The Mcgill Subarctic Research Station by Peter Adams
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ARCTIC VOL. 67, NO. 1 (MARCH 2014) InfoNorth Sixty Years of Polar Research and Teaching: The McGill Subarctic Research Station by Peter Adams INTRODUCTION HE MCGILL SUB-ARCTIC RESEARCH LABORATORY opened in 1954, when the railroad from the new port Tof Sept Îles reached Knob Lake (later Schefferville), Quebec, to open up the massive iron mines of that region. “The Lab” was an outpost of McGill University, Montreal, staffed by a faculty member (the director), graduate stu- dents, and a senior meteorological observer. McGill had the contract to run the new mining town’s aviation weather sta- tion. It did this by training four graduate students a year to work as weather observers while taking courses from the director, conducting local year-round Lab research projects, and preparing field-based thesis research of their own. Typ- ically, the students spent 12 months at the Lab plus an addi- tional summer working on their own field research before returning to McGill to complete their degrees. The Lab also acted as a field base for visiting students and researchers from Canada and overseas, as field stations do today. The Lab, situated at the end of the newly built railroad (“an expedition at the head of steel,” according to the late F.K. Hare), was a pioneering university enterprise at a time when there was a great need to train Canadian polar researchers, and when the huge Quebec-Labrador peninsula was still remarkably unknown (Fig. 1). The Lab operated in this fashion until 1971, when it became the McGill Subarc- tic Research Station that it is today. It produced a stream of polar scholars and a wealth of research publications. FIG. 1. The Québec-Labrador Peninsula, from tundra and continuous permafrost in the north to boreal forest and no THE CYCLE OF LIFE AT THE LAB permafrost in the south. The Lab students and staff lived together in a building were made outside. The Lab, at various times, also had con- that was the 24-hour operating weather station, “Knob Lake tracts for seismic, isostatic rebound, permafrost, and other A.” The director lived in an adjacent building that con- work. The routine weather work was a wonderful basis for tained a tiny library, a darkroom, and a seismograph. Life an academic institution. As there were only a few years of in both buildings was dominated by the chatter of teletypes, weather data available in that region, the students were, in through which weather data were transmitted and received. effect, gathering data to define a “new climate.” Also the It is easy to forget this basic function of the Lab. The staff, staff of this rather special weather station could creatively supervised by the senior meteorological observer, transmit- handle extra weather-related programs, such as lake cover ted hourly weather data, briefed pilots, and later, developed and snow cover surveys and auroral observations. These local storm forecasts for the mines located in the hills above official activities provided data that could be worked up as the town. This is a region of terrible weather! Most weather research projects (Fig. 2). observations, including the tracking of daily pilot balloons, 124 INFONORTH • 125 defense lines of the Cold War), which was a useful source of helicopter and other support. The weather work schedule varied, but a popular option was a week of 12-hour days, a week off, a week of 12-hour nights, and then a two-week break. This gave each student long periods for personal work. The weather room was the focus of the Lab, a place for work and socializing with visi- tors coming for “the weather.” This was an advantage, in that one could roll out of bed and go to work, but it was a disadvantage for the person trying to sleep after the previ- ous night’s shift. There was always someone trying to sleep. The “Lab projects,” handed from student to student over the years, mainly grew out of the weather program. They were lake ice and snow cover surveys and local cli- mate and permafrost studies. The person responsible for the lake cover survey would make weekly measurements on local lakes and would write up the results in the Lab’s publication, the McGill Sub-Arctic Research Papers. Simi- larly the snow survey person would make measurements at a site near the Lab, along fixed snow courses and at a snow stratigraphy site, in the bush. Both of these projects were of heightened interest because they provided background FIG. 2. The weather room of the Lab, social and professional information for the huge James Bay and Churchill hydro- centre of McGill’s aviation weather station, “Knob Lake A.” Jim power schemes that were being developed during those Gray (University of Aberdeen, later Université de Montréal) years. Schefferville is located on the watershed between on duty. Note the teletypes through which weather data were these two developments. The permafrost project involved constantly received and transmitted. weekly measurements of near-surface ground tempera- ture profiles at sites located in a variety of topographic and An annual routine was established during the terms of vegetational situations. The Iron Ore Company of Canada, the first two resident directors, Norm Drummond, 1954 – 57 which ran the mines and the town, was interested in this (McGill University: alumnus and faculty) and Jack Ives, work because its mines were in a region of discontinuous 1957 – 60 (University of Nottingham, England, later Geo- permafrost. The local climate project involved regular visits graphical Branch, Ottawa, and University of Colorado, to a network of small weather stations scattered around the USA). Students who had begun weather observer training region. Among other things, these data were important for at Dorval Airport, Montreal, arrived at the Lab in the sum- the local storm forecast system that the Lab developed for mer to complete their training with the senior meteorologi- the mines. Data from these projects were reported regularly cal advisor. They began work as weather observers while as an adjunct to the Knob Lake A weather station reports. exploring the area on foot and in canoes and discussing Over the years, as data accumulated, these more or less their own thesis research with the director. This summer routine projects became the basis for more academic pub- field activity was important training for the students’ own lications, including graduate theses. For example, the lake field research in the following year. At some point, they cover project was complemented by detailed surveys of the would take over one of the Lab’s year-round research pro- ice cover of one or more lakes, and the snow surveys were jects (described below) from an outgoing student. extended to include end-of-winter surveys of whole water- In the fall, when the staff turnover was complete and the sheds (Figs. 3 and 4). Such year-round outdoor work gave summer visitors had left, the Lab settled down to its win- the students a healthy respect for the severe environment in ter routine of 24-hour weather observations, daily seismic which they were living (Fig. 5). measurements, classes, Lab projects, and personal research. By spring (the mean date of lake break-up was 15 June), The classes were made more interesting by the stream of students were writing up their project reports, doing exams, academic visitors who came to do research or simply out of and getting ready for their own summer of fieldwork. This curiosity. The lists of visitors from all over the world pro- summer research might be in the general vicinity of Schef- vide a glimpse of the polar research networks of the day. ferville, but often it was at distant sites across the length Each staff member had a study bedroom (“my cell”). These and breadth of the Quebec-Labrador peninsula. This was were more or less heated—one student wrote a paper on also the time for meeting and briefing those who would the microclimate of his room. In the early and later years, replace them for the following academic year, as well as Lab personnel cooked in the Lab kitchen. For the years students and researchers who would be based at the Lab for in between, they were able to eat on the nearby RCAF/ the summer. Many of these summer people went on to make Marconi Mid Canada Line base (one of the northern radar significant contributions to Canada’s North. The departing 126 • INFONORTH FIG. 3. Graduate students snow surveying: David Archer (Queen’s University, Belfast, later hydrologist in the United Kingdom), Dick Cowan (Carleton University, later with the Geological Survey of Ontario), and Bruce Findlay (University of Toronto, later with Environment Canada). resident students would return at the end of the summer FIG. 4. Snow stratigraphy site, one of the Lab research projects to touch base with their replacements before returning to (Bob Rogerson, Liverpool University, later Memorial University McGill to write theses as hardened “Arctic” hands. and University of Lethbridge). they lived and worked. These interests are reflected in the RESEARCH EMPHASES OVER THE YEARS McGill Sub-Arctic Research Papers and other publications of those years. The research emphases of the Lab evolved over time. Jack Ives used the new knowledge of the surface of the They were influenced by the staff of particular years and peninsula to field-test the concept of a radial retreat of the by developments in polar research in Canada and overseas. Laurentide Ice Sheet from the coastal rims of the peninsula Each year built on what came before. However, the direc- towards its centre. He and his students used the air photo tors, usually in residence for three years, were particularly patterns to select field sites in key areas of glacial retreat, influential in the Lab’s research and teaching directions.