strongly of blubber, and is Karen, and the father is Dick, one of he had a full stomach. He greeted the two huskies from Mawson, which were two men with intense joy, and Scott flown south last season. therefore did no believe he had been a Maori and Antarctic-flavoured names wilful absentee. have been given to the new arrivals. When Demitri Gerov, the Russian dog Rehua is named after the Maori god of driver, and the cook, Tom Clissold, kindness; Nimrod bears the name of made a journey to Cape Royds later they Shackleton's first ship; and Julik carries found dog footprints, but did not con on the name of one of the best dogs in sider they were Julik's. Demitri believed Scott's last expedition. that the husky had been further west. ANTARCTIC September 1979 Universities' part in drilling project Scientists from New Zealand, United States, Australian, Japanese, and West German universities will play a major part in one of the main projects in the New Zealand Antarctic research programme this summer—the drilling of two holes below the seafloor of McMurdo Sound to obtain a record of the early history of Antarctic glaciation. The Antarctic research centre of Victoria University of Wellington has provided scientific and technical staff for the joint effort with the Antarctic Division, Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, and the Ministry of Works and Development, and has been responsible for the co-ordination of scientific projects in the programme, which is called the McMurdo Sound Sediment and Tec tonic Study.

Four universities—Auckland, Waikato, strata. Victoria and Canterbury—have con Dr B. McKelvey, University of New tributed teams to this seaon's pro England, New South Wales and Dr gramme. Field parties will study coal Howard Brady, of Macquarie Universi measures in south Victoria Land and the ty, will investigate the fabric and marine ecosystem under the permanent petrology of scattered Cenozoic glacial ice of the Ross Ice Shelf, and make a deposits at Coombs Hills. These were count of Adelie penguins and skuas at deposited by temperate glaciers before Cape Bird. Some scientists will conduct the development of the East Antarctic upper atmosphere research near Scott ice sheet, and fabric data from them will Base. Others will continue work done indicate flow direction of the ancient during past seasons in the dry valleys glaciers while petrology will indicate the and their lakes west of Scott Base or source of the debris. The scientists will study the adaptation to cold of fish in have the support of Jack McConchie, an the waters of McMurdo Sound. Antarctic Division field assistant. After the completion of the drilling In the Lower Wright and Taylor programme members of the 24th VUW Valleys they will sample basement rocks expedition and scientists from other na for fission track dating to determine an tions will participate in a number of pro uplift rate for the Transantarctic Moun jects. VUW students Alex Pyne, Alan tains. Ross, and Barry Walker, will continue A study of mass movement processes the detailed study of the Weller Coal (slope processes) will be made in the Measures at Mt Fleming which was Pearce and Beacon Valleys by the VUW started in the 1978-79 season. The pur students, Ian Wright and David pose of the study is to determine a model Waghorn. Aerial photographs show for the deposition of Permian coal geomorphological features which may measures in southern Victoria Land. be related to earlier glaciers or present Mapping at Mt Fleming will be com day slope processes. The study will in pleted this season, and a comparison volve field mapping to establish area, made with equivalent strata at Shapeless volume, and the character of the mass Mountain. Correlation between these movement features. areas will show the type, thickness, and extent of the coal seams within the Early in February next year three September 1979 ANTARCTIC VUW geophysicists, Brian Sissons, Paul Ray Goldring, which will monitor the White, and Colin Brown, will join with primary productivity in the water col Dr David Bennett, Geophysics Division, umn over the summer period and study DSIR, for a seismic study in the area of the dynamics of the pelagic ecosystem at the MSSTS drill sites. They will work the edge of the Ross Ice Shelf. from the United States Coast Guard ice A field station will be established in breaker Glacier, and Dr Heinz Miller, a the centre of McMurdo Sound at the West German scientist, will also take edge of the permanent ice over about part in the project. The purpose of the 300m of water. This will be at approx work is to determine the shallow struc imately the same site as was occupied in ture in McMurdo Sound by seismic pro the 1971-72 season, and will provide a filing of the sequence along the coast of comparison of the work carried out at southern Victoria Land, and the area White Island. It will also enable an bounded by Cape Bird, Franklin Island, estimate to be made of the transport of Cape Roberts, and the Drygalski Ice detritus, phytoplankton, and zooplank Tongue. ton under the Ross Ice Shelf. A gravity and magnetic survey in Before the shelf ice station is set up McMurdo Sound and the Taylor Valley two members of the party will be flown will be made by a VUW party, and scien to Cape Bird by helicopter. There they tists from the United States and West will make the annual Adelie penguin anc' Germany. In the first stage gravity skua census, and complete the compila measurements combined with seabed tion of rookery maps. sediment sampling will be carried out at one to two kilometre intervals between Dr Andrew von Biel, and two techni MSSTS 1 and Cape Royds, and Between cians from the physics department, MSSTS 2, and into the mouth of the Graham Lees and Ray Borrell, will com Taylor Valley. This will be done by plete the installation of all transmitting Brian Sissons, Dr Lyle McGinnis, of and receiving equipment needed for Northern Illinois University, and two of studies of the normal and disturbed his students, and Dr Heinz Miller. The ionospheric D-region at Scott Base. Antarctic Division field assistant will be Antennae for this study were erected at Roy Arbon. Arrival Heights last season. Gravity measurements will also be taken from Depot Nunatak on the Up MAGNETIC STORMS per Taylor Glacier down to the snout of Predominant among several different the Taylor Glacier at Lake Bonney. This areas of investigation in the project are: will be followed by readings in the Lower Taylor Valley at Lake Fryxell to (1) determination of D-region electron density profiles on a diurnal as well as link up with readings taken during the seasonal basis; (2) investigation of the first stage. Brian Sissons, Roy Arbon, anomalies of the Antarctic ionosphere, and Tim Stern (VUW) will use a motor particularly of polar cap absorption, toboggan and two dog sledges in the low-altitude ionisation, and magnetic project, and will have helicopter sup storms; (3) study of ionospheric winds port. and the effects on wave motion. MARINE ECOSYSTEM Observations will be recorded automatically next winter and retrieved Canterbury University's zoology during the summer for analysis. The sta department will continue studies of the tion, which will be the only one of its marine ecosystem under the permanent kind jn Antarctica, will be linked with ice cover ofthe Ross Ice Shelf. Professor the physics department's station near George Knox will lead a team of six— Christchurch, and an Australian station. Graham Wilson, Jane Fournier, Lynley Geochemical studies of lakes in the Pierce, C. Kennedy, P. Bradfield, and dry valleys will be continued by scientists an Antarctic Division field assistant, from the University of Waikato. Dr C ANTARCTIC September 1979 Hendy, M. Lawrence, and C. Rickard, will work in the Lake Fryxell area of the Support by air Taylor Valley. They will use the Antarc tic Division's drill to drill a series of forces holes at intervals of one kilometre bet United States, New Zealand and ween the Dry Valley Drilling Project Site Australian aircraft will provide logistic 11 (Commonwealth Glacier) and DVDP support again for their respective Site 12 (Lake Hoare). This will be done research programmes this season. In late in an attempt to trace the sub-surface November and early December Hercules stratigraphy of the glacio-marine tills aircraft of the Royal New Zealand Air recovered from DVDP 12. A short excur Force and the Royal Australian Air sion will also be made to the Miers and Force will share in the airlift of men and Marshall Valleys to evaluate the future materials from Christchurch to McMur study of dating glacial events in the do Station which United States Air Koettlitz Glacier area. Force Starlifters began early in October. Another Waikato team will study the New Zealand's contribution to the ecology and in situ physiology of United States-New Zealand logistic pool bacteria, algae, fungi, lichens, and has been reduced this year. No. 40 minute animals such as protozoans and Squadron will make nine flights in collembolans in and around Lakes Fryx Operation Ice Cube, three less than last ell and Vanda. Drs A. Green and C. season. Australian aircraft will operate Harfoot, and N. Rogers, will be joined through Christchurch and contribute to by W. Vincent, of the Ecology Division, the pool under a tripartite agreement DSIR. They will use the hut at Lake which provides for Australian scientists Fryzell where a temporary greenhouse to be flown from McMurdo Station to will be erected to aid their physiological Casey Station. studies of algae. This season the RAAF will make four flights from Christchurch to McMurdo BUSY FISHERMEN Station, using its C130H Hercules air Two members of the team, Dr Green craft for what it calls Operation Snow- and Mr Rogers, will join the New flake. In return the United States naval Zealand and United States groups at the support force will make two flights to new summit camp hut on Mt Erebus. Casey Station with Australian National Antarctic Research Expeditions scien They will do more work on a green algae which inhabits some of the warm soil tists. areas on the volcano. These flights of 2200km by United States Navy ski-equipped Hercules air Fishermen will be busy again in craft of VXE-6 Squadron will use an ice McMurdo Sound this season. They are runway about 12km inland from Casey New Zealanders who fish through holes Station on the Polar Plateau. Two more in the sea ice in the cause of science. A flights will be made to Casey Station ear team of four from the zoology depart ly next year to bring back Australian ment of the University of Auckland will scientists. continue work on Antarctic fishes and As in past seasons two RNZAF heli invertebrates which began in the 1977-78 copter crews will be attacked to the season. Dr J. McDonald and Dr J. Mon United States Navy's VXE-6 Squadron tgomery will make experiments related and fly on support missions. New to the neuro-physical adaptation of the Zealand will also supply loading crews fish and invertebrates to constant low during the airlift, and Army cargo temperatures, and Dr R. Wells and D. handlers will work at Williams Field Hayman will seek more information near McMurdo Station. about the oxygen affinity of haemo globin at low temperatures in the blood of Antarctic fish. They will also look at haemoglobin cells from the Weddell seal.

■ ■■ tfmrl< V* ^m September 1979 ANTARCTIC Mushrooms, melons, and mail on ice A winter mail and supply drop — the minus 55deg Celsius. There was no wind first for five years — was made to the 72 at ground level but there was some fog. men wintering at McMurdo Station on The drop was made from a height of July 14. In the cargo of fresh fruit and 304m to give the parachutes on the con vegetables, mail, medical supplies, and tainers more time to open. essential equipment, carried by a United Because of the intense cold the States Air Force Starlifter, there were chemical lights on the containers failed also between 90kg and 136kg of mail for to function, although they worked when the 11 men and one woman at Scott they were retrieved and taken inside at Base. McMurdo Station. Another effect of the Just over two tonnes of the Starlifter's cold was that about five per cent of the load of 4.2 tonnes were fresh fruit and fresh food froze by the time the con vegetables which the 71 Americans and tainers were retrieved. But 90kg of one Soviet exchange scientist at McMur precious tomatoes arrived on the ice un do Station had not tasted for more than damaged, winning one the American four months. There were mushrooms cargo handlers a bet of six cans of beer. and rock melons, tomatoes, lettuce, Both the Americans and the New cucumbers, spring onions, oranges, Zealanders received other reading mat bananas, apples, pears, lemons, and ter besides their letters from home. kiwifruit. Staple foods such as cabbage, Packed in one container dropped from potatoes, onions, and carrots, made up the Starlifter were recent copies of the 906kg of the cargo. Christchurch morning and evening All the cargo, which included 537kg newspapers, and specially for Mrs of mail and 665kg of essential spare Thelma Rodgers, the first New Zealand woman to winter at Scott Base, the latest parts, was packed into 24 containers at Christchurch by United States and New copies of a New Zealand women's Zealand Army cargo handlers. Chemical magazine. lights were attached to the containers to A Royal New Zealand Air Force make them easier to retrieve in the Orion of No. 5 (Maritime) Squadron winter darkness of Williams Field on the made the first winter mail delivery to Ross Ice Shelf. Antarctica on August 1, 1973. It flew from Dunedin to McMurdo Station and " eIn left-handpreparation side for of the skiwaydrop 914m was oflit back. Six mail bags attached to small parachutes were dropped on the ice run y flares every 76m. The lights of way of Williams Field. The Orion car McMurdo Station and Scott Base were ried 381kg of personal mail, a container switched on before the Starlifter's ar of special medicine, and a plastic part to rival, and buildings at the American base were illuminated by two outside flood repair one of McMurdo Station's four washing machines. lights. On August 8, 1974, another With five cargo handlers aboard — R.N.Z.A.F. Orion flew from Dunedin two from the United States Army and and delivered 498kg of mail and some three from the New Zealand Army — scientific equipment to McMurdo Sta the Starlifter left Christchurch at 7 a.m. tion. Nine canvas mail bags were drop and arrived over the drop zone shortly ped by parachute. Inside were letters, after 11.30 a.m. The drop began at 11.50 newspapers, and cassettes with personal a.m. and was completed at 12.18 p.m., messages for the winter teams at the Starlifter making five passes over the McMurdo Station and Scott Base. target before it headed back to Christchurch where it landed at 6.15 p.m. When the Starlifter arrived over the skiway the temperature on the ice was ANTARCTIC September 1979 ANARE'S FUTURE Study for fourth base on continent Any substantial increase in Australia's scientific research pro gramme in Antarctica is opposed by the Australian Science and Technology Council. The council has made a recommendation to this effect in its annual report which was tabled in the House of Represent atives on September 20 by the Prime Minister (Mr Malcolm Fraser). In an appendix to its report the coun in Melbourne and Hobart. Until the cil notes that the bulk of expenditure on Government decides final planning of Australia's Antarctic programme is the laboratories cannot begin. devoted simply to maintaining a This winter Australia has 87 men presence in the territory to which it lays wintering at the three stations on the An claim. However, the council offers no tarctic Continent — Mawson, Casey, objection to a feasibility study for a and Davis — and on sub-Antarctic Mac- fourth Australian station on the contin quary Island. An auroral physicist, ent as put forward by the Minister for N. N. Voloshinov, who is the Soviet ex Science (Senator James Webster). change scientist at Mawson, brings the Because the Australian Government total to 88, the largest number for the has not yet decided on the future role of last 10 years. The original number of 89 the Antarctic Division of the Depart was reduced when the deputy officer-in- ment of Science and the Environment, it charge at Casey died of exposure early in has deferred the calling of tenders for August after being caught in a blizzard. the construction of two laboratory There are 30 men at Mawson, 24 at blocks in the new headquarters at Casey, 15 at Davis, and 19 on Macquarie Kingston 10km south of Hobart. Work Island. Of the 88 men 29 have had one on the construction of the headquarters year or more in the Antarctic before. began early this year. Present plans call for the division to be fully operational at Sixty-eight are employed by the Antarc tic Division, 15 by the Bureau of Kingston in time for the 1981-82 season. Meteorology, one by the Bureau of A contract for $6,918,451 has been let Mineral Resources, Geology and to a Hobart firm which will construct Geophysics, and one each by the Divi three separate, but linked, low-rise sion of National Mapping, Ionospheric buildings. These will house offices, Prediction Service, and the Tasmanian display and conference areas, work National Parks and Wildlife Service. shops and stores for the Antarctic Divi sion, and a fourth building will house A major effort last season was a the Tasmanian regional office of the spring traverse from Casey which suc Australian Government Analytical cessfully extended the International Laboratories. Glaciological Project network to 74deg When hearings were held in 1977 by 13min South some 1000km inland. Dur the Parliamentary Public Works Com ing the traverse new satellite positioned mittee on the merits and demerits of markers were established and old ones remeasured. Strain grids were set up, an moving the division from Melbourne almost continuous recording of ice suggestions were made that three of the four scientific disciplines allotted space thickness was made, ice cores were ob in the preliminary plans for the tained from depths up to 10m, and part of the old IAGP line was resurveyed. laboratory blocks (glaciology, cosmic ray physics and upper atmosphere Early in September the seven members physics) could be located at universities of the traverse party left Casey. They September 1979 ANTARCTIC used three D5 prime movers to haul a men celebrated the occasion with a bar variety of sledges, and operated as two becue high on the Polar Plateau. The units for much of the trip to speed up the day was perfect, but the beer had to be work of establishing new movement heated on the barbecue with the steaks markers. The two tractor trains met at and sausages. 74deg I3min S on November 20, and On the 1976-77 traverse along the line began the return journey the next day. Mirny-Pioneerskaya-Dome C the Soviet On December 23 the traverse party arriv team reached a point about 500km from ed at Casey after having travelled some the Dome C camp. Last season the 2000km and spent 18 weeks in the field. traverse was able to extend the line of FIRST NETWORK glaciological ice movement markers to Australia's IAGP network was first Dome C. Neal Young reports that when established in 1973. Satellite positioning the party reached the vicinity of the equipment was used to locate thc posi camp at dusk almost everything was ob tions of numerous poles to within one or scured by the huge spreading cloud of two metres of the earth's surface. Other exhaust from the tractors. markers were then tied to these points An astro-fix on three stars faintly vis and each other, using tellurometer and ible in the twilight gave an accurate theodolite survey equipment. After longitude. After a chilly night with a parties from the 1975 and 1976 Casey temperature of minus 60deg Celsius, the expeditions added to the network it party found the camp exactly where it stretched to 69deg S from the summit of was expected the next day when the Law Dome. breeze was from a different direction. Observations made by the 1975 and When the Soviet party arrived the 1976 parties enables rates of ice move camp had been deserted for three weeks, ment (up to 150m a year), snow accum but the French and American parties ulation (more than two metres a year in who worked there last season had left a some places), ice thickness, and other in welcome bundle in the French "restaur formation, to be obtained. This con ant" — cognac, chocolate, cigarettes, tributed significantly to scientific and a case of whisky. There was also a knowledge of the East Antarctic ice letter from Dr Richard Cameron, glac sheet. iology programme manager for the The main objective of last season's United States National Science Founda- traverse programme was to extend the network to about 74deg S/112deg E, crossing the Soviet Mirny-Dome C traverse route. Ice movement markers Retirement of director had been set up along the latter route by an Antarctic Division geologist Neal After six years as director of the An tarctic Division of the Australian Young, who spent the 1976-77 and 1977-78 summers with the Soviet An Department of Science and the Environ tarctic expeditions. ment Dr R. I. Garrod has retired on medical grounds. He began sick leave on Before the two tractor trains met at April 2 this year. Mr C. McCue, head of 74deg 13min S one travelled to GM13, a the department's Ionospheric Prediction station set up along the Mirny-Dome C Service, has been appointed acting direc traverse line. There the party found a tor. cache left by Neal Young, which con tained sweets, Russian food, a bottle of Dr Garrod became director on May 8, 1972. Since then he has visited each whisky and a cassette tape made on the Nella Dan a year earlier. Neal Young's Australian station by sea, and returned observations made there indicate that to Casey by air last January on the first the surface ice in the region is moving at flight, from McMurdo Station by a United States Navy Hercules aircraft. around seven metres a year. He also visited McMurdo Station and When the two tractor trains reached the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station their furthest south position the seven twice, flying south from New Zealand. ANTARCTIC September 1979 Deaths of two ANARE members

Two members of Australian National crop about 10km from Casey, to under Antarctic Research Expeditions have take maintenance and biological obser died this year, one last summer after be vations. On August 5 he was moving in ing seriously injured in a fall on Mac the camp precincts when he was caught quarie Island, and the other near the An in a sudden blizzard which reached a tarctic station, Casey. They were Roger speed of 96 knots. Barker, aged 29, of Adelaide, and Geof Other members of the party found frey Basil Reeve, aged 40, of Blacke- Geoffrey Reeve unconscious less than a hurst, New South Wales. kilometre from the camp. A search and Mr Barker, an Antarctic Division rescue team, including the medical of biologist, was seriously injured when he ficer, Dr K. de Jonge, was sent from fell 15m from a cliff on Macquarie Casey by tractor, and brought Mr Reeve Island while studying albatrosses on back to the station. Further resuscitation January 3. ("Antarctic, March, 1979, attempts were unsuccessful. Page 331). He was transferred by heli Mr Reeve's family asked that his body copter to the guided-missile destroyer be returned to Australia for burial. It Hobart which brought him to Hobart on will be flown out from Casey on one of Janauary 10. After a series of operations the two flights which a United States there and in Melbourne he died on Navy Hercules will make from McMurdo Febrary 8. Station in the first week of November. After a year as a teacher Roger Barker, who held a B.Sc. honours degree in zoology, joined the Antarctic Division in 1974 as a biologist. He went south to Davis in the summer of 1974-75 and re Longer Australian mained there for the winter. At the end season of 1976 he returned to Davis for the Nine members of the Australian Na summer and continued his studies of tional Antarctic Research Expeditions water chemistry. (ANARE) have arrived at Casey Station During the return voyage from Davis nearly three months earlier than usual, early in 1977 the Nella Dan called at the and by air instead of ship. The six Bunger Hills, a coastal "oasis" roughly members of the building crew and three halfway between Mirny and Casey. scientists are the first ANARE men to be Roger Barker was one of four expedition transported to Antarctica under the tri members who went ashore by helicopter partite agreement with the United States and spent five hours in the "oasis". He and New Zealand. collected lake water, soil, algae, moss, A United States Air Force Starlifter and lichens, and visited the then unman flew the nine men from Christchurch to ned Polish station in the area. Originally McMurdo Station where they transfer called Oasis it was renamed Dobrowol red to a United States Navy ski-equipped ski and occupied last summer. During Hercules for the flight to Casey Station. 1977 Roger Barker produced an illust Previously all Australian Antarctic staff rated account of the visit, including were transported to their stations by ship some of the biological results. near the end of January each year. Geoffrey Reeve died of exposure after Under the new arrangement base staff he became lost in a blizzard 10km from and scientists will benefit from an ex Casey. He was the senior electrical fitter- tended summer season by almost three mechanic at the station, and deputy months. officer-in-charge. Proving flights to Casey Station were Early in August Mr Reeve was one of made from McMurdo Station last six members of the winter party who January. A second flight is planned for camped at Robinson Ridge, a rock out the middle of January next year.

•■r-vv September 1979 ANTARCTIC West German expeditions to Antarctic

West Germany will send expeditions to the Weddell Sea and Nor thern Victoria Land this season. One will make preliminary investi gations ofthe site for the German Federal Republic's first permanent research station on the Ronne Ice Shelf near Berkner Island; the other will spend more than two months on a geological and geophys ical survey in Northern Victoria Land, supported by New Zealand helicopters. In addition West German scientists from Hanover and Munster will work with the United States research programme in the Ellsworth Mountains.

GANOVEX 79, the expedition to Ice conditions off the Pennell Coast Northern Victoria Land, has been plan will determine the progress of the ned by the Federal Institute of Geos Schepelstrum, which is expected to sail ciences and Resources (BGR), and has from Timaru for the Antarctic in the been organised by Dr Franz Tessensohn. first week of December. She will work It will use the chartered ice-strengthened first off the Tapsell Foreland ofthe Pen ship Schepelstrum as a floating base nell Coast, and then, provided there is from which a field camp for geological open water, will move in to Cape and geophysical studies will be estab Moore, and then to Smith Inlet where lished on the Lillie Glacier this summer. she will remain as the expedition's float To support eight geologists in the field ing base until last in February next year. the BGR has chartered two Hughes Fuel, supplies, and equipment for the 500D helicopters from a New Zealand field camp will be transported 150km in commercial firm, Helicopters (N.Z.) land from Cape Moore by the BGR Ltd. In addition New Zealand has pro Sikorsky helicopter, which can carry 16 vided an experienced field guide for the passengers or 2.5 tonnes of cargo on expedition, and one of three guest scien each trip. A small permanent hut about tists in the field party is Dr D. N. B. 6m by 3.6m will be erected on the lower Skinner, of the New Zealand Geological part of the Lillie Glacier close to Mt Survey, who has spent three summers in Mulock in the Posey Range. Antarctica. In the latter part of the season the fore the Schepelstrum arrives at geological party, which includes an Timaru early in December from Japan Australian guest scientist, Mr D. where some reconstruction has been " »ne to accommodate her three heli- Wyborn, of the Commonwealth Bureau of Mineral Resources, and a United >, all members of the expedition win spend about 10 days at Mt Cook States geologist, Dr T. Wright, of "'here they will take part in a snowcraft Allegheny College, will work within a ..jd survival course. The course, which radius of 180km from the field camp in will be held in.late November, has been largely unexplored country. Tent camps will be established, and will be supported organised by the expedition's field guide, Mr Gary Ball. He is a highly ex by 'he two New Zealand helicopters. perienced mountaineer and alpine guide, GANOVEX 79 has been planned to and was field leader of the snowcraft continue for two more seasons. The and survival course conducted by the BGR contract with Helicopters (N.Z.) Antarctic Division at Scott Base in the Ltd, is for the provision of helicopter 1976-77 season. support for three years, and is reported to be worth about $1 million a year to have to study the structure and move the New Zealand company. In the ment of the ice shelf, bearing in mind 1981-82 season the West German pro that the estimated life of the base will be gramme is expected to tie in with the eight years. The edge of the shelf where New Zealand-Australian-United States the station will be built also presents expedition to Northern Victoria Land. special problems. It is between 10 and 30 metres above sea level, and plunges To provide weather forecasts for the field party, and exchange meteorological steeply into the sea. information with McMurdo Station and Attempts will be made this season to Scott Base the West German expedition develop methods of blasting an ap will have a weather station on board the proach ramp on to which cargo can be Schepelstrum, which has been equipped unloaded. An ice-going cargo ship will with facsimile equipment, and a receiver take all the materials and equipment for for satellite transmissions. Forecasts and the base to the Antarctic in the 1980-81 daily observations will be made by a summer, and the construction time-table meteorologist from the West German is limited to 45 days so the base will be Marine Weather Service. ready before the approach of winter. Air support for field work from the Eight scientists and 12 technical staff will take part in the expedition. There new station will be provided by two are three BGR geologists, two from Twin Otter aircraft. The Federal West German universities, and the three Ministry of Research and Technology, which is responsible for the construction guest scientists. The West German tech nical staff includes a pilot and a of the station, and the development of mechanic for the BGR helicopter, a field logistic capabilities has considered the assistant, a doctor, meteorologist, radio conversion of a Transall turbo-prop operator, and a logistics expert. transport into a ski-equipped aircraft for future Antarctic operations. Helicopters (N.Z.) Ltd will have a team of four with the expedition. It will With a crew of four the Transall, as a be led by the company's chief pilot, Mr wheeled aircraft, has a range of 1700km J. Wilson, who has had a season's ex- with its maximum payload of 16,000kg. Derience flying helicopters in the Its range is increased to 4800km with a Canadian Arctic. The other pilots are payload of 8000kg. The maximum ferry Messrs A. Buckingham and K. Claydon, range of the aircraft is 6300km. and the engineer is Mr P. Copp. Mr In the spring of 1980 West Germany Buckingham spent a season in the An will send another krill and food fish tarctic when he was a Royal New resources expedition to Antarctica. The Zealand Air Force helicopter pilot at Meteor, flagship of the GFR marine tached to the United States Navy's research fleet, will begin a seven-month VXE-6 Squadron. cruise to the Southern Ocean, and will be followed a few months later by the Preparations for the establishment of fisheries research vessel Walther Herwig, West Germany's first permanent An which was used on similar expeditions in tarctic research station on the Ronne Ice the 1975-76 and 1977-78 seasons. Shelf early in 1981 will begin this season. The Norwegian polar research vessel This krill expedition will also be part Polarsirkel has been chartered for an ad of the international marine resources vance party of scientists and engineers programme initiated by BIOMASS (Bio which will study the hydrographic condi logical Investigations of Marine Antarc tions, the edge of the Ronne Ice Shelf, tic Systems and Stocks) which will begin and site of the station 20km inland. in 1981. Eleven research ships will take part in the programme and scientists will Because the new station will be attempt to assess the size of krill stocks, located on ice that gradually moves out and the movements of schools of krill in to sea at the rate of one to 1 Vz kilo the Atlantic sector of the Southern metres a year, the advance party will Ocean. September 1979 ANTARCTIC Japanese plans for oil exploration A three-year oil survey in three seas of Antarctica is planned by the Japanese Agency of Natural Resources and Energy. The survey will be organised by the Japan National Oil Corporation, and will be made in the Bellingshausen Sea (1980), the Weddell Sea (1981), and the Ross Sea (1982). Data from the survey will be released to other governments. According to a report in the "Japan Sea in particular is believed to be pro Economic Journal" on October 2, the mising. The geological structure of the agency will ask the Ministry of Finance area is similar to one in oilfields. for a budgetary appropriation of 530 "The huge oil reservoir there has million yen for the 1980 financial year already prompted some in the United which begins on April 1. If approved, States to plan prospecting and test well the money will be used by the Japan drilling," says the journal. "The National Oil Corporation so it can ANARE plan, however, is the first such organise survey efforts. attempt by any Japanese organisation." A geological survey ship, the No single country can develop oil in 1800-tonne Hakurei Maru, will leave the Antarctic seas because of an inter Japan this season on a four-month national pact, according to the "Japan cruise, including one month for a study Economic Journal". [This is a reference of sedimentary formations in Antarctic to the agreement by the 13 Antarctic waters. The Ministry of International Treaty nations, one of which is Japan, Trade and Industry has indicated that if to continue the moratorium on mineral geological signs of oil are found further exploration and exploitation in Antarc exploration will be considered. tica.] But the journal says that the Although there has been no indication United States is readying itself for such of where the Hakurei Maru will work in an effort, leading the Japanese Agency the Antarctic, the "Japan Economic for Natural Resources and Energy to Journal" says that the Bellingshausen draft the survey plan. Siberian clues to oil and gas

Any search for oil in Antarctica hydro-carbons in the earth's crust are should be concentrated on the continen closely associated with frozen ground, tal shelf and the shores of the continent, the ice cover, and volcanic activity. according to Soviet scientists who have 1 • H a series of geophysical in- In the course of their research the is in Siberia which have sug- Soviet scientists establish existence of oil and gas deposits in Antarctica and their most if acted upon by heat and vibration, that probable location. is, seismic processes in the depths of the These studies have been made by earth. According to the scientists' scientists from the Institute of Physical estimates, as a result of the physico- Engineering Problems for the North in geological processes related to the func Yakutsk, capital of Yakutskaya, the tion of permafrost and ice cover in Soviet Union's largest autonomous Antarctica around 25 million years ago, republic, which occupies a vast expanse it is now preferrable to search for of Siberia. Their work has shown that Antarctic oil on the continental shelf the formation and accumulation of and the shores of the continent. ANTARCTIC September 1979 BAS NEWS Advanced equipment for Halley An advanced ionospheric sounder (AIS) has been acquired by the British Antarctic Survey. It will probably be installed at Halley in the 1980-81 summer, and will enable a wide range of research projects to be carried out there. A committee set up to advise on the use of the AIS equipment has recommended that the first Antarctic project should be concerned with the dynamics of the ionosphere. Now at BAS headquarters in Cam university groups in a new project for an bridge, the equipment was originally interactive satellite link with the AIS. designed by the Space Environment The transmission of large quantities of Laboratory (SEL) of the United States numerical data by satellite is now well- National Oceanic and Atmospheric Ad developed, and it is technically possible ministration (NOAA) to provide means to arrange a system whereby experiments whereby geophysicists could continue to could be carried out in real time in An make worthwhile experiments at reason tarctica or elsewhere by staff in Britain. able cost when rockets and satellites The powerful computer facilities in could no longer be financed. An oppor the AIS allow not only raw c tunity for BAS to obtain an AIS at very transmitted in economic form but also low cost arose when SEL-NOAA decid flexible changes amongst existing pro ed to develop second-generation equip grammes of operation or even accep ment and build several sounders. tance of new programmes from Britain Two BAS men spent two months in in real time. Since Britain is not well- the United States earlier this year, carry placed for fundamental geophysical re ing out acceptance tests and helping to search, a system of this type would solve some outstanding problems. Addi enable British geophysicists to operate in tional software is now being written by five computer programmers at Boulder, zones where critical experiments are Colorado, including one at World Data possible without them necessarily going Centre A, and arrangements have been there. made internationally for all AIS groups Operating costs of such a system are to exchange additional programmes writ now dropping rapidly, and will soon ten for their own particular applications. reach levels where it is cheaper to use The BAS equipment has been mounted such a system than to pay for visits of ecially designed shock absorbers senior staff to the operating zone. isportable insulated caboose Although primarily designed for AIS which can be moved either on wheels or purposes, this idea could be applied ef skis. It will be run experimentally in Bri fectively to a wide range of disciplines, particularly where it is not possible for tain for at least a year before being senior scientists to be based at remote transferred to Halley. stations. A British committee has been set up to advise on its use as its capacities are too This year outside activities at all BAS great to be exploited fully by BAS alone. stations have been continued into the The committee includes representatives winter on a restricted scale, but ceased at of university groups and Government Halley after a final trip in May to erect a research establishments. refuge hut 4.8km from the base. There is much interest among the Parties from Rothera visited various parts of Adelaide Island — including the described in the citation as "a classic Fid old Adelaide station — in April, May of unrivalled experience". (The term and June. The Rothera "air terminal", "Fid", by which BAS men are known, is 4.8km inland on the ice piedmont, was a legacy from the days when the British visited in June so that the two huts could Antarctic Survey was named the Falk be jacked up to keep pace with snow ac land Islands Dependeancies Survey — cumulation. Several adjacent islands FIDS.) and the mainland of the Antarctic Pen insula were visited in July. At Rothera After 23 seasons in the Antarctic the itself, the new laboratory — office Royal Research Ship John Biscoe is ex pected to return this season after her building was fitted out and brought into refit. The refit should be completed in use, and the contents of the earlier huts time for the new season, although it. is re-organised to provide improved facilities for the transient summer field not yet known when the ship will be workers. ready to sail. The refit is being done specifically to adapt the John Biscoe for Further north at Faraday (Argentine the BAS offshore biological programme. Islands) short journeys continued over It is expected to extend her Antarctic ser mid-winter, and longer journeys became vice for another 10 years. possible again with the consolidation of sea ice in July. Several climbing parties visited the mainland, chiefly for recrea tion. At Signy in the South Orkney Islands, most outside projects ceased with the Trawlers off South onset of unusually low temperatures in May, but in June the marine biologists resumed diving through holes cut in the Georgia sea ice. By July the ice was solid enough Two areas in the Southern Ocean have for four parties to travel over Normanna been the target of intensive fishing during Strait to Coronation Island. the last 10 years. They are around the On South Georgia, localities around South Georgia and lies Kerguelen. Cumberland East Bay were visited from Soviet fishing fleets have been the Grytviken. chief exploiters of the fish stocks, and As usual, the scientific routines have large catches have been reported, except been interspersed with maintenance in the 1977-78 season. The Soviet fleets tasks. At Halley, where the huts are in have now been joined by trawlers from side steel tubes, ice from condensation had accumulated below the main living Poland and East Germany. hut and had tilted the floor. This had to In the 1977-78 season large numbers be laboriously chipped away before the of Soviet, Polish, and East German hut could be re-levelled. trawlers operated around South Georgia All stations celebrated mid-winter in and the South Orkney Islands. One Soviet fleet moved to the South Orkneys ippropriate style. A "mid-winter" party was also held at the BAS Cambridge when it failed to find good concentra tions of fish or krill near South Georgia. headquarters. This was followed at the end of June by a BAS reunion in Cam Forty-nine Soviet vessels were reported bridge, which was attended by about 130 to be at work in the South Orkneys. The past and present members. As is now fleet was made up of 32 trawlers, 11 customary, the Fuchs Medal for out mother ships, four tankers, a research standing service to the Survey was pre ship, and a tug. sented at the re-union by Sir Vibian There was no reduction in activity last Fuchs. season. Seventy-one trawlers were re This year's recipient was Kenn Back, a veteran of nine Antarctic winters spent ported to be fishing around South Georgia. The Soviet Union had 60 at six different stations (he was base trawlers engaged, Poland six, East Ger commander at four of them), who was many four, and Argentina one. ANTARCTIC September 1979 NARE REPORT Summer station placed on Bouvet Island

Establishment of a summer station on isolated Bouvet Island in the South Atlantic, and the operation of an upper air station for two months and a half, were two of the main projects carried out by the Norwegian Antarctic Research Expedition last season. The expedi tion, which went south in the 500-tonne sealer-icebreaker Polarsirkel, also worked for two months in western Queen Maud Land, and the Weddell Sea, and one field party spent most of February on the ice in Vestfjella. Some of the marine programmes on ice and at sea. The Polarsirkel made a the Polarsirkel's first cruise from Cape second call at Bouvet Island to pick up Town to Bouvet Island suffered when a the five men of the upper air station krill trawl caught in the ship's propeller team and their equipment, and arrived on December 27. She anchored im at Cape Town on March 13. She return mediately, and after a while it was decid ed to Bergen on April 7. ed to return her to Cape Town by tug. A A complete report of the results South African tug arrived on January 5, achieved by the 1978-79 expedition, the and by that time the work ashore, which second independent Norwegian scien was most important, had been com tific expedition to Antarctica since 1960, pleted. is still in preparation. The following Equipped with two Bell 206B summary has been provided by the Jetranger helicopters the Polarsirkel, Norwegian Polar Research Institute. which also took the 1976-77 expedition Cruise I to Bouvetoya (Bouvet Island) south, sailed from Bergen on November Meteorology: An upper air station us 19 to conduct two cruises, starting from ing the NAVAID system was operated Cape Town. She left Cape Town on by five men at Bouvetoya from late December 16 and arrived off Bouvet December, 1978, to early March, 1979. Island on December 21. Two automatic weather stations, with After delay caused by bad weather battery capacities for one and two years, establishment of the land station on the were established. island began on December 24. By Terrestrial biology: Four biologists in December 26 the scientists on shore were vestigated botany, the invertebrate able to begin their meteorological, fauna, the birds and the seals, and the biological, geological, geophysical, and fauna in the beach zone. surveying programmes. The first cruise ended on January 13 when the Polar VOLCANIC ROCKS sirkel reached Cape Town under tow. Terrestrial geology: Two geologists NO MISHAPS studied volcanic rocks of the island. On her second cruise the Polarsirkel Terrestrial geophysics: Four seismic sailed again on schedule on January 16. station's were nnerated ashore for recor There were no mishaps on the cruise to ding microseismic activity. Queen Maud Land and the Weddell Sea, Topography: Aerial photography and and the expedition's scientists carried surveying were done of the island, and out a wide range of projects both on the several absolute positions were establish-

'^J^^.^-\lW September 1979 ANTARCTIC

ftSsKr- I • \ :M?tX .V I m .tH^sxC* *vm On her second cruise for the Norwegian Antarctic Research Expedition last season the Polarsirkel breaks fast ice off Queen Maud Land. Norsk PolarinsliluU Photo. ANTARCTIC September 1979 ed by mobile two-channel satellite ICEBERG STUDIES receiver systems. Oceanography: Three scientists con Oceanography: Tidal measurements ducted CTD soundings with a Neil- and a wave-rider system and current Brown Mark IV sonde. Current meter recordings were conducted for measurements were done in the Weddell two months in the off-shore waters. Sea with deployed current meters. Eight Marine biology: Three scientists con current meters and two tide gages left in ducted various scientific krill studies, the south-central Weddell Sea during the and investigated the benthic biology. 1976-77 expedition were retrieved. X-BT soundings were done between Marine geophysics: Magnetometric Bouvetoya and Cape Town. The motion registrations were done at profiles up to of icebergs in response to wind and cur 150 km from the island. rents was studied in two experiments. Hydrography: The near shore waters Marine geophysics: Six scientists con were charted by small boat with echo- ducted a series of programmes, in sounder and Motorola mini-range posi cluding deep seismic reflection and tioning system. refraction studies using 18 channel SECOND CRUISE streamer and sonobuoys. Shallow Cruise II to Queen Maud Land and seismic reflection studies were done by the Weddell Sea. sparker system, and the scientists con ducted side scan sonar and Meteorology: Air temperature, magnetometric registrations. humidity and wind recorded continuous ly on the ship at several levels from one Marine geology: Two scientists sampl to 15m. Temperature structures of ocean ed the sea bed. Suspended material was surface and of icebergs were studied by studied by filtered water samples. infra-red radiometer. Detailed investiga As part of the first GARP global ex tions were done on the heat flow periment (FGGE) — Global At through the ocean/air interface. mospheric Research Programme Terrestrial geology: Two geologists (GARP) upper air soundings were done worked in Vestfjella for part of the time, from the Polarsirkel on both cruises, to complete investigations done during and also on the crossings in the Atlantic the Norwegian 1968-69 and 1976-77 ex Ocean south of the Equator. peditions. Bathymetric recordings down to 6,000m water depth were done continuously. Glaciology: Stakes emplaced during During the crossing of the South Atlan the 1976-77 expeditions on the Riiser- tic Ocean 31 FGGE drifting buoys were Larsen ice shelf were resurveyed. Eleva tion and position of ice shelf fronts were deployed, mostly at sea, but some also at measured throughout the cruise. icebergs. Thickness of ice shelves and icebergs were measured by the Scott Polar Research Institute Mark IV radio-echo sounding systems flown by helicopters together with Motorola positioning system. Internal structures and temperatures of numerous icebergs were Norwegian visit investigated. We regret that, because of the Terrestrial geophysics: Airborne misinterpretation of information receiv magnetometry was done over ed from the British base Halley, it was Jutulstraumen, and the Riiser-Larsen erroneously reported on Page 170 of the and Filchner Ice Shelves. A number of March, 1978 issue of "Antarctic" that a gravimetric stations were occupied at Norwegian expedition had revisited the Jutulstraumen and Riiser-Larsenisen. area. The information given related to Seismic reflection studies were done at the 1976-77 expedition which had been Riiser-Larsenisen. fully reported in the March, 1977, issue.

^H September 1979 ANTARCTIC 395 SOVIET NEWS Possible change in plan for Russkaya

Russkaya, the seventh Soviet research station in the antarctic, and the first to be established on the coast of West Antarctica between the Ross Sea and the Antarctic Peninsula, was to have been opened by the 24th Soviet Antarctic Expedition late last season. Later reports suggest, however, that the station, first occupied for only two weeks in 1973, may not have been manned this winter because Soviet plans were changed after the crash of an Ilyushin-14 aircraft at Molodezhnaya on January 2. Three men were killed in the crash, and Soviet ports was the Kapitan Markov, one of the 11 injured was the leader of which sailed from Leningrad on October the expedition, Dr Y. S. Korotkevich, 26. She reached the Weddell Sea in mid- who is deputy director of the Arctic and December and reopened the summer sta Antarctic Research Institute in Len tion, Druzhnaya, on the Filchner Ice ingrad. Dr Korotkevich, who has fully Shelf, for the 1978-79 field season, recovered from his injuries, remained at which lasted two months. After Molodezhnaya when the five most ser operatioms in the Weddell Sea the iously injured survivors of the crash Kapitan Markov visited the Falkland were flown to New Zealand by a United Island (Islas Malvinas), and then resup- States Navy Hercules aircraft. plied Novolazarevskaya. Next to leave were the passenger ship lya, which is at Cape Burks lmin S/136 deg 5lmin W) was Bashkiriya, which sailed from Odessa on October 27, and the research vessel Pro occupied from February 117 to March 2, 1973. Because of extremely difficult ice fessor Zubov from Leningrad on Novem conditions in the area, it was not oc ber 5. The Professor Zubov was joined later by the Professor Vize in investiga cupied in later seasons. When the Mikhail Somov, flagship of the Soviet tions of the international Polex-South programme. Because the Bashkiriya is Antarctic fleet, left Leningrad on not equipped to work in Antarctic ice November 7, she took the first team of nine men who were to winter at Russ she remained outside the pack ice during relief operations and transferred her kaya under the leadership of V. passengers to the Kapitan Markov and Stepanov, but later movements of the the Mikhail Somov for delivery to sta ship suggest that re-establishment of the tions. station was deferred again. Early in November the Mikhail Eight ships and 560 men and women Somov sailed from Leningrad, she took part in last season's expedition. resupplied the main Soviet station, Newcomers to Antarctic operations were Molodezhnaya, on the Prince Olav the freighter Vasya Alekseyev and the Coast of Enderby Land, and picked up tanker BAM which took supplies and the last winter part in late December. fuel south to the five coastal stations. In late January the Baskiriya reached Most of the winter parties, which totall Mirny with help from the Mikhail ed 250 under the leadership of A.N. Somov and relieved the station's crews Artem'yev, went south in the passenger before leaving for her home port of ship Estoniya. Odessa. Before she arrived a tractor First of the expedition's ships to leave train of 14 vehicles had made the ANTARCTIC September 1979 1400km journey to the inland station, from the Soviet Union. Now, however, Vostok, with 370 tonnes of fuel and sup the plan to operate the Ilyushin-76 is plies. reported to have been abandoned Last of the passenger ships to carry because it has not been possible to new staff to the Antarctic was the harden the surface of the new airfield Estoniya. She sailed from Riga on sufficiently to take heavy aircraft. January 28 with 80 members of the As in previous seasons Druzhnya was winter teams for the three major coastal the base for geological and geophysical stations, Molodezhnaya, Novolazarev studies, and geodetic and topographic skaya, and Mirny. work on the coast of the Weddell Sea, One of the major projects last season and in the Shackleton Range, Pensacola was the completion of the permanent Mountains, and the Ellsworlth Moun airfield for heavy aircraft at Molodez tains. "Soviet News" reports that Soviet hnaya. New methods were developed by scientists made more than 500 landings Soviet engineers to produce a snow-ice by helicopter and aircraft in the execu field with a strength similar to concrete, tion of this programme. which could be used by wheeled aircraft Detailed studies were made of the between December and February. Shackleton Range, the Pensacola Moun Aeroflot, which operates aircraft and tains, and the Dufek Massif last season. helicopters for Soviet Antarctic expedi Aerial photographs were taken for the tions was expected to operate Ilyushin-18 first time of the Ellsworth Mountains, aircraft from the new airfield, and later, and the paltuxent Range, which lies use heavier aircraft, possibly the four- south ofthe Pensacola Mountains about engine jet Ilyushin-76 on a new air route 595km from the South Pole. Work on three historic huts A wildlife officer and a scientist from keeper, and in 1962-63 was officer-in- the New Zealand Antarctic Society will charge at Campbell Island. take part in the New Zealand Antarctic For the last 10 years Mr Wright has research programme this summer as been engaged in research on the nor caretakers of the three historic huts on thern Royal Albatross and yellow-eyed Ross Island. They are Mr Alan Wright, penguins. In his studies of seabirds he of Broad Bay, Otago, who is a member has worked on New Zealand offshore of the Canterbury branch of the society, islands, Stewart Island, and the and Mr Gavin Dougherty, of Well Chatham Islands, and in Milford Sound ington, who belongs to the Wellington and the Haast district. He is a member branch. of the Otago Tramping and Moun Messrs Wright and Dougherty will fly taineering Club. south in December. They will spend three weeks on Ross Island, and will Mr Dougherty, who is 32, works for continue for the Antarctic Division the the Chemistry Division, Department of restoration and maintenance work at Scientific and Industrial Research, and Scott's huts at Cape Evans and Hut has been a member of the Antarctic Point, and Shackleton's hut at Cape Society for five years. He has had previous experience with the Buildinj Royds. Caretakers nominated by the Research Association, and his present society have worked at the huts every summer since 1969 except for a break in work is concerned with building the 1975-76 season. materials. Mr Wright, who is 51, was born in Recently Mr Dougherty has been call England and has been a member of the ed on to advise on aspects of the new Antarctic Society for 16 years. After ser powerhouse at Scott Base, and the vice in the Royal Navy and the Royal restoration of the Pencarrow light-house New Zealand Navy, he was a light-house by the Historic Places Trust. September 1979 ANTARCTIC Polar circumnavigation expedition After more than six years of planning and training the British Transglobe Expedition sailed from Greenwich on September 2 to begin the first polar circumnavigation of the world. This 88,OOOkm journey, using the Greenwich meridian as a basic route, is expected to take more than three years and end in the northern autumn of 1982. In the 1980-81 southern summer the Transglobe Expedition will begin the crossing of Antarctica from a base in the Borga Massif of Queen Maud Land to Scott Base by way of the South Pole, the Robert Scott Glacier, and the Ross Ice Shelf. The journey will end with an Arctic crossing of 2896km to the North Pole, and then to Spitsbergen where the expedition will be picked up by ship and return to Greenwich. Leader and organiser of the expedition Gile Kershaw, who has had several years is 35-year-old explorer, writer and lec of Antarctic flying with the British An turer, Sir Ranulph Twistleton-Wykeham- tarctic Survey. Fiennes, who has led four major exped Designed specially to operate in Arctic itions since 1969. The first was to the and Antarctic conditions, the Kista Dan White Nile, the second to the Joste- was the first in the line of Dan ships dalsbre Glacier in Norway, the largest owned by J. Lauritzen and Company. glacier in Europe, and the third to Head Her first Antarctic charter was to help less Valley, British Columbia. In 1977, make the film "Hell Below Zero" (bas as part of the preparation's for the ed on the novel "The White South" by Transglobe Expedition he led the British Hammond Innes). From then until North Pole Expedition to 87deg 11.5min 1965-66 season she was chartered first to N, about 250km from the Pole. Australian National Antarctic Research Only three men will take part in the Expeditions, and then for several polar sectors of the expedition and com seasons to the British Antarctic Survey. plete the whole journey. Sir Ranulph Later she was sold to Karlsen Shipping, Fiennes will have with him two men, renamed the Martin Karlsen, and used Charles Burton, aged 38, and Oliver for survey work in the Canadian Arctic Shepard, aged 32. These three will form by the Bedford Institute of Ocean the ice group of the expedition. Lady ography, and in trading to north-east Virginia Fiennes, who is responsible for Canadian ports. communications and administration, and will run the base camps, will be the LINK WITH SCOTT only other member of the expedition to A leading British insurance broking winter in the Antarctic and the Arctic company, C. T. Bowring and Company with the ice group. Ltd, and an American associate, Marsh For logistic support by sea and air the and McLennan Companies, have pur Transglobe Expedition has the chased the Kista Dan for the Transglobe 1250-tonne ice-strengthened ship Ben Expedition., She has been named Ben jamin Bowring, which, as the Kista Dan, jamin Bowring after the founder of the began its Arctic and Antarctic service in firm. This is the second time the Bowring 1952, and a de Havilland Twin Otter air organisation has provided a ship for craft. Aviation co-ordinator for the ex polar work. In 1910 it lent its most pedition, and pilot of the Twin Otter is famous ship, the Terra Nova, to the Ad- ANTARCTIC September 1979 miralty for Scott's last expedition. and record extra low frequency and very During her service with the Trans low frequency radio signals. globe Expedition the Benjamin Bowring About October 5, depending on temp will sail under the firm's house flag. She eratures, the ice group will begin the first will have a crew of 11, one member be stage of the 4224km Antarctic crossing. ing Antony Bowring, son of the head of For some 1126km between the Borga the firm, who is also the expedition's Massif and the South Pole the three men marine co-ordinator. will be travelling over terrain not pre One object of the expedition is to pro viously traversed on the surface. They mote export sales ofthe sponsored equip expect to reach the Amundsen-Scott ment it will use, which has come from South Pole Station late in January, 330 companies, of which 80 percent are 1981. British. Eight trade expeditions have been planned during the expedition for FINAL STAGE this purpose. From the South Pole the ice group will After trade shows in September at follow Amundsen's route, and then Paris and Barcelona, the expedition em travel down the Robert Scott Glacier to barked on the Benjamin Bowring for the Ross Ice Shelf. The final stage to Algiers. From there it will make a Scott Base is expected to be completed in 7081km journey across the Sahara in the first week of March at the latest. four-wheel drive vehicles to Abidjan on During thc polar crossing Lady Fiennes the Ivory Coast. Deviations from the will remain at the Borga base camp. route closest to the Greenwich meridian With her will be Simon Grimes, cook will be made to do scientific work. From and mechanic, and thc crew of the Twin Abidjan the Benjamin Bowring will sail Otter, Giles Kershaw and Gerry Nichol to Cape Town for another trade show in son. The Twin Otter will support the ice December. group by Hying out fuel, food supplies, Present plans are to leave Cape Town- and spares. between December 21 and January 3 to After a radio base has been set up in begin the Antarctic stage of the journey. the Ross Dependency area, Lady Fiennes The Benjamin Bowring is expected to will help to strike the Borga base camp reach the South African base, Sanae, before she flies to Scott Base in the Twin between January 10 and 23. Otter to wait for the arrival of the ice SECOND BASE group. The Benjamin Bowring will be in A base will be established near Sanae, McMurdo Sound to pick up the group and the expedition will be joined by the for the next stage of the expedition. ski-equipped Twin Otter, which will be From Scott Base the Benjamin Bow flown in from South America. It will be ring will visit Auckland, Los Angeles, used to ferry supplies and equipment to and Vancouver for trade shows, and the second base in the Borga Massif then proceed to the mouth of the Yukon about 289km south of Sanae, and at an River for the next overland stage. The elevation of about 2438m. plan is to navigate the Yukon in inflat This base will be built at 73deg S/5deg able boats, cross the watershed to the W. The ice group, which will use 650cc Mackenzie River by road, and continue skidoos drawing specially-designed by boat to Tuktoyaktuk, the Canadian stainless steel sledges, plans to reach the Polar Continental Shelf Project base at Borga base by February 28 next year. the mouth of the river. Sir Ranulph Fiennes, his wife, Burton, In July, 1981, the expedition will leave and Shepard, will winter at their Borga Tuktoyaktuk for a 4828km sea journey base, living in a pre-fabricated insulated through the North-West Passage to the hut made of heavy corrugated card Polar Continental Shelf Project station board. During the winter they will make at Alert, arriving in October. After regular meteorological observations, wintering there, the ice group will set out and use mobile equipment to identify at the end of the first week in February, September 1979 ANTARCTIC 1982 for the northern polar crossing. The group hopes to reach the North Taiwan krill Pole in early April, and to arrive in the Spitsbergen area where it will be picked research up by the Benjamin Bowring towards the end of July. Taiwan, which entered the field of Both in the Antarctic and the Arctic krill research in the 1976-77 season, did members of the Transglobe Expedition not send the Taiwan Fisheries Research will carry out a scientific programme Institute's deep-sea trawler Hai Kung covering a wide field. They will make south again last season. Reports from continuous meteorological and glacio Keelung, Taiwan, suggest that a new and logical investigations during both polar larger vessel may work in the Weddell crossings. The chairman of the exped Sea this season. ition's scientific advisory committee is Sir Vivian Fuchs, and the glaciological In the 1976-77 season the Hai Kung programme has been drawn up with the spent six weeks in Antarctic waters to aid of Dr Gordon Robin, director of the study the possibility of large-scale Scott Polar Research Institute. harvesting of krill. She sailed to the Weddell Sea from Cape Town, and, Recordings of low frequency radio working in the Enderby Land area for 18 signals in Antarctica are expected to add days early in 1977, she caught 135 tonnes to knowledge of the movement of elec of krill. trons in the magnetosphere. Winter meteorological observations at the Borga base may help to throw more light on the origin and flow of katabatic winds. Some members of the expedition will contribute to British research in car diology by recording the effects of stress caused by cold and altitude,- potential danger, and extreme weather conditions. In the Arctic the expedition will make regular collections of sea ice samples during the navigation of the North-West Passage, and on the journey across the Winter team plaque North Pole to Spitsbergen. It will also collect data on pressure ridges, and measure oscillations in the ice caused by New Zealanders who winter at Scott movements of under-ice waves. Meteor Base will now be able to obtain a tangi ological observations will be made on ble reminder of their year in Antarctica. behalf of the British Meteorological It is a plaque mounted on a wooden Office. shield, which will be sold at the base this summer. The proceeds from sales will be towards amenities at the base. On the plaque is the New Zealand An tarctic Research Programme badge — the five stars of the Southern Cross in red superimposed on a representation of Mt Erebus in blue and white. Around the badge are the words New Zealand Antarctic Research Programme, and above it Antarctic Division, D.S.I.R. The shield is completed with a scroll bearing the words winter over, and the year. ANTARCTIC September 1979 Second visit to desolate Ridley Beach by Baden Norris

Desolate Ridley Beach at Cape Adare where 10 men were the first in Antarctic history to winter on the mainland has had few visitors in the last 80 years because of the difficulty of access — landings can be made there only from a ship. One of the first visitors to the area after the departure of C. E. Borchgrevink's Southern Cross Expedition early in 1900 was a young New Zealander, Clarence Hare, of Christchurch, who was a steward aboard the Discovery on Scott's first expedition in 1901-04.

In the last 20 years only a few other in a storm but nevertheless was in good New Zealanders have seen the two huts shape. Both buildings were constructed built by Borchgrevink's party and nam in the Norwegian style with metal used ed Camp Ridley. One of them is Baden very rarely. Norris, who went to Cape Adare first in A photograph taken in 1902 shows the 1974 as a ranger and guide aboard the store hut minus its roof so it can be Antarctic cruise ship Lindblad Explorer. assumed that a high wind took it off He returned in the same capacity early during the winter of 1900. The main hut this year, and in the following article he originally had ship's wire runners describes the changes on Ridley Beach in shackled to very heavy anchors stretched the last five years. taut across the roof. The store hut was Borchgrevink and his men landed on not treated similarly. These wires have Ridley Beach on February 18, 1899, and now rusted away completely, and only the two huts they built are the oldest the head of the stock of the anchors can buildings in Antarctica. Of interest too be seen because of the build up of in the historic Cape Adare region are the penguin guano. remains of the hut built in 1911 by the Hanson's grave was free of snow in six men of Scott's Northern Party who 1974 but even then Keith Shackleton and spent 10 stormy months on the beach I took several hours to find it. The small until they were picked up by the Terra brass plate with thc details of his death Nova early in 1912, and the grave of the left by the Southern Gross party had first man to be buried on the continent, blown off the iron cross grouted into the Nicolai Hanson, senior zoologist of the large basalt boulder which marks the site Southern Cross Expedition. ofthe grave 304m up in Cape Adare. We I first visited the area on January 1, recovered the plate and placed it on the 1974 and recorded the condition of grave itself with a note to record our buildings, and Hanson's grave. Also I visit. made a general survey of the vast Adelie The hut built by Lieutenant Victor penguin colony which is a feature of the Campbell and his men had collapsed to cape and the pebble beach. the extent that the southern end and the The Borchgrevink main hut then was western wall were all that remained in very sound condition and free of ice. erect. The store hut had lost its roof long ago Adelie penguins were on the beach in

•7U" ■ r. September 1979 ANTARCTIC their thousands, mostly with chicks, and petrels had little trouble in taking a meal the noise and the smell were almost over at will. A few small skua chicks were powering. Several leopard seals patroll noted on the slopes. With winter so close ed the edge of the beach taking as many they faced a very short life. penguins as they desired. By 11p.m. the sun had set behind the What a different picture was distant mountains, and the temperature presented on February 12, 1979. The had fallen steeply. With the change came northern party's hut had been flattened, a very strong wind which demanded that and only the small entrance porch re we leave quickly, but not before we mained upright to give shelter to a dozen shored up the doors of Borchgrevink's or so immature Adelie chicks. hut as best as we could. We had a wet departure by Zodiac The doors of the Borchgrevink hut rubber boat from the beach into a rising were open, and snow had drifted into sea. This served to accentuate a feeling the porch entrance making entry im of depression for most of us because this possible. Some unrecorded visitor may might be our last sight of the Antarctic, have been careless or as is more likely the and we took our leave reluctantly. hasps on the latches had rusted through. A splendid full moon shining over a Cape Adare is in the "Banana Belt" of dark brooding Cape Adare as we Antarctica, and rusting is very common. weighted anchor, a penguin chick's lone The hut's contents were not damaged ly pathetic call from the darkened shore, as far as I could see. The firmly packed the pungent yet not unpleasant smell snow had done no harm, and now serves from the now silent rookery. These are as an effective barrier against the memories I shall never forget. weather. The state of the roofless hut was unchanged, but several items of historic interest that had been recorded Pole anniversary as lying around the buildings could not be located. One that I had hoped to find flight again was the box of heavy calibre rifle This season marks the 50th anniver cartidges left by the Southern Cross par sary of Rear-Admiral Richard E. Byrd's ty, who had feared the presence of historic flight over the South Pole. The predators such as polar bears. 2574km flight in a three-engined Ford A hard climb up the cliffs to the area monoplane was completed on November of Hanson's grave went unrewarded. 29, 1929, and took 18hrs 37mins. After two hours of fruitless searching a To mark the flight's anniversary a party of four, from the Lindblad Ex United States Navy Hercules aircraft will plorer failed to locate it although both fly to the South Pole on November 29 Keith Shackleton and I had visited the this year over essentially the same route grave before. We had intended to rewire taken by Byrd and his crew, Bernt the brass plate back on the cross. Balchen (pilot), Harold June (co-pilot The Adalie penguin colony showed and radio operator), and Ashley the most change since my last visit. McKinley (aerial photographer). One of the passengers on the anniversary flight Except for a few widely-scattered immature birds and a very occasional will be Dr Laurence Gould, second-in- adult the beach and the cliffs were command of Byrd's first expedition, and deserted. The breeding season having leader of the geological party which pro ended, these birds were the late breeders vided weather information for Byrd abandoned by their parents. They will when it was at the foot of the Queen have a very modest chance of survival. Maud Mountains. Scores of giant petrels lined the upper slopes of the shore. Many were in the white or part-white phase so common among the southern race. Half-devoured penguin chicks lay everywhere, and the Tf? ■arTTtk f* l!

ANTARCTIC September 1979 ANTARCTIC BOOKSHELF

Last of Lands . . . Antarctica By J. F. Lovering and J. R. V. Prescott Melbourne University Press, 1979. 201 PP and appendices. Fourteen black and white illustrations, drawings and tables. Professor Lovering is perhaps best mineral deposits of world economic im known in scientific circles for his studies portance, and emphasise their comment of moon rocks, but now that the source with a series of diagrams, including a of that material has at least temporarily reconstruction of the old supercontinent dried up, it is gratifying to find that he of Gondwanaland showing Antarctica and his colleague, Mr Prescott, have ex as the keystone with the mineral belts of amined another frontier with similar int the surrounding continents passing onto erest and enthusiasm. it. The addition of this paperback book to The main known reserves are of iron the growing literature on Antarctica is ore and coal but the writers are careful most timely. It leans heavily towards dis to say that both these commodities are cussion of resources of the southern con not economic in the foreseeable future tinent and the prospect of using them for because of the remoteness from the benefit of mankind — a subject markets, and the difficulty of mining which is becoming increasingly a world these relatively low-grade deposits. Ex focus of attention. ploitation of other minerals faces similar The opening chapter, which deals with problems. the physical characteristics of Antarc The prospect for oil and gas is a dif tica, is well-documented, with clear and ferent matter, and the authors recall that informative illustrations and a wealth of drilling in the Ross Sea in 1973 by the information, much of which may be new research vessel Glomar Challenger re to the layman. Almost as large a section sulted in gas shows in three of the four as that given to the land itself is reserved holes drilled although they were sited for discussion of the Southern Ocean. away from known potentially favour The basis for the immense biological ac able structures. Although the authors tivity of this water mass, and the reasons say that it is premature to attach any for its richness in life in comparison with economic significance to the Ross Sea other ocean areas of the world, are luc hydrocarbons at this stage, "to a world idly explained. in which the hydrocarbpn reserves are This chapter leads naturally to one of being depleted at a rapid rate, the ex the resources of Antarctica and its sur citing implication of the Ross Sea gas rounding ocean. The authors open it by shows has not passed unnoticed by the commenting that "although the Antarc major oil exploration companies." tic has been protected up to the present Exploitation of the biota of the from exploitation by its isolation and by Southern Ocean is given considerable physical and political problems, a space, particularly the shrimp-like krill. resource-hungry world is increasingly It has been estimated that a sustainable turning its eyes on an area which harvest on a continuing basis could be represents 9 per cent of the land surface between 70 and 150 milion tonnes a of the earth and has so far not been year, which is comparable with the pre systematically prospected for its sent total world catch of fish and crusta resources". They point out that by ceans. Krill is a particularly rich source analogy with geologically similar con of food, since it contains about two to tinents Antarctica must contain many three times the amount by weight of high

i^Tv ^v^^^?^P^||^^ff%!r^ September 1979 ANTARCTIC quality protein in other foods. withwith the following one on policical Antarctica is extremely rich in another 8?oggeography, because much of that is natural resource which is likely to mslchistorically based. These well-written become increasingly important — ice. ar|dand up-to-date chapters lead on to the Professor Lovering and Mr Prescott say final f'na' one entitled "The Prospects for that the ice of the Antarctic ice cap AnteAntarctica". makes up about 90 per cent of the usable HHere all the possiblities for exploita fresh water on earth, so it is not surpris- tion of Antarctica's resources are ex ing that countries with severe fresh water amiramined again, together with possible deficiencies should look to the antarctic pollution polk and political problems. The for a solution to their problems. authauthors reach no definite conclusions on Surveys published in 1973 show that wn^1whether or not Antarctica will be widely the technology is already with us to tow £XP.exploited for its resources (apart from tabular icebergs from Antarctic sites like rn.krill, » which is already being exploited), the Amery and Ross Ice Shelves to par-but . suggest ; that it is likely that at least ched areas of Australia and Chile at a the .?.c developed Antarctic Treaty nations considerable saving over the costs will of opt ' for the closely-controled devel desalination. More recent references to opm'opment of resources as they become the growing literature on the subject ec2!)economically practicable. would have been helpful, and lack of Tl"The layman will find in this book the reference to the first international con- a"svvanswers to many questions stimulated by ference on iceberg utilisation held in lPethe rrecent upsurge of interest in Antarc 1977 at Iowa State University is a sur- tica-tica. Other more familiar with Antarctic prising omission. matt'matters will find it a useful reference. The placing of the chapter on W«[J. F. Lovering is professor of geology discovery and exploration towards the atat tn'the University of Melbourne. J. R. V. centre of the book at first seems strange, °rescPrescott is reader in geography at the but is likely to be justified on the samesame university.] grounds that it is naturally associated M. G. LAIRD

New berth for Discovery By 1981 H.M.S. Discovery, the little But more than $800,000 will still have barque-rigged wooden ship which took to be spend to preserve the 78-year-old Scott's first expedition to the Antarctic ship. When she goes to her final resting in 1901, will be moored permanently on place the National Maritime Museum at the South Bank of the Thames at St Greenwich plans to establish a museum Mary Overy Dock, a few yards from of exploration and discovery in the Southwark Cathedral. She is now berth Discovery, and she will be open to ed alongside the Thames Embankment visitors again. near Waterloo Bridge where she has been for more than 30 years. Originally it was expected that the Visitors have not been allowed on Discovery would be repaired and board the Discovery since it was found preserved in a collection of historic ships that her inner hull had deteriorated which the Maritime Trust planned to because of a fungus growth. Sir Patrick assemble in the east basin of St Bailey, director of the Maritime Trust to Katherine Dock in the heart of London. which ownership of the Discovery was ("Antarctic," March, 1979). Now, transferred from the Ministry of however, the trust has chosen a berth on Defence in April this year, says the ship the South Bank, and the Discovery will is basically sound, and the trust's be included in a plan to transform part original fears that she might be riddled of Southwark into a big tourist attrac- with dry rot have proved unfounded.

MM mw TT*'ffr; •^.T^.fiW*: ANTARCTIC September 1979 Antarctic cruises this season Two cruise ships, the World Discoverer on its cruises, and passengers Discoverer, operated by a West German will be able to study Antarctic wildlife travel firm, and the veteran Lindblad both at sea and ashore. Naturalists and Explorer, will be back in the Antarctic lecturers will accompany the cruises, and this season, and one international air will lecture on Antarctic history and the line, Air New Zealand, will provide day natural sciences under the direction of trips to the Ross Dependency for tourists. Dr George A. Llano, an authority on Each ship is expected to make two polar science, who worked formerly for cruises, and DC-10 aircraft of Air New the United States National Science Zealand will make four flights south, Foundation. depending on fuel allocations. On the way to the Falkland Islands the Last season the Lindblad Explorer World Discoverer will cruise through the made three cruises, two in the Antarctic Strait of Magellan. From the Falkland Peninsula area, and one to the Ross Islands she will proceed to South Dependency, which ended at Lyttelton. Georgia, and in a swing, westwi This season two cruises have been plann call at Coronation Island in the South ed. Between January 1 and 18 the Lind blad Explorer will make calls at Antarc Orkneys. tic Peninsula bases. The second cruise Provision has been made for the between January 19 and February 27 will World Discoverer to spend some days continue from the Antarctic Peninsula cruising down the west coast of the An to McMurdo Station and Scott Base. tarctic Peninsula, and in the Weddell When the Lindblad Explorer is in Sea. Before sailing northward on the McMurdo Sound she is expected to return to Punta Arenas both cruises will make calls at Cape Royds and Cape attempt to cross the Antarctic Circle, Evans to enable tourists to visit the depending on the ice and weather condi historic huts. Then she will sail for tions. Lyttelton, and, depending on the weather and ice conditions, will call at Air New Zealand's four flights are Cape Hallett, Cape Adare, Macquarie planned for November 7, 14, 21, and 28. Island, Campbell Island, and the To remain within its fuel allocation the Auckland Islands. airline will make savings by rationalisa In the 1977-78 season two Antarctic tion of international nights. Provision cruises were included in the World Dis has been made for the cancellation of one flight if necessary. coverer's adventure cruise programme, and the ship made one cruise last season with 140 passengers. This season it will Last November 200 Japanese and make two 24-day cruises, the first in Americans travelled in groups on the December, and the second in January. flights to McMurdo Sound. One attrac Both cruises are being advertised in the tion for the Japanese tourists was the United States to attract American presence of Sir Edmund Hillary as com tourists. mentator on a flight. He will be a com mentator again this year. The others will These cruises have been arranged by be Mr Peter Mulgrew, who was in the an American organisation, Society Ex New Zealand party which reached the peditions, based in Seattle, which ar South Pole in 1958, Sir Holmes Miller, ranges world travel for the Society for chairman of the Ross Dependency the Preservation of Archaeological Research Committee, and deputy-leader Monuments. Both cruises will begin and to Sir Edmund Hillary, and Mr R. B. end in Punta Arenas, Chile. Thomson, superintendent of the Antarc Traditional sailing and whaling routes tic Division, who has made more than 50 will be followed by the World flights south since 1959. flN.TflRCiT.I is published quarterly in March, June, September, and December. It is the only periodical in the world which gives regular up-to-date news of the Antarctic activities of all the nations at work in the far south. It has a worldwide circulation. Yearly subscription NZ$6.00, Overseas NZ$7.00, includes postage (air mail postage extra), single copies $2.00. Details of back issues available, may be obtained from the Secretary, New Zealand Antarctic Society (Inc.), P.O. Box 1223, Christchurch, New Zealand. Back issues more than five years old are available on request. Overseas subscribers are asked to ensure that their remittances are converted to New Zealand currency.

NEW ZEALAND ANTARCTIC SOCIETY (INC.) The New Zealand Antarctic Society was formed in 1933. It comprises New Zealanders and overseas friends, many of whom have seen Antarctica for themselves, and all of whom are vitally interested in some phase of Antarctic exploration, development, or research. The society has taken an active part in restoring and maintaining the historic huts in the Ross Dependency and has been involved in the establishment of a national Antarctic centre at the Canterbury Museum, Christchurch. There are two branches of the society and functions are arranged throughout the year. You are invited to become a member, South Island residents should write to the Canterbury secretary, North Islanders should write to the Wellington secretary, and overseas residents to the secretary of the New Zealand Society. For addresses, see below. The yearly membership fee is NZ$4.00 (or equivalent local currency). Membership fee, overseas and local, including "Antarctic", NZ$10.00.

New Zealand Secretary P.O. Box 1223, Christchurch

Branch Secretaries Canterbury: P.O. Box 404, Christchurch. Wellington: P.O. Box 2110, Wellington. m^M twsfP