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COVER PICTURE CONTENTS

Daring Rescues Cheat Winter Khlebnikov reaches shipping's deepest point south I

Thirty five make traverse to Pole i B a d W e a t h e r H a r d o n To u r S h i p s I What's Eating Antarctica? 57 Bassler ski-equipped DC3 of World Logistics deploys a University of Canterbury geological field New Fisheries Research Station i party in the Rennick Glacier, northern Victoria Land, November 2000. Photograph: John Bradshaw ATV Use Improves Ross Sea Visit Options 61

Volume 18, No. 3 & 4, 2001 Energy Efficient Antarctic Sea Urchin 6 Issue No. 174 The Plight of the Albatross 6 ANTARCTIC is published quarterly by the New Zealand Antarctic Society Inc., ISSN 0003-5327. To Drill or Not to Drill? 64 Please address all editorial enquiries to Warren Head, Publisher, 'Antarctic', PO Box 2369, Christchurch, or Tel 03 365 0344, facsimile 03 365 4255, Remote Meteorite Sampling i email: head consul [email protected] Printed by Herald Communications, 52 Bank Street, Timaru, New Zealand. G a t e w a y t o A n t a r c t i c S u c c e s s i Massive 2001 US Programme '/t Call for articles H a m o n I c e 7 Reconstruction of Scott Base 74 We invite readers to submit articles for Over My Shoulder, a series relating to past experiences Antarctic Bases No 1: Terra Nova 7 in Antarctica. The aim is to record memories in print so that they are not lost to the future. Review: Foothold on Antarctica 79 Contributions from any country will be accepted. Review: British Polar Exploration and Research I Topical discussions on Antarctic themes are also welcome. R e v i e w : L e t H e r o e s S p e a k I

Please send to: The Editor, New Zealand Space Mapping Catches Antarctica in Motion 83 Antarctic Society, C/o PO Box 404, Christchurch, New Zealand. Tribute: Robin Langford Oliver I Tribute: James Maurice Maitland Caffin, MBE 85 Colourful Antarctic Tartan J

Volume 18, No. 3 & 4, 2001 Antarctic NEWS Daring Rescues Cheat Winter HERCULES AND TWIN OTTER PILOTS MADE ICE HISTORY Every once in a while, human en deavour reminds us that, like space exploration, Antarctica is one of the most challenging frontiers. Accustomed to the regular com muting of aircraft to the continent, which occurs in the summer season as a virtual airline service, the public have become increasingly blase about the enormous risks associated with Antarctic transportation. Just as the space shuttles of NASA are launched on almost routine schedules, the long flights south and back have largely faded into folklore. Well almost...just as a billionaire can return the focus of mankind to space, so too can an event tinged with human drama and emotion emerge from the Ice to claim back the front pages of newspapers around the planet. In that way great drama is Christchurch pilot Flight Lieutenant Nathan MacDonald's family welcome him compressed into how millions of hu home from the McMurdo rescue mission. From left to right: grandparents Helen man beings feel about the plight of and Bill Watson, cousin Simon Watson (front), uncle Graham Watson and another. It is the way modern media Nathan's girlfiend Sophie Lee. Photo: David Alexander, The Press. work. So it was that two human dramas works co-operatively with the US tal, New Zealand, after the flight and coincided in the final days of summer Antarctic program to pool flights dur three others suffered minor health 2000-01 to seize attention to Antarc ing the normal Antarctic summer. ailments. Because there was an air tica, both involving emergency flights Two Americans were in a stable medi craft with space available, a number to the continent to uplift ill people. cal condition at Christchurch Hospi- of other United States staff that were On 24 April 2001 a Royal New Zea scheduled to stay in the Antarctica for land Air Force Hercules aircraft the winter left McMurdo for "a vari evacuated 11 Americans, five ill, from ety of reasons" including non-emer McMurdo Station. The RNZAF un gency medical problems. Details of dertook the mission at the request of the illnesses were unavailable from the Antarctica New Zealand, which Raytheon Polar Services which pro vides services to the US Antarctic Pro gram but media sources indicated \ fir4t> oi/X v*HAT that one of the men in hospital had a |.H/fPPfW0P vVHftV serious heart condition and another \X^1 frtAWOif! had injuries from a fall. Some of the others had family emergencies or per sonal reasons including industrial relations issues behind their evacua tion. The aircraft, stationed at Whenuapi field in Auckland flew to Christchurch, the regular departure point for the Ice. The New Zealand aircraft carried two aircrews for the long flight South Physician Dr Ronald Shemenski and back, a small maintenance crew arrives in Chile after a dangerous and two medical personnel - a total rescue from the South Pole. of 15 people. Cartoon courtesy "The Press. Photo: Reuters.

52 Volume 18, No. 3 & 4, 2001 Antarctic NEWS

A RNZAF Hercules flew on a 15 hour 6000km flight with only half an hour of daylight available to land at McMurdo Station. Photo: Paul Harrison, RNZAF Public Relations.

The New Zealand manager for nications manager Vivienne Allan Dr Shemenski expressed his will Raytheon, John Sherve, praised the says the lack of light had made the ingness to winter over and "suffer Hercules crew for their heroic effort mission particularly dangerous. Ant whatever consequences might oc in making a 15-hour 6000km flight arctica was only days away from the cur", but the National Science Foun from Christchurch to McMurdo and moment when the sun dips below the dation, which operates the back late in the twilight zone of the horizon for the four month period of Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station, year. "The mission was very well han total winter darkness. where Dr Shemenski was working, dled and very successful. We cannot The first leg of the flight should became 'deeply concerned' about his thank the RNZAF enough." have taken 7 1/2 hours but a head problem and put together a rescue Hercules pilot Flight Lieutenant wind added an hour. On landing the plan. The degree of difficulty in res Nathan MacDonald reported engines of the aircraft were kept run cuing Dr Shemenski were described weather conditions at McMurdo as "a ning to prevent them freezing in the as "extreme' as the last plane for the bit iffy" as the aircraft approadied the -30deg C temperatures. "We just summer had left the South Pole on 15 continent with less light than normal. missed the peak of daylight but there February two months earlier and the "There was no defined horizon was enough light left to get the job sun had set for the last time for the and it was hard to see the ground done," says mission commander John season on 15 March. Temperatures surface," he said. "It was reasonably Cummings. "There was a reasonably had fallen into the range that made challenging weather conditions." low cloud base and diffuse light." any attempt to land an aircraft ex The Hercules spent an hour on the Another medical drama was being tremely dangerous, at-63deg Celsius ground at McMurdo, which is played, almost simultaneously, out at and with wind chill -72deg. 1300km from the South Pole, to pick the South Pole itself, where an Ameri Initially a plan to use one of the up the evacuees and refuel. The flight can doctor Ronald Shemenski, 59, world's only ski-equipped LC-130 was the first ever undertaken to the had suffered a gall bladder attack and Hercules aircraft, operated by the Ice by the RNZAF as late as April, had been diagnosed as having poten 109lh Airlift Wing of the New York Air with winter closing in and leaving tially life-threatening pancreatis, an National Guard was contemplated just 30 minutes of visible sunlight and inflammation of the pancreas. The US but reportedly the planes were turned a six hour window of dusk light for authorities feared he could suffer an back on arrival at Hawaii when it was landing and departure. The RNZAF other setback during the long winter decided to use a smaller aircraft for has flown to the Antarctic in August, months that were approaching. the mission. which has similar weather and day The issue then became whether an Two eight-seater Twin Otter air light conditions to April. aircraft could land and evacuate him craft were chartered from a private Antarctica New Zealand commu safely. Continued on Page 61

Volume 18, No. 3 & 4, 2001 53 Antarctic NEWS Khlebnikov reaches shipping's deepest point south On 11 January 2001, the Russian icebreaker Kapitan Khlebnikov broke the most southerly shipping record by reaching latitude 78° 37' S in the southeastern Ross Sea. The Khlebnikov, charted by Quark Expeditions, was on the second of it's three voyages this season to the Ross Sea and achieved the record by en tering the Bay of Whales at longitude 162° 02'E and landing passengers. Before this season the record had stood at 78° 30'S. Ships that dock ad jacent to the McMurdo Station reach only 77° 50'S. The larger 'indent' of the Bay of Whales resulted from the massive ice-edge calving event that occurred in March 2000. Satellite photographs show that a 30 km wide zone of the Ross Ice Shelf had broken away along 250 km of its edge to form the massive B15 iceberg. Since its formation, this iceberg has broken into at least seven smaller fragments (B15 A to B15F), all of which are being tracked by the US National Ice Centre (NIC). The Khlebnikov's Master, Peter Golikov, reported that it took his ship seven hours to travel the length of B15A, the largest of the remaining fragments. The National Ice Centre estimates from satellite imagery that the size of B15A is 140 km by 30 km. The Bay of Whales was the win tering site of Roald Amundsen's Nor wegian expedition and its departure point for their successful journey to the South Pole. The bay owes its ori gin to a local topographic high below the Ross Ice Shelf immediately to the south of the bay. The high creates doming of the ice to form Roosevelt Island, and this in turn affects the dy namics of the Ross Ice Shelf along its margin. The Kapitan Khlebnikov on Weddell Sea pack ice. Photo courtesy Colin Monteath from his book "Antarctica - Beyond the Southern Ocean".

54 Volume 18, No. 3 & 4, 2001 NEWS Antarctic Thirty five make traverses to Pole Of the five private "Across Antarc and from the South Pole. For the first tica" expeditions that were originally few days the two men experienced dif planned for this season, only one was ficulty pulling their 165 kg sledges and completely successful. Eirik were forced to depot some of their Sonneland and Rolf Bae of the Nor load and to modify their sledge run wegian Antarctic Expedition were the ners. After that things improved, and only traversers to complete the course the pair completed their journey in 66 The Spirit of Sydney, which suffered (see Antarctic vol. 18 no. 2, p. 43). The days, taking only two weeks for the damage from pack ice off the coast of two-woman Bancroft Arneson Expe journey back to the Patriot Hills. Adelie Land. dition (Ann Bancroft US, Liv Arneson, On the 31 December nine members Norway) traversed as far as the Ross of the "Pole to Pole 2000" Expedition Ice Shelf but ran out of time and had arrived at the Pole after skiing 220 km Ice damage to give up to avoid missing a ship to in 13 days from latitude 88° S. The transport them from Antarctica (vol. group comprised leader Martyn 18 no 2, p. 29). Williams and Dylan Spencer to yacht Stane Klemenc (Slovenia) a solo (Canada), Jay Choi (South Korea), The 19 metre yacht Spirit of skier who hoped to make the crossing Devlin Fogg (South Africa), Jessica Sydney suffered damage to its using a unique chair-parasail combi Casas and Heidi Hausman (US), nation, was forced to abort his Mercedes Rosauer (Argentina), Naoki hull, steering system and propel ler when it became caught in planned traverse from 'Blue 1" in Ishikawa (Japan) and Renaurd Rich Dronning Maud Land at the end of ard (France). Four of the group had pack ice for several days off the November due to a leg injury. Pulling intended to ski back to the Patriot Hills coast of Adelie Land in late Janu the weight of the sledge and parasail but this part of the plan was aban ary. The yacht had left Hobart system (200 kg) up towards the Pla doned. on 11 January on its eighth voy teau may have contributed to his in Gregers Gjersoe and Kristian Joos age to Commonwealth Bay in jury, which kept him tent bound for of the Danish "South Pole Expedition the last six years with a crew of at least two days. Poor communica 2000" reached the South Pole 12 Janu ten people, eight of them paying tions with "Blue 1" due to solar activ ary after making a 1100 km unsup for the opportunity of crewing ity and "spoiling" of some of ported manhauling traverse from on the ship. Klemenc's food did nothing to help Hercules Inlet on the Ronne Ice shelf. Bad weather for the first part the situation, and the lone skier re They initially had a poor start on 19 of the voyage made the ship five turned to "Blue 1" and onto South November due to bad weather. days later than usual, and then Africa early December. Klemenc is an Bad weather and a late start also af it took four days to penetrate 80 experienced climber who has the fast fected the eight-person "Last Degree" km of dense pack ice (9/10ths est climb of Mount Vinson to his group. They began their 115 km ski credit. trek to the Pole from Latitude 89° on concentration) before reaching Two other major traverses, the "Ca 31 December after being flown in from open water near Common nadian Antarctic Millennium Expedi Patriot Hills. The leader of the group, wealth Bay. After a very short tion" and the two woman "Trans-Ant Laurie Dexter, had originally planned stay at the bay where no land arctic Expedition" (see Antarctica vol. to cross Antarctica this season with ings were attempted the yacht 18 no 1, p. 77) were forced to cancel compatriot Scott Smith as the "Cana attempted to re-cross the pack ice due to lack of funds. dian Antarctic Millennium Expedi belt but soon became beset. Ice Eight private groups planned tion", but this failed due to lack of pressure caused leaks in the ten traverses to the Geographic South Pole funding. Also part of the "Last De millimetre thick alurrtinium hull this season but only six completed the gree" group was Australian Brigitte and measures were taken to pre course. "Alone Expedition" and the Muir who plans her own traverse in pare the ship for a rapid evacua "Trinity Expedition were cancelled. 2001-02. tion. The first group to arrive at the The "Challenging Horizons: a Blind The Australian Search and South Pole, on 28 December, was the Man's Journey to the Edges of the Rescue Centre (AusSAR) in Can Sasquatch Expedition (Marc World" group comprised UK blind ad berra asked the French national Cornelissen and Wilco van Rooijen) af venturer Miles Hilton-Barber, his com programme vessel L'Astrolabe, ter a 48 day trek from Patriot Hills. panion Jon Cook, and ANI Guides only two days away on a voy The pair had been flown into the Pa Doug Stoup and Damien Gildea. The triot Hills 9 November to begin a 2200 group arrived at Patriot Hills 18 No- age between Hobart and km unsupported return journey to Continued on page 56 Continued on page 56

Volume 18, No. 3 & 4, 2001 55 Antarctic NEWS Bad weather hard on tour ships

Rough seas soon after the Kapitan bridge left the vessel without steer proposed visit to Ross Island and the Khlebnikov left Bluff, New Zealand, on age or control of its engines for almost historic huts had to be cancelled. its final voyage of the season left a two hours. Radar, navigation lights, A similar storm hit the Linblad passenger with a suspected fractured gyrocompass, echo sounder and pri Expedition's tour ship Caledonian Star skull after he struck a mirror in his mary VHF line of sight radio were on 2 March south-west of the Falk cabin. The cut was stitched by the non-functional, causing an automatic land Islands with winds up to 100 doctor on board, but was reopened 'mayday' call to be transmitted. knots. There was extensive water after heavy bleeding. The vessel The Bremen, owned by the Hapag damage when a large wave broke turned back towards New Zealand Lloyd Company, was carrying 137 windows, but the ship was never out and met with a helicopter eight miles passengers at the time and was on its of control. south of Stewart Island, where the in way from South Georgia to Rio de Ja Caledonian Star was originally built jured man and his wife were lifted off neiro. Because of the damage and the as a factory fishing trawler for Green and taken to Invercargill Hospital. A rough seas, the ship was diverted to land waters. Despite being capable scan showed that the injury was not Buenos Aires where passengers were of handling rough seas well, it was as serious as at first thought. disembarked and where repairs forced to head into the sea for most On the other side of the continent, could be made. Repairs were com of the day to ride out the Antarctic 950 km northwest of South Georgia, pleted by 2 March and the ship left to storm. An 'enormous wave' struck the Bremen was on its second and fi resume tour operations in Brazil. the ship in the late afternoon, dam nal voyage of the season. On 22 Feb The Bremen, formerly the Frontier aging the starboard bridge wing be ruary it met strong winds and nine Spirit, has been operating in Antarc fore breaking four of the windows on to 14 metre high waves. One of these tic waters since 1989, but this year did the bridge. waves smashed the windows of the not prove to be an easy one. On ifs One passenger is reported to have bridge, normally 12 metres above sea earlier voyage of the season on a cir fallen and dislocated a shoulder dur level. cumnavigation of Antarctica from ing the storm, otherwise, apart from Although no one was injured, the New Zealand, the ship was unable to a minor sprain, there were no inju strength of the wave and the large enter the Ross Sea due to very dense ries. None of the injuries are believed volume of water that entered the pack near the Balleny Islands. The to have been the direct result of the wave that struck the bridge.

// Colombia and Ireland. Mission Antarctica" death It was the second voyage of 2041 A crewmember on the 22 metre Endurance who removed Ms Grego for "Mission Antarctica", whose yacht 2041 collapsed during the cross ry's body to Bellingshausen Station, project has been to assist the Russian ing of the Drake Passage on 25 Janu from where it was flown to the Falk Government to remove and recycle ary 2001 en route to King George Is land Islands the following day. some 1000 tonnes of rubbish from land. Despite the efforts of the eleven The remaining passengers, all Bellingshausen Station. Unfortu others on board and medical advice members of the Royal and Sun Alli nately it was also the second mishap by satellite, the 26 year old woman, ance Insurance Company, a major of the season. Another passenger had Phillipa Gregory, died from unknown sponsor of the mission, were flown to be evacuated by air in early Decem causes. from Marsh Station to Punta Arenas, ber 2000 after dislocating his elbow A distress call from the yacht was Chile, and are believed to have re in a fall. answered by the British Naval ship turned home to Australia, Canada,

from the ice a few days later and Southern Ocean, using sail power. 'Ice Damage managed to manoeuvre its way On arrival skipper Chris Roberts north, making as many temporary was quoted by a Hobart newspa repairs as possible. It rendezvoused per as saying that he and his nine to Yacht' with UAstrolabe on 31 January. The companions "had an argument Continued from Page 55 sea worthiness of the yacht was as with nature" and that they were sessed and declared safe, and re Dumont d'Urville station, if it "very, very, very lucky". quests from several concerned The Spirit of Sydney is owned and would assist the yacht. The AusSAR members from the yacht to be taken operated by the Ocean Frontiers also placed a Royal Australian Air on board the French ship were de Company, an Australian Yachting Force (RAAF) Hercules on standby clined. Federation Endorsed Training Es in case an airdrop of emergency The yacht finally made it back to tablishment that provides adven equipment was needed. Hobart on 21 February after a slow ture sailing voyages. However, the yacht was released three-week voyage across the

56 Volume 18, No. 3 & 4, 2001 Antarctic NEWS Whafs Eating Antarctica?

In March 2000, an 11,000-square- In contrast, large southern bergs, kilometre iceberg the size of Con which often cover hundreds of square necticut (B15) split from the Ross Ice kilometres, periodically split off from Shelf in Antarctica. Two months later, ancient ice shelves that float atop the a similar area of ice broke free from frigid southern seas. Nourished by the continent's Ronne Ice Shelf. Three the languid flow of solid kilometres- months after that, the Ninnis Glacier thick ice sheets overlying the conti Tongue, a 1,450 sq.-km slab of ice jut nent, some of these ice shelves are ting into the sea, snapped off near the hundreds of metres thick and cover shoreline and cast off for warmer shallow coastal regions the size of climes. Texas or larger. One of the giant Ross Shelf icebergs Last September, yet another huge near Cape Crozier, January 2001 Although the Arctic Ocean doesn't chunk of ancient ice broke free from have such perennial ice shelves these the Ross Ice Shelf. Now, satellites Photograph Margaret Bradshaw. days, there are hints of their earlier have detected a crack across the Ant shedding from the continent's presence. Scientists recently reported arctic ice shelf that's fed by the Pine southernmost ice shelves. In fact, sci huge scrapes and gouges on deep Island Glacier. This massive fissure entists argue, the ice shelves were undersea sediments there, which sug promises to spawn another megaberg overdue to unload these huge bur gest that kilometre-thick ice shelves in the next 12 to 18 months. dens. graced the Arctic seas during some Scientists are asking what's behind Antarctic icebergs are a breed apart previous ice ages this sudden mass exodus. Each Ant from their Arctic brethren. Most large North or south, massive changes arctic ice shelf typically sheds a su icebergs in the Northern Hemisphere in the icescape normally happen per-size iceberg only once every few calve from glaciers that flow into the slowly. Last year's Antarctic emigres decades. Global warming might seem ocean along the coasts of Alaska and seem to be following a new set of like the most likely explanation, but Greenland. Smaller chunks come rules, however. They were cast away researchers have been unable to di from the breakup of ice that forms on in quick succession, as if the conti- rectly link warming to the rapid-fire the ocean every winter Continued on Page 68

snowboard in November 2000. The Orbcomm text-message satellite sys Thirty five make late arrival of the "Challenging Hori tem. traverses to Pole zons" team at the Pole left Stroup with Each Orbcomm message is limited insufficient time for his second ven to a maximum of 200 characters and Continued from Page 55 ture, and the "Alone Expedition" was the Sjorgens say that their software di vember and was flown to Hercules In postponed. vides each image into individual text- let to begin the 1100 km traverse on 20 The British/American couple Tho message packages, which after pass November. One month later Hilton- mas and Tina Sjorgen of "The Pole ing through the satellite system are re Barber was forced to abandon his at Wearables Expedition 2000-01", left assembled at the receiving point us Hercules Inlet in Ellsworth Land on ing related software. Tests of the sys tempt when he got frost bitten hands. 19 November at the start of an unsup tem and software appear to have Although not serious, the fact that he was so reliant on his hands was a key ported, 1100 km traverse to the South worked successfully in Venezuela and factor in his decision to leave the Geographic Pole. They planned to from Mount Everest Base Camp, al group. The three remaining members complete a similar journey across the though some trials conducted in Arc continued to the Pole arriving 20 Janu Arctic Ocean to the North Geographic tic regions have been unsuccessful. Pole by early May 2002. One of the An image from Hercules Inlet was ary after a journey of 62 days, and on the same day as ANI's "Ski South aims of the Expedition was to test a successfully transmitted via Pole" commercial group. new, light-weight, 'wearable' commu Orbcomm before the pair's departure. The "Alone Expedition", organised nications system that had been de The party made slow progress and took six weeks to reach the halfway by the California company Xstreme signed to provide "unlimited global Climb, was an attempt by Doug communications" for small mobile mark. Thomas was reported as hav parties operating in remote areas, in ing a non-life threatening illness that Stroup to ride a specially designed bi was slowing the pair. The Sjorgen's cycle to the South Geographic Pole cluding the polar regions. In addition from the Patriot Hills after he had to the hardware, which consists of a were forced to abort the traverse on head-mounted eye piece, a small com 21 January when they were picked up completed his part as a guide with the puter worn on the waist and a 'mouse' by an ANI aircraft still 260km from the "Challenging Horizons" trip in Janu attached to a finger, the prototype also ary. Stroup has the distinction of hav Pole, and only a short time before Ad contains new software designed to al venture Network International opera ing descended the Vinson Massif on a low the transmission of images via the tions closed down for the season.

Volume 18, No. 3 & 4, 2001 Antarctic NEWS Modern Antarctic Kayak Adventure has Successful Outcome Who said there were no modern schooner Seamaster. After landing welcomed for an overnight stay at the Antarctic heroes? This year has seen they made a short visit to Argentina's the Ukranian station Vernadsky on 4 the emergence of several, including Esperanza station. February. the participants of Antarctica's first Storage space in the kayaks was The next part of the journey was major kayak adventure. limited, a mere single cubic metre in the 160 km to the Antarctic Circle and On 19 February 2001 three New the three craft combined, which had Adelaide Island. The team reported Zealand friends, Graham Charles, 34, to accommodate camping gear, cloth "some good drama", which included Marcus Waters, 35, and Mark Jones, ing and food, leaving little in reserve. "difficult landings" in surf and the 37, all experienced kayakers and As they followed the coast southward need to repair one of the boats. There climbers, successfully completed a during the next week, the party found was also the near swamping of one 700 km self-supported kayaking jour the long exposed sections of the route of their overnight camps by a large ney down the western side of the 'nerve wracking', with frequent wave from the collapse of an iceberg, Antarctic Peninsula. weather changes that included snow and some "very long, exposed cross "The Antarctic Peninsula Sea and high winds. Some days were as ings" during which they were con Kayaking Expedition" was organised long as fourteen hours. The boats cerned that katabatic winds would by the non-profit organisation "Ad performed well, but the three layers "whisk" them out to sea. venture Philosophy". The expedition of kevlar in their bows was "taking a The longest, seventeen hour day was seen as a flag bearer for 21sl-cen- hammering in the ice". occurred after they crossed the Ant tury adventure and aimed to show At Gourdin Island they were arctic Circle on 18 February, when today's youth that modern adventur forced to wait a day for sea ice to they pushed on with a 90 km over ing was still possible in a world where move out of the bay in which they night paddle to the end of their jour major challenges are becoming fewer were camped. They visited the Chil ney at Adelaide Island. It was "very and fewer. ean station Bernado O'Higgins. At cold" that night and the kayakers Graham Charles is one of New Duparc Rocks they were lucky to were "totally encased in ice except Zealand's top kayakers, a veteran of make a safe landing in a large swell, [for their] arms where the movement three world championships, an Ant and they met surfing conditions in kept the ice from forming". Up to a arctic field instructor at Scott Base in Lancaster Bay. centimetre of ice built up on the kay 1998-99-and author of "Bible of New The half-way point of the journey aks, and progress was slow as the sea Zealand Whitewater destinations". had been passed by the time they was starting to freeze and they were Marcus Waters grew up at Outward reached Sprightly Island in Hughes paddling through grease ice. Bound in Marlborough where his fa Bay on the evening of 29 January, af After their arrival at Adelaide Is ther, Ray Waters, an "Old Antarctic ter pushing through five km of heavy land the three men made contact with Explorer", had been Deputy Warden. brash ice to reach the Island, where the tour ship Explorer, which was able Marcus had been friends with the ship Tooluka had earlier estab to forward a report to their headquar Graham since childhood, and was lished a food depot. ters in New Zealand, thereby break involved a few years ago in Antarctic After leaving Cuverville Island, ing a two-week silence on their field work with the New Zealand pro where conditions were good enough whereabouts. Explorer offered to gramme. Mark Jones had spent his for a swim, the three men paddled carry the men and their boats 300 km life tutoring in outdoors education down the Errera Chanel and through north to Port Lockroy, arriving 21 and was in charge of Outdoor Rec Andvord Bay before camping at February. This transport was impor reation Programme at the Auckland Waterboat Point. From there they tant as their pickup ship, the Tooluka, University of Technology. All three travelled around Paradise Bay and had been delayed by bad weather in men had worked for some years at across Gerlache strait to camp over Drake Passage and could now pick the Sir Edmund Hillary Outdoor Pur night on Truant Island just south of them up from Port Lockroy rather suits Centre in Turangi. Wiencke Island. They visited Port than Adelaide Island. On board the On 16 January 2001 the three Lockroy on 1 February and then spent Tooluka was a film crew to make a kayakers were landed at Hope Bay, two days passing through the documentary on the trio's adventures at the northern end of the Antarctic Lemaire Channel and visiting Peter- for television. Tooluka arrived back in Peninsula, by Sir Peter Blake's man Island. The three kayakers were Ushuaia, Argentina, in early March 2001.

58 Volume 18, No. 3 & 4, 2001 Antarctic NEWS Dangerous Rock Conditions Force Revision of Holtanna Peak Climb

Dangerous rock conditions on the few metres square that hung from the ouacs. The ascent was described as northern summit of Holtanna Peak cliff face. Ice had to be carried from very difficult in a number of places, forced the Queen Maud Land Inter the bottom of the climb for water. but all six climbers reached the south national Expedition (QMLIE) to re Within a few days it became obvi ern summit. vise its planned climbing programme ous that the rock on the sheer 800 m During the first two weeks of the late last month (see Antarctic Vol. 18 high wall was rotten and that it was New Year the expedition spent time no 1, p. 5). The climbers did, how too dangerous to continue upwards. 'picking off as many virgin summits ever, successfully reach Holtanna's The climbers were able to negotiate a in the area as possible'. The group southern summit late on 31 Decem candle of rock adjacent to the north also made several parasail-assisted ber. ern face that was half as high as the journeys for filming, and looked for The plan had been to climb the main face. Due to the conditions on meteorites in nearby blue ice areas. sheer walls of Holtanna's northern the main face, climbing aids that had Three members of the QMLIE left peak, then to cross the intervening been fixed to the rock, together with Antarctica on a 'Polar Logistics' flight rock ridge and descend after climb a 'few hundred metres' of climbing on 8 February from 'Blue 1' to Cape ing the southern peak rope, were left behind on its lower Town, South Africa, but at that date As soon as the group had estab reaches. there were still eight remaining mem lished their 11-man base camp a kilo The party then decided to climb bers in the Orvin Mountains area. metre from the mountain, six climb Holtanna's southern peak which had The eight are believed to have trav ers began an attempt on the northern better rock, following the same route elled to the South African SANAE summit on 18 December. They took used by a Norwegian group seven Base, then to the German Georg von with them four portaledges on which years ago. The climb took about five Nuemeyer Base, where they boarded they would camp, each a platform a days and involved a number of biv- the icebreaker Polarstern for passage to Punta Arenas, Chile. 'Heatwave' Stresses Penguins French scientists have warned that Egg hatching penguins in the Antarctic could be The temperature in very susceptible to changes in climate crease in Terre Adelie, and could be threatened by any long- which lasted into the early term temperature shifts. The researchers made their re 1980s, raised sea-surface marks after observing a dramatic de temperatures and reduced the extent of local sea ice. cline in the population of one bird Reduced sea ice is associated with colony, which coincided with an ab a lower abundance of krill, the small cess by increasing the distance be normal warm period in the Southern tween the hatching areas and the Ocean in the 1970s. shrimps that are a key element of a penguin's diet along with fish and hunting grounds, the scientists The penguin numbers at Dumont found. This meant that the penguin d'Urville Station in Terre Adelie were squid. population faced a trade-off between found to have dropped abruptly by Christophe Barbraud and Henri Wirmerskirch, from the Centre finding enough food to survive and 50% when the average winter tem t r . . 1 . . • . 1 d'Etudes Biologiques de Chize, in peratures in the area rose from minus Villiers en Bois, wrote of their find colony. 17.3°C to minus 14.7°C. ings in the journal Nature: "In years However, British researchers cau with high SSTs (sea surface tempera tioned against jumping to conclu The researchers report that pen- sions about any global warming and tures) emperor penguins probably have difficulties in fine" insisted that overall penguin num which could increase mortality." now stabilised. However, they write bers in the Antarctic were healthy. Paradoxically, extensive winter in Nature: "Our results... indicate that pack ice reduced egg-hatching suc- Continued on Page 67

Volume 18, No. 3 & 4, 2001 Antarctic NEWS New Fisheries Research Station on South Georgia

Panoramic view of King Edward Point, South Georgia. The new Applied Fisheries Labo ashore by rigid raider, a service at the BAS' return to a permanent presence ratory at King Edward Point, South old whaling church in Grytviken, and on the island, and heralds a new Georgia was officially inaugurated at the laying of wreaths on the graves phase in the administration of South a ceremony on 22 March 2001 by the of Sir Ernest Shackleton and a young Georgia. I am sure that the Survey's Commissioner for South Georgia and Argentine sailor who was killed dur research into the biology and ecology the South Sandwich Islands, His Ex ing the retaking of South Georgia in of the various fish species around cellency Donald Lamont. Amongst 1982. It was an event for the history South Georgia will bring considerable those present were the Director of the books, coinciding as it did with the benefits to the development of long- British Antarctic Survey, Professor relocation of the military garrison to term sustainable fisheries in the re Chris Rapley, Commander of British the Falkland Islands after nineteen gion, and benefit the UK's input to the Forces in the Falkland Islands, Air years at King Edward Point. BAS now Antarctic Fisheries Commission Commodore John Cliffe, and Dr Inigo has the responsibility to maintain the (CCAMLR). The establishment of Everson (BAS Marine Biologist after UK presence in South Georgia. new facilities on South Georgia will whom the accommodation block was The project to design, transport augment BAS' existing role in provid named) together with military per and build the new facilities were a ing a first class programme of science sonnel, media representatives, and race against time, given early delays in the Antarctic. This reaffirms Gov staff and contractors of the British and the worst summer weather at ernment policy that BAS should be Antarctic Survey. King Edward Point for years. the primary means through which The ceremonies included the nam On the occasion of the inaugura the UK can continue to maintain its ing of the James Cook Laboratory and tion, Baroness Scotland, the Foreign presence and profile in Antarctica". Everson House, numerous speeches, Office Parliamentary Under Secretary © Copyright Natural Environment a lunch with champagne air-dropped of State, wrote officially: "The occu Research Council - British Antarctic into Cumberland Bay and brought pation of these facilities will mark Survey 2001.

Fourth Antarctic Marathon run at sea participants, while some would also have taken part in the events. The 4th Antarctic Marathon and disembark and the ship headed south Determined not to disappoint, the half marathon planned for King down the Antarctic Peninsula. company decided to run the mara If all had gone to plan, the races George Island in the south Shetlands thon on board the ship. The half were both thwarted by bad weather would have started and finished at marathon was run on 6 February and in early February this year. the Uruguayan station Artigas and the 16 participants made 172 laps of The event was organised by the US passed through Russian Deck 5 of the Lyubov Orlova. The full based Marathon Tours, who carried (Bellinghausen), Chilean (Presedentie marathon was held the next day with 108 runners aboard the Lyubov Orlova. Eduardo Frei), and Chinese (Great 92 competitors making 344 revolu Routes were marked on 2 February Wall) facilities. Staff from the stations tions of Deck 6. in gale force winds that persisted for were to operate way points on the The 5th marathon is already being three days. The weather was consid courses, provide water, medical as planned for King George Island 30 ered too dangerous for the runners to sistance and 'supportive cheers' to January 2002.

Volume 18, No. 3 & 4, 2001 Antarctic NEWS ATV Use Improves Ross Sea Visit Options

Heritage Expeditions, the New kilometres. The ATVs travelled fifty Zealand company which has con kilometres from the ship to Hut Point ducted tourist voyages to the Ross to collect Sonneland and Bae. Sea region since 1994, says that the The ATVs towed specially de scope of its operations in the south signed and built sledges which car west Ross Sea region has been in ried Heritage's 'Naiad' watercraft. creased following the successful op According to Russ the ATV and eration of two all-terrain vehicles sledge reached a speed of around fif (ATVs) this season. teen kilometres per hour. Each vehi The ATVs are two eight-wheeled, cle carried a driver and three passen plastic bodied, Canadian-built 'Argo' gers, while twelve people sat in the that were purchased by the company Passengers sit comfortably in Naiad. The sledges carried emer in late 1999. They were taken south inflatable naiads drawn on sledges gency gear and all personnel wore behind the Argos as they cross the sea flotation vests. by the company during the 1999-2000 ice to Cape Royds. Photograph: season, but weather and ice condi Rodney Russ was quoted as say tions prevented them from being Margaret Bradshaw ing that his company did not plan to tested. often lingers along parts of the Ross use the ATVs on the Antarctic conti This year the vehicles provided Sea coast well into summer, often ex nent itself. He saw the vehicles rather Heritage's clients with access to tending well off-shore, presents a as 'an excellent way of expanding the Capes Royds and Cape Evans over challenge for the company's tour op areas we can visit during our limited fast ice in the south-west Ross Sea in erations, particularly in a heavy ice time in the area, particularly during January and February. The ATVs season such as this last one. extremely heavy ice years like this'. were also used to pick-up Norwegian Heritage Expeditions' principal This season Heritage Expeditions trans-Antarctic trekkers Eirik Rodney Russ doubts whether they ran seven "Expeditions of Discovery" Sonneland and Rolf Bae on 13 Febru could have visited the key historical around southern New Zealand and ary (see Antarctic Vol. 18, no. 2, p. 43) sites of Shackleton's hut at Cape the Subantarctic Islands, with two Akademic Shokalskiy, the vessel that Royds, and Scott's at Cape Evans in visits to the Ross Sea. The company Heritage Expeditions currently uses mid-January without the ATVs. At specialises in wilderness experiences for its Ross Sea operations, is ice Cape Royds the vehicles carried pas and has won three tourism awards. strengthened but has limited ice sengers three kilometres from the Expeditions are small and cosy with breaking capability. The fast ice that ship to shore, and at Cape Evans eight a compliment of 46 passengers.

Daring Rescues Cheat from the Rothera base on the Antarctica Dr Shemenski was the replacement Winter Peninsula the eight seat Twin Otter be doctor for Dr Jerri Neilsen who in Continued from Page 53 came the first plane to successfully land 1999 was the centre of her own dra at the Pole during the polar winter. The matic rescue after she self-diagnosed company in Canada and began an crew braved extreme winter conditions a cancerous tumour in her breast. The arduous journey to the Pole via South and flew through pitch-black skies as part first mid-winter flight ever made over America and the Rothera British re of a swashbuckling effort to evacuate the South Pole dropped medical sup search base on the Antarctic Penin Ronald Shemenski, the sole physician plies to allow Dr Neilsen to treat her sula across from Chile. among 50 researchers working at self and she was rescued in early On board were two flight crew, re Amundsen-Scott Pole Station. spring by a Hercules piloted by Ma placement doctor Dr Betty Carlisle, After arriving at the end of the jor George McAllister, flying in from an engineer and a nurse. Their target Earth, the plane's crew chose to re McMurdo Station on a 2500km round was a 600m ice runway at the South main for 10 hours to rest, refuel and trip in six hours. That flight became Pole. assess Dr Shemenski's condition. A the earliest ever post-winter flight in Associated Press takes up the nurse at the South Pole helped take extremely hazardous conditions and story; "With flaming debris marking an ultrasound images that were sent captured media attention around the icy landing strip, a small plane fitted with back to doctors in the United States word. skis has completed half of its perilous jour for diagnosis. From Rothera, Dr ney to rescue a sick American doctor at Shemenski was flown to Chile for a - Warren Head. the South Pole. After a 10-hour flight flight to the United States.

Volume 18, No. 3 & 4, 2001 Antarctic science

HISTORY OF AN ANTARCTIC OUTPOST 1968-1395 Amazing Energy-efficient Antarctic Sea Urchin David L. Harrowfiek How well do you think you would and inched down a towrope into the a.' ---1 ■ grow if you lived in a freezer? Adam freezing water wearing insulated div Marsh, a marine biochemist at the ing suits that covered all but their University of Delaware, and col faces. Their lips and cheeks would go HISTORY OF leagues Rob Maxson and Donal numb after 60 seconds of exposure. Manahan from the University of Once the sea urchins were col VANDA STATION Southern California, have discovered lected from the seafloor, they were Following the success of the an important reason why the pin flown by helicopter to the Crary Society's book Scott Base, cushion-like Antarctic sea urchin Laboratory for experiments. "The Antarctica, produced for the 40th Sterechinus neumayeri can function so problem with collecting marine ani Anniversary of the establishment of well in the polar seas surrounding the mals in Antarctica is not keeping Scott Base, the Society has Earth's frozen continent. them cold during the trip back to the published a similar book on the The Antarctic sea urchin demon lab but to keep the seawater in the history of Vanda Station in the Dry Valleys. strates a remarkable economy, a su coolers from freezing solid during the For the last two years Antarctic per energy-efficiency in its metabo trip," Marsh explains. historian David Harrowfield, author lism. Despite frigid water tempera Housed in the lab in cold water of the Scott Base history, has been tures and little available food, its ba pumped in from McMurdo Sound, gathering information and anecdotes bies can synthesise proteins more ef the female sea urchins were induced about New Zealand's more distant to spawn and the eggs were fertilised. outpost in the Wright Valley. ficiently than any other organism re Vanda Station was a rather special corded to date. The scientists then began measuring place, set beside a frozen lake below "All animals expend about 30% of the changes in total metabolic rates the sweeping flanks of the Dry their energy just turning over pro as the embryos developed into larvae, Valley mountains, remembered with teins," says Marsh. "But the embryos along with corresponding changes in affection by both New Zealanders and larvae of the Antarctic sea urchin the rate of protein turnover, or me and Americans. It was established can perform this vital metabolic proc tabolism. More than 10 million em in 1968, but in 1995 New Zealand was forced to remove it due to rising ess using 25 times less energy than bryos were tested during the three- lake waters and the fear of water the rest of us. That's really amazing," year project. pollution from the station site. he notes, "especially considering the So what does identifying the most David's book is an important record extreme environment in which these energy-efficient animal mean to the of a significant period in New larvae live and an almost non-exist rest of us, besides making us feel Zealand's Antarctic Programme. ent food supply." metabolically inadequate? The Antarctic sea urchin resembles "We know the Antarctic sea urchin To order a copy, contact the New Zealand Antarctic Society: a red pincushion, about 5 inches in can process proteins using less energy National Secretary, diameter, with long spines extending than anyone else," Marsh says, "but P O Box 404 Christchurch 8015 from its round shell. It lives on the we don't know yet what mechanism NEW ZEALAND seafloor and uses its spines and allows the animal to do so much with so little. Finding the answer could Telephone: +64 03) 377 3173 sucker-tipped tube feet to move Facsimile: +64 03) 365 2252 about. Baby sea urchins are spawned yield some important benefits," he notes. "For example, if you could in [email protected] during the summer months and take about a year to develop from embryo corporate this energy-efficiency into Price: $15 to non-members, $13 to larva to juvenile — a stage that is a a fish, oyster, or clam, you could feed to members, plus $3 postage miniature version of the adult. it less food and get the same growth and packaging. To collect sea urchins for their rate. That kind of capability would be study, Marsh and his colleagues cut a great boon to aquaculture." holes in the sea ice near McMurdo

Volume 18, No. 3 & 4, 2001 Antarctic SCIENCE The Plight of the Albatross The plight of albatrosses continues to attract international attention. The British Antarctic Survey and Profes sor John Croxall are at the centre of various initiatives to improve the con servation status of species in this the most threatened of all bird families - chiefly due to the threats posed by commercial longline fishing. The continuing enforcement of a sustainable management regime on the longline fisheries around South Wandering Georgia by the South Georgia Gov Albatross chick ernment and the Foreign and Com with a longline monwealth Office resulted in the hook recovered third successive year of significantly decreased mortality of albatrosses from it. and petrels. Losses are now only 5% viser (with staff from the Joint Nature tion of becoming an early signatory of those five years ago, when new Conservation Committee) to the De to the new convention. fishing regulations to protect seabirds partment of Environment, Transport During the year the New Zealand were first introduced under the Con and Regions at meetings to establish Government invited Professor vention for the Conservation of Ant a new international agreement to pro Croxall to give a keynote presentation arctic Marine Living Resources tect albatrosses on land and at sea on albatross ecology to an Interna (CCAMLR). Illegal and unregulated under the Convention on Migratory tional Fishers Forum, designed to longline fishing now poses the major Species. The text of an Agreement enable fishers and fisheries managers threat to South Georgia albatrosses. was finalised in February and the UK to share experience of effective prac- Professor Croxall was scientific ad government has indicated its inten- Continued on Page 65 Breakthrough in Sun-Earth Connection Controversy The Earth's environment receives craft observations at the and therefore provides strong sup not only radiant energy from the Sun magnetopause have been unable to port for the reconnection hypothesis but also kinetic energy from the solar decide between these hypotheses. known as the anti-parallel merging wind. This energy modifies the However, new developments in hypothesis. Earth's upper atmosphere and near- the remote sensing of magnetopause Story Courtesy BAS. Earth space environment, causing the reconnection by ground-based high aurora and affecting spacecraft opera frequency radars have led BAS scien tions and radio communications. tists, Iain Coleman, Gareth Chisham, The amount of solar wind energy Mike Pinnock and Mervyn Freeman, entering the earth's environment is to devise and carry out a new experi regulated by a process known as mental test between the two main re magnetic reconnection that acts at the connection hypotheses. The test pre magnetopause - the interface between dicts a very distinct and unusual ra the solar wind and the outermost part dar reconnection signature to emerge of the earth's atmosphere. There are for one of the two competing hypoth two major competing reconnection eses for certain well-defined seasonal hypotheses that give different predic and solar wind conditions. Observa tions for where reconnection will oc tions under these conditions using a cur on the magnetopause and thereby global network of Arctic and Antarc how energy will flow into the tic radars, of which BAS is a member, Antarctica's "Aurora" as seen from magnetosphere. For 20 years, space shows clear evidence of this signature space.

Volume 18, No. 3 & 4, 2001 Antarctic science To drill or not to drill Of all the great lakes of the world, above it. "The general idea is to drill Until tests in less pristine settings, only one remains untouched by hu down 3.5 kilometres or so with hot such as ice-covered volcanic lakes in manity. The very existence of Lake water and then deploy a cryobot," ex Iceland, prove that a cryobot can en Vostok, buried as it is beneath nearly plains Frank D. Carsey, lead scientist ter the water without dragging along four kilometres of ice in one of the on the ice-probe project at the Jet Pro foreign life-forms, it is likely that con most remote parts of Antarctica, was pulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, servationists will continue to oppose unknown when Soviet explorers Calif. After waiting for the hole above plans to penetrate Lake Vostok. "We serendipitously built a base directly it to freeze shut, the cylindrical probe firmly believe that a comprehensive above it in 1957. It was not until 1994 would sterilize itself, heat up and environmental evaluation [required that satellite and seismographic melt its way down to the lake, by the Antarctic Treaty] would not measurements revealed the presence spooling electrical cable from its body permit this to go forward with cur of Lake Vostok and its impressive size as it goes. In September, Carsey's rent technology," says Beth Clark, - almost equal in area to Lake Ontario team showed that a simple prototype director of the Antarctica Project, but up to four times as deep. By this device could move through a few speaking for a coalition of more than time Russian glaciologists had drilled metres of ice. But almost no testing 200 environmental groups. In Octo three quarters of the way down to the has been done on sterilization tech ber the World Conservation Union lake to read 400,000 years of climate niques, he says. "No body, national adopted a resolution urging treaty history recorded in the polar icecap. or international, has said how clean members to "defer for the foreseeable Cut off from direct contact with the is clean enough," Carsey observes. future" drilling into the lake and to sun, wind and life of the surface "We need a target to work toward." designate Vostok a "specially pro world for as long as 14 million years, The cost, and who will pay it, is tected" area. Lake Vostok seems to scientists to be also uncertain. A project based at the Perhaps the greatest uncertainty is a unique time capsule that, once Vostok research station has been esti whether Vostok is the only lake that opened, could help solve old and dif mated to run for $20 million. But the can answer the important questions ficult puzzles. Some technologists station sits above the southern tip of scientists are asking of it. Analyses of consider it the best place on Earth to the lake, where freshwater is ice-penetrating radar soundings by test probes that are designed to bore refreezing onto the icy ceiling. "There Martin Siegert of the University of through the icy shell of Europa, a is a really good chance that we'll de Bristol and others have turned up at moon of Jupiter suspected of har cide the best place to send a probe is least 70 lakes beneath the Antarctic bouring a watery ocean and possibly the northern end, where the bottom ice sheet. Bell and other proponents life. of the ice is actually melting and nu of a Vostok mission have argued that But many environmental activists trients in it"—salts, dust and mi Vostok is probably unique in a disagree, and recently scientists and crobes deposited with the snow eons number of ways: in its sediments, in technologists have been stepping ago—"are being added to the water," its depth, in its age, in its sloped ceil back from proposals they started says Robin E. Bell, a geophysicist at ing (which may cause its waters to making in 1996 to send robotic probes Columbia University's Lamont- circulate) and in its possible geologi into the lake to analyse the water, look Doherty Earth Observatory. If so, then cal origin as a rift in Earth's crust. for micro-organisms and return with the project would require construc But preliminary results from new sediment samples. At a workshop tion of new buildings, runways, fuel radar, magnetic and seismic data sponsored by the National Science depots and other infrastructure at a taken in January 2001 reveal just how Foundation in late 1998, several northern location, dramatically rais little scientists truly know about dozen researchers drew up a timeline ing the cost. Vostok. "The lake is not the big ho calling for penetration of the lake in So far neither the NSF nor the Na mogeneous feature we thought be 2002 and sample returns in 2003. In tional Aeronautics and Space Admin fore," says Columbia geophysicist late 1999 a follow-up meeting pushed istration has offered to pay for the Michael Studinger. It contains "is the mission back to 2004 at the earli development of a fully instrumented lands" where land meets ice and est. Now previously bullish research probe or for the drilling. Carsey's pockets where water rises to differ ers concede that it may well be a dec grant from NASA to build a more ent levels. "Another surprising obser ade before instruments are lowered sophisticated cryobot prototype was vation is a big magnetic anomaly" into the lake. not renewed this year. "We'll have a near one shoreline, he adds. And Bell, Growing uncertainties of three completed gadget by this summer," who with Studinger co-directs the kinds have forced this retreat. One he says, "but we may not ever be able radar study, reports that in places the question is whether and how a probe to test it." He complains that "NASA water is 1,000 metres deep—almost could be lowered into a subglacial is seriously dragging its feet" in spon twice what was previously thought. lake without contaminating it with soring research on noncontarninating Yes, Vostok is larger by far than any microbes from the surface or the ice instruments for Vostok and Europa. of the other subglacial lakes, Siegert

64 Volume 18, No. 3 & 4, 2001 Antarctic Ol_lJii\V_E.P/--TT7XT/-1T7 Remote Meteorite Sampling

Antarctica is the closest thing to to take photographs, collect samples, meteorite heaven that humans can and send data back to Earth for analy find on Earth. Since 1969 scientists sis. NOMAD performs such chores from the United States, Japan, and the without any prompting, roaming the European Council have discovered terrain, mocking wind and cold. and collected more than 20,000 frag Using a laser rangefinder and ments of our solar system lying un spectrometer the robot painstakingly disturbed in the barren, icy land analyses every single rock in its path. scape. The meteorites include speci If NOMAD identifies a meteorite, mens from the Moon and Mars. it relays the co-ordinates of its site Each January when the continent's back to humans, who can pick the temperatures rise to a bearable level, sample up at their leisure. This sea scientists travel south in search of son NOMAD correctly classified five more extra-terrestrial remnants. This meteorites without human interven year, researchers from Carnegie tion, following on its successful pre NOMAD and field team at Elephant Mellon University unveiled a tool miere season last year. Scientists may Moraine in 2000. that has spared them the numbing employ future generations of the task of separating meteorites from rover to explore other planets. 'Ro data, you have to build intelligent what they jokingly call 'meteor- bots can be used for autonomous sci machines to do the exploration for ence," says project man wrongs' or locally derived rocks. you." Their new tool, called NOMAD a g e r D i m i t r i y Modified from an article in resembles a dune buggy on steroids. Apostolopoulos. 'It * i D i s c o v e r J a n u a r y It is the first robotic rover with sounds a bit crazy, but it S ~ 2 0 0 1 . " onboard intelligence. Previous plan is a notion that a lot of etary explorers, such as the Mars scientists will align Pathfinder deployed in 1997, needed with over time. Toun- Lmmm human controllers to tell them when dertake ambitious planetary explora tion, where you can - allows. But whether it is unique in collect a wealth of more important ways is anyone's guess, he suggests: "It is the only lake where seismic data have been ac quired. There may very well be sediments at the base of other lakes. As for the water depth, the same thing is true." The average age of the water in Vostok, one million years -■ according to some estimates, depends crucially on whether it is connected with other lakes by streams beneath the ice. "All the other lakes have a sloping ice roof," Siegert adds, and he argues that "labeling Vostok as a rift valley lake is premature." The Plight of the Albatross In July the Scientific Committee on Continued from Page 63 Antarctic Research issued a statement tical measures to reduce seabird by- * International collaboration to re that urged the investigation of catch in longline fisheries. Extending duce the levels of illegal longline smaller lakes first but maintained that and improving the use of such meas Lake Vostok "must be the ultimate fishing. ures is an essential complement to During the year Professor Croxall target of a subglacial lake exploration political agreements, given that the was also involved in national and in program." Siegert disagrees. "The two key problems confronting alba ternational campaigns which raised goal should be to solve scientific trosses and longline fishing are: over half a million pounds towards problems," he says, "not just to ex * Getting fishers to use simple and albatross and marine conservation. plore." effective techniques for reducing © Copyright Natural Environment Source - "Out in the Cold" by W. Wayt seabird by-catch without effecting Research Council - British Antarctic Gibbs, Scientific American, March 2001 fishing efficiency. Survey 2001.

Volume 18, No. 3 & 4, 2001 Antarctic FEATURE Gateway to Antarctic success By Calum Revfem evenings to accommodate interna It was a Christmas like no other for Snow tional time differences. They proved the twenty students and four staff on arches immensely popular and included Canterbury University's Graduate created by Kim Stanley Robinson (author of the Certificate in Antarctic Studies the science fiction novel Antarctica, course. Graduate USA), Chris Rapley (director of BAS, The group, who spent 16 days in Certificate UK) and Harvey Marchant (director Antarctica, ate their sumptuous three- students. Australian Antarctic Division, AUS) course meal seated at a giant trian Photograph: just to name a few. Students made gular table carved from the Ross Ice Margaret the most of their access to a host of Shelf. The students from a wide Bradshaw. Antarctica's internationally recog range of backgrounds participated in nised experts. John Hay and Bryan the course from November 13 - Feb Storey's efforts in this area are re ruary 23, and as in previous years, flected in the growing international found the lecture series delivered by recognition of the course. prominent Antarctic scientists and camped on the sea ice at Windless The lecture series covered every key players invaluable. Bight. Four teaching staff accompa thing from Antarctic legal regimes to Instead of the traditional post feast nied the students to Antarctica -John polar psychology. They were highly slumber, a 'fam' trip with Scott Base Hay (course co-ordinator), Margaret interactive classroom sessions and staff was made up the lower slopes Bradshaw (Geologist), Brian Stewart students were encouraged to chal of Erebus to the Imax crevasse. (Ecologist) and Margaret Elliot (Art lenge and debate ideas. The class was Roped up, the four groups made their ist). The course is a key part of Gate introduced to a wide array of Antarc way down to the crevasse opening. way Antarctica's teaching pro tic issues, with avenues of further in Once inside, the sheer size and maj gramme, now under the newly ap quiry provided for individuals to esty of the crevasse was revealed. A pointed directorship of Bryan Storey pursue. The syndicate projects re breath-taking journey through the (formerly British Antarctic Survey). quired the four groups of five stu crystal lens sounded to the squeak From the very beginning, the dents to develop themes to address ing of freeze-dried snow. Cameras course emphasised the value of team their particular topics. The empha attempted to capture the surreal vio work. Students were encouraged to sis was not solely focused on the writ let light, while movement shattered work co operatively and make use of ten report and all groups had to con broken ice from the towering walls. their different skills and areas of aca sider the public presentation to be The exit into a clear blue sky, with demic expertise. At the end of the first made. Working on an academic superb views of Erebus and its week the class travelled to Arthur's project in a group of that size pro signature steam trail, ensured that Pass for a weekend of team building vided its challenges. Group meetings Christmas day 2000, would live long and familiarisation with some of the and individual tutorials were held by in the memories of all those who were Antarctic field equipment. A regu staff to assist management of both the there. lar and valuable part of the weekly syndicate and individual workloads. For the course students were re timetable was the Question and An This regular personal contact with quired to complete four field studies, swer session with previous course staff provided a relaxed and informal an Antarctic futures literature review graduates, who acted as mentors learning environment, enjoyed by all and a supervised individual project throughout the programme. At the the students. of their choice. Students also worked end of the second week students took Week five began normally until a in four syndicate groups to report on part in a two-day intensive outdoor flight schedule change meant that the following topics: Southern Ocean first aid course in preparation for half the class had to leave for Antarc fisheries - for whose or what benefit? their Antarctic field trip. The class tica four days earlier than anticipated. Antarctic discoveries - is success cru had spent 12 days in a row together It was announced at 1pm on Monday cial, so long as the effort is honour as a tight group. This was to prove and after selection of the advance able and any failure memorable? invaluable preparation for the time party, it was action stations for those Valuing Antarctica - why, how and down on the ice. departing the following morning. For with what results? The state of the An exciting feature of the course the advance party the first few days Antarctic environment - why, how was the use of video link lectures, at Scott Base were spent preparing and what can we learn and do? The with a nominated student acting as field equipment, setting up the Wind syndicates made public presentations facilitator. Throughout the course less Bight camp and assisting in base of their reports on the 25th of January. students became proficient at work activities. The team skills developed A feature of the course was the 16- ing with the technology and devel in Christchurch were brought to the day field trip to Antarctica. Students oping their interviewing techniques. fore as the group quickly found its spent time at Scott Base and six nights Regularly these links were held in the feet and got stuck in with digging

Volume 18, No. 3 & 4, 2001 Antarctic FEATURE snow from around the base. The per Students tions from the floor, a nervous propo fect weather allowed for trips up enduring sition given the expertise of those sit Observation Hill, around the sea ice the ting in the audience. The presenta loop and for a lucky few to go skiing Antarctic tions were a great success and the at the Scott Base tow. weather on Question and Answer sessions pro On arrival the main party soon fit fes Castle Rock vided no major obstacle. The confi ted in and event K396 were briefed Photograph dence to answer difficult questions on their upcoming Antarctic field f%^ Margaret was bolstered by the breadth of ma training (AFT). Two days were spent Bradshaw. terial covered in the course and after perfecting snow-craft skills with ice a summer spent interviewing the ex axe and crampons, recognising and perts, the class had learnt a thing or negotiating crevassed terrain, check two. ing sea ice conditions and spending Calum Revfem is an Environmental a night in emergency snow shelters. Rachel Brown. Daily weather obser Management Analyst, who was one of With a large creative contingent (and vations were recorded at the K396 20 students on Canterbury would-be engineers) the snow shel camp and the data was used by stu University's 2000/2001 Graduate ters constructed resembled all shapes, dents in a human comfort and clima Certificate of Antarctic Studies course. designs and sizes. For those who still tology study overseen by John Hay. John Hay, University of Auckland, had some energy left at the end of day Margaret Elliot was responsible for who co-ordinated the course for the two, there was the opportunity rep the Antarctic impressions project, past three years, will be stepping resent New Zealand in the annual where students were required to down in 2001. I'm sure the previous rugby fixture versus USA, played out record their Antarctic experience in classes would like to join K396 on the sea ice pitch in front of Scott an artistic form. Part of this project 2000/01 in acknowledging the Base. spawned some interesting snow fantastic learning experience he The K396 contingent visited the sculptures, several snow arches and created for us all. We would also take McMurdo base, including a tour of pillars, a sundial and a snow whale this opportunity to thank Bryan the Crarey Lab and the Meteorologi amongst them. All four studies gave Storey, the staff of Gateway cal station and on December 19 a students first hand exposure to the Antarctica and Antarctica NZfor the 'fam' trip to Cape Royds was organ realities of operating in an Antarctic hard work they put in to make the ised. Two of Scott Base's Hagglund field situation. course possible. vehicles were utilised and a stop was The weather during the period made at Cape Evans to visit Scott's spent out at Windless Bight was not 'Heatwave' stresses Penguins hut, before heading on to entirely favourable. High winds and Continued from Page 59 Shackleton's hut and the Penguin poor visibility prevented the Seal sur rookery at Cape Royds. For some of vey being undertaken on one of the emperor penguins may be very sus the historians in the group, the visit days and Christmas day arrived ceptible to environmental variabil to the historic huts was recounted as packaged in a cool mist. Undeterred ity." the field trip highlight. Peter Cleary and now accustomed to Antarctic Commenting on the work, British researchers said the Terre Adelie ex (Scott Base Operations Manager) ac field life, K396 students prepared a perience might not have wider impli companied the group through the hut sumptuous three course Christmas visits and provided expert commen lunch that was eaten on a giant trian cations - particularly with respect to tary. On the return journey an ice gular table, carved from the Ross Ice any global warming process that cave in the Erebus glacial tongue was Shelf. Following the tradition of Cap could be taking place. tain Scott, presents were pulled from "The climate models give no clear explored, providing more of the day's indication of whether a global warm spectacular photographic opportuni a sack and handed out in random or ties. der. ing would mean more or less sea ice The field component included four The reality of arriving back in in future and how this might affect Christchurch was accentuated by the penguins," Keith Reid, of the separate studies that were carried out BioSciences Division at the British between December 20-26, based at 28-degree Norwester felt on opening K396 camp on Windless Bight. The the Hercules door. The class enjoyed Antarctic Survey, told the BBC "At studies included a geology project, a short break in which to reflect on the moment, there are no indications their Antarctic experience, before re that the penguin is in trouble." supervised by Margaret Bradshaw, He added: "It looks like this could examining the formation of Castle convening in the second week of be a very localised effect just in this Rock - a volcanic vent protruding January. The lecture series continued from the spine of the Hut Point Pe while syndicate groups put the final colony. A glacier in that area used to ninsula. Brian Stewart co-ordinated preparation into their presentations give protection to the colony but the a Weddell seal survey on the other and written reports. The public pres front of it fell off in the 1970s and there side of the peninsula at Hutton Cliffs. entation of syndicate topics was well were predictions then that the pen Student groups were transported and attended and included several inter guin population might go into de national visitors. All groups were cline. It's what you'd expect if it's less accompanied to the field sites by Scott sheltered there." Base AFT staff Dean Arthur and required to field 15 minutes of ques- Article courtesy BBC Online and BAS.

Volume 18, No. 3 & 4, 2001 Antarctic SCIENCE

What's Eating continent, begins to float, and streams around and over nearby islands. Antarctic courses Antarctica? Scambos says that he and other at Gateway Continued from Page 57 scientists are now developing a pro nent's ice shelves suddenly decided posal for a research project that would Antarctica, to follow through collaboratively on place Global Positioning System a new-millennium resolution to shed (GPS) equipment and weather instru Canterbury a few billion tonnes of unsightly ice. ments on an ice shelf where there's a known rift. A primary goal of the Despite appearances, it's unlikely University that the coincidence of so many project would be to collect data on an megabergs signals a wholesale col iceberg-spawning crack as it grows. ateway Antarctica is the ( In the meantime, scientists are al .ntarctic Studies and Rese lapse of the ice shelves, says Ted Scambos, a glaciologist with the Na ready monitoring a newly discovered Jniversity of Canterbury. tional Snow and Ice Data Center in crack in the ice shelf fed by the Pine :e currently runs two Antarctic Boulder, Colorado. On the whole, he Island Glacier, a fast-flowing ice courses. The first, ANTA 101, ' notes, the edges of each of Antarcti stream that's thinning more rapidly one-year, multidisciplinary ui ca's largest ice shelves—the Ross, the than ice on any other area in Antarc uate course open to all stu Ronne, and the Amery—fluctuate tica. In January, when Robert jvides a wide-ranging inti around an average position. Bindschadler was looking at Landsat . to all aspects of Antarcti Before last year, all three ice shelves 7 satellite images of Antarctica, he ence, politics, tourism and environ stretched dozens of kilometres farther noticed a 25-kilometre-long crack mental issues. It draws on the exper from the coast than they had in dec across this ice shelf. tise of experienced Antarctic staff ades. For instance, the western por The 400-m-wide crack hadn't been from ten University departmeni tion of the Ross Ice Shelf, discovered there the previous year, and analysis includes local and national gue in 1840, reached farther from the coast of recent images from other satellites hirers. The second, a Graduate in early March 2000 than ever before shows it hadn't been there even 5 tificate in Antarctic Studies (A recorded. weeks earlier. After its initial growth 501-504) is a summer only cours With such unusually large projec spurt, the crack's progress slowed, gives a fourteen week in-deptl tions into the ocean, the shelves were and it now grows only about 13 m per mersion in the beauty, history, sci primed to cast off big bergs. Now, the day, says Bindschadler, a glaciologist ence, political discourse, environ central and eastern portions of the at Goddard Space Flight Center. mental concerns and future chal Ross Ice Shelf have calved back to In the next 12 to 18 months, the cre lenges of the frozen continen where they were in the early 1960s, vasse should completely cleave the surrounding seas at a graduate says Stan Jacobs, a glaciologist at the 40-km-wide, 400-m-thick ice shelf The course was developed joinl and release an 800-square-kilometre Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory the University of Canterbur) in Palisades, New York. iceberg. Although relatively meagre Antarctica New Zealand with si "These calving events get a lot of by Antarctic standards, the berg will cant input from many other Ai attention due to the size of the ice contain enough ice to provide every

Volume 18, No. 3 & 4, 2001 SCIENCE Antarctic in summertime temperatures in the masses of ice jostle and bang their Harvey & Associates, an ecological area, says Scambos. He and his col way along the ice shelf for hundreds consulting firm in San Jose, Califor league Christina L. Hulbe, a of kilometres. nia. glaciologist at the Goddard Space As the tides go out twice each day, Adelie penguins spend most of Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, the bergs take a long, slow slide their lives at sea in feeding grounds described this phenomenon last De downhill. When the tides return, the that extend out about 70 kilometres cember at the American Geophysical bergs slosh back into the ice shelf from their Cape Crozier rookery, the Union meeting in San Francisco. from whence they came, cracking off largest in the area. But once every 2 When the temperatures on the sur smaller bergs in the process. years, the rookery's 120,000 or so face of the ice rise above freezing, the Sometimes the currents drive the pairs of Adelies come ashore to breed melting snow collects in crevasses megabergs aground in shallow wa and lay their eggs. atop the ice sheet. The pressure ex ter, where they can be stranded for Shortly before the chicks are erted by this meltwater deep in a years. Two pieces of a large iceberg grown, the adults return to the sea to crack drives it to open even further, that broke free in 1987 were soon feed on krill and fish. The chicks find weakening the ice shelf and making driven aground, and they remain their way to sea on their own soon it vulnerable to winds and tides. This where they landed. afterwards. generates a large number of small ice A large piece of the Connecticut- Last October, while the iceberg was bergs, a process that Scambos says is size B15 iceberg that broke free from still on the move, the adult penguins much different from the one that the Ross Ice Shelf in March 2000 jos swam to their feeding grounds takes place on the more southerly ice tled its way down the coast about 300 through a 10-km-wide avenue of shelves. km before it was driven aground. ocean. When the flat-bottom berg be He notes that the break-up of the When this piece—now merely the came stuck, that lane had narrowed Larsen B Ice Shelf has been slower size of Rhode Island—became to a 1-km alley. during the past two years than pre stranded near Ross Island, scientists Furthermore, the berg might be viously and that satellite imagery were worried that it might break free there a while: Because if s aground on didn't reveal any ponds of melted and block the route taken by supply the sea floor, the bottom of the ice snow atop the ice last summer. Part ships into McMurdo Sound, the site berg won't be exposed to relatively of the reason for this could be La Nina of many Antarctic research stations. warm ocean water that might even conditions, a cooling of the waters in For the time being, however, the tually melt it free. the equatorial Pacific Ocean that in flat-bottom berg poses no threat to When it comes time for the pen fluences weather worldwide, shipping. Even so, it may not be guins to return to their rookery, they'll Scambos says. That cooling, in turn, harmless. It is positioned near Ross find a sheer cliff of ice that stretches could have chilled air temperatures Island's Cape Crozier and poses a di from the ocean floor to the sky—a above the Antarctic ice shelves. rect and unusual threat to some of the wall they can't swim under or wad A return of El Nino, the warming area's wildlife (see below). dle over. of the equatorial Pacific, might spell Recently, scientists visited this ice Adelie penguins are faithful to the end for Larsen B because it could berg and installed GPS equipment their colonies, even to the point of warm up the region and cause the ice and weather stations. If the berg ever coming back to the same nest, says shelf to shed even more bergs. floats again and moves into warmer Ainley. When scientists studied the Scambos says it's likely that the waters, these instruments will help navigational abilities of Adelie pen Larsen B ice shelf will continue to re monitor its eventual break-up, says guins in the late 1960s, birds from the treat and may even disappear within Douglas R. MacAyeal, a glaciologist Cape Crozier rookery were relocated the next decade. at the University of Chicago. more than 1,000 km away. The icebergs that break free from It wouldn't be hard for people on It took the deported Adelies at least the main ice shelves in Antarctica a ship to detect and then steer around a year to return, Ainley notes, but re eventually make their way north and an iceberg that spans the horizon and turn they did. This homing instinct, threaten the shipping lanes. The size towers higher than a 12-story build which normally brings the birds back of the bergs guarantees that they'll ing above the waves. However, when to a familiar and safe breeding colony, last a long time—one megaberg that these frozen leviathans spawn legions may turn out to be their Achilles heel. calved in January 1992 wandered of smaller bergs—similar in size to "It will be interesting to see if this westward along the coast for 3 years the pipsqueak ice cube that sank the iceberg causes the penguins to change before splitting in two. Then, the Titanic—they give sea traffic reason their behaviour and emigrate to other larger piece drifted eastward for to fear. colonies," says Ainley. thousands of kilometres before it fi A small but rapidly-growing nally broke up and melted in the Icy obstacle blocks route to colony of about 1,600 emperor pen South Atlantic Ocean in February rookery guins, which lay their eggs in the 2000. While a grounded iceberg near same rookery, have been feeding at Before such bergs drift to tropical Ross Island's Cape Crozier in Antarc sea. Like the Adelies, they'll soon climes, however, they have to escape tica poses no problem for shipping, come back to face the daunting wall the shallow waters of coastal Antarc it does threaten many thousands of of ice, Ainley says. tica. Driven by strong currents that penguins that breed there, says David By Sid Perkins, Science News, May, 2001. sweep along the coast, the floating Ainley, a marine ecologist with H.T.

Volume 18, No. 3 & 4, 2001 69 Antarctic FEATURE Massive 2001 US Programme A substantial increase in the over The unbroken US record of crobes from those known today. The all NSF budget for 2001 (US$4,426 weather data from manned and radar survey is a necessary precursor billion), has made it the largest on unmanned stations in Antarctica, to any future international effort to record. The Antarctic Research Pro now exceeds 30 years for some loca explore the lake. A clean drilling tech gram budget has had a 26.8 percent tions, providing a data base and real nology will be required to prevent increase, and its Operations and Sci time information from which to make contamination, and the ethics of con ence Support program a 14.9 percent operational forecasts, study the dy tinuing to drill is still under debate. increase. namics of the Antarctic atmosphere, However, there are reports that mi NSF spending for the 2000 Antarc and chart the progress of human-in crobes new to science have already tic program, ifs 44th year of operation, duced global warming. been found in the snow from the was approximately US$200. 23 mil The complex effects of climate, lower part of the drillhole. (See pre lion, of which $31.60 million was food availability, and human activity vious article P 64 for further discus spent on research grants, $106.03 on on penguin populations continue to sion) operations and science support, and be studied by the US program in the Investigators from U.S., U.K., Aus $62.60 million on logistics. Antarctic Peninsula area. A decline tralian, and Swiss institutions are in penguin populations at Litchfield jointly trying to resolve whether the Island, which only a scientist with a East Antarctic Ice Sheet has remained Long term US special permit may enter, suggests stable or collapsed during the that it is difficult to blame the decline Pliocene Epoch (2 to 5 million years projects entirely on humans. ago), when the climate was warmer Several NSF Antarctic science Long-term ecological research than now. projects are long-term programmes. (LTER) continues at sites in the One is the study of the Antarctic McMurdo Dry Valleys and along the Circumpolar Current, which trans west coast of the Antarctic Peninsula Astronomy by ports 130 million cubic metres of wa near Palmer Station. These sites are balloon ter each second towards the east, among 21 NSF sponsored LTER sites Antarctica's summer weather pro making it the mightiest of the ocean's over the world that are being used to vided a 10 day stable ride for instru currents. The current is part of a glo investigate ecological processes oper ments suspended from a 275 m bal bal heat exchange system and is seen ating over long time and broad spa as the key to understanding rapid tial scales. Chemical analysis of the loon floating around Antarctica changes in world ocean circulation Antarctic samples is done in the above most of the atmosphere at a that have the potential of causing sig Crarey Lab at McMurdo. steady height of 42,000 m, providing nificant changes in global climate. a cheap way to get scientific experi US research on Antarctica's marine ments into near-space. A spectrometer mounted on the ecosystem continues, leading to a bet Deepest ice core ter understand of the levels of har Russian, French, and U.S. investi gondola below the balloon tracked vesting that could take place without gamma rays emitted by neutron stars, gators have drilled and are now ana black holes, and the centre of the gal damage to the ecosystem. lysing the world's deepest ice core axy. A suspended microwave tel Year-round US research on Antarc (3,650 metres ) from Russia's Vostok tica's Ozone hole links in with paral Station in East Antarctica. The core escope provided detailed evidence lel research on the abnormally high that the large-scale geometry of the represents 420,000 years of snowfall, universe is "Flat". Following the "Big levels of the Sun's ultraviolet-B radia and spans four glacial / interglacial tion that penetrate to the Earth's sur Bang" 12-15 billion years ago, the cycles, providing scientists with an face and into the sea each spring universe was smooth, dense, and hot. unparalleled archive of Antarctic cli when more than half of Antarctica's The intense heat is still detectable as mate history. The drill hole was a faint glow called cosmic microwave stratospheric ozone disappears. Sci stopped before penetrating to Lake entists are documenting how LTV-B background radiation. Scientists Vostok, a huge lake the size of Lake have been seeking high resolution affects the embryos and larvae of Ontario sealed beneath the ice sheet. some species of Antarctic marine life. This season the Support Office for images of the radiation since its dis Measurements taken at the geo covery by a ground-based radio tel Aerogeophysical Research at the Uni escope in 1965. graphic South Pole since 1956 have versity of Texas Institute for Geophys indicated changes in world levels of Recovery of the gondola and in ics, used a specially equipped Twin struments from the Polar Plateau by greenhouse gases such as carbon di Otter to map a 205 by 102-mile grid oxide and methane. Measurements helicopter in December was not with over the subglacial Lake. Lake Vostok out is problems. The loose end of a in the data-sparse Southern Hemi has been isolated beneath the East sphere are important for predicting Antarctic Ice Sheet for millions of strop holding the gondola wrapped world levels of these gases and their around the rotor blade whilst the heli years and may contain different mi influence on climate change. copter was about 15 m above the ice,

70 Volume 18, No. 3 & 4, 2001 Antarctic FEATURE stopping the blades and ruining the though with smaller amplitude and transmission. The helicopter was re shields" have been added to enable a more ramped appearance than in covered by a ski-equipped Hercules. the array to cover an even larger area Greenland. In a near-coastal ice core The University of Chicago (Yerkes of the sky with reduced noise. at Taylor Dome, results suggest that Observatory) and 15 institutions from a high frequency complexity in cli four nations have installed telescopes mate is manifested through Antarc at South Pole Station to exploit the Southern Ocean tic synoptic systems that vary superb viewing in the clear, dry at interannually in response to major mosphere. Infrared and global ecosystem submillimetre wavelengths are em atmospheric circulation systems such as the El Nino Southern Oscillations phasized. dynamics Seventeen science teams are using (ENSO). NSF's icebreaker Nathaniel B Palmer Neutrino detection and ice-strengthened Laurence M. Gould research ships to study how Operational and AMANDA marine animals respond to natural highlights and human-caused climate change. Investigators from the universities At McMurdo flanged joints on the of Wisconsin and California (Berkeley The ships are working in the Margue fuel pipelines have been replaced rite Bay area in the Antarctic Penin and Irvine) with collaborators from with welded joints to eliminate leaks sula from March to August. The Sweden and Germany are burying caused by gasket failures. The downward-looking photodetectors study will quantify processes that kitchen and dining facility in build control the flux of carbon and other deep in the transparent ice sheet at ing 155 has been upgraded and a new South Pole to observe light produced biogenic elements, so that predictions science support center begun. by neutrinos (ultra-high-energy par can be made on the response of ma A multiyear project has been ticles) when they collide with ice rine biochemistry to climate change. started to capture waste heat from the molecules after passing through the US Researchers are part of an In McMurdo power plant to heat feed- Earth. Data from the project will con ternational Trans Antarctic Scientific water for the reverse-osmosis water tribute to the study of galactic cen Expedition (ITASE) which will make plant, and for space-heating the sci tres, dark matter, and supernovae. an overland crossing of the West Ant ence laboratory, dormitories, and The light produced by the collision arctic Ice Sheet to determine changes other buildings. of neutrinos with ice crystals is de in its mass and the climatic events This season, the new electric power tected by AMANDA (Antarctic Muon recorded in the ice. The study has plant at South Pole Station became and Neutrino Detector Array), an global implications and links in with interferometric array of 13 microwave both the Vostok ice cores (Antarctica) operational. Steel construction of housing and food-service wings of antennas at the South Pole. This is and ice coring in the central Green the new elevated station was started the fourth year of the AMANDA pro land Icecap. this summer. The wings will be com The Greenland cores (GISP2 and gram. In the 1996/97 season pleted during the winter. The South AMANDA B was completed, which GRIP) have demonstrated that the Pole rebuilding project will be com consisted of 302 photodetectors Arctic has experienced large, rapid climate oscillations through most of pleted in 2005 at a predicted cost of (Photomultiplier tubes) on ten strings US$128 million. A multiyear upgrade placed in holes drilled to between the last 110,00 years on a scale that of the two major buildings at Palmer 1500m and 2000m in depth, provid agricultural and industrial humans Station is also underway. ing a detection area of 10,000m2. have not yet faced, these millennial- This is the first season that The following year AMANDA II scale events represent quite large cli was begun, which had an even mate deviations: many degrees C in Raytheon Polar Services Corporation, Englewood,Colorado, has provided greater detection area made possible temperature, twofold changes in snow accumulation, order-of-magni- operational support to the U.S. Ant b y t h r e e m o r e s t r i n g s o f arctic Program under a contract with tude changes in wind-blown dust photomultipliers installed fom 1300m NSF that could extend for 10 years. and sea-salt loading in the atmos to 2400 m in depth. The array was The US Program is ensuring Ant completed and calibrated in the phere and large changes in methane arctic environmental protection by 1999/2000 season and six further concentration. cradle-to-grave management of sup strings were added. Changes during these events com ply and waste stream. It is achieving This year AMANDA measured monly occurred over decades or less. this by environmental monitoring Dramatic shifts in the patterns of at cosmic background radiation tem and research, source-point sorting perature variations in a fairly large mospheric circulation have been used and removal of all solid and hazard to explain the rapidity and magni area of the sky above the station. The ous waste from Antarctica, of which results are some of the most sensitive tude of these events. measurements ever made to help New correlation techniques in approximately 65 percent is recycled (the average for recycling in USA is unravel mysteries of the early uni volving the gaseous composition of 16 percent), and through a compre the atmosphere indicate that similar verse and the nature of the dark mat hensive spill prevention and cleanup ter and energy that many scientists events are also recorded in the iso- program. Fuel hoses and tanks are believe constitute most of the uni topic temperature record of the now double-walled or bermed. verse. Large aluminium "ground Vostok core from East Antarctica, al

Volume 18, No. 3 & 4, 2001 71 Antarctic OVER MY SHOULDER Ham on ice Neville Copeland, call sign Z12AKV ex ZL5AL, recalls a winter on ice at Scott Base during 1972-73. Editor's note: Radio operators use a type of verbal shorthand to describe their work, and a translation is shown in parenthesis.

Many tales have been told of the intrepid south by abler pens than mine, but, for what it is worth, here is a glimpse of life as a ham on the ice. During the first 17 years of sci entific research at Scott Base there were numerous amateur operators who no doubt will be recorded in the history of wintering over when an official version is published at some later date. The two original founda tion members of the fraternity were Peter Mulgrew and Ted Gawn dur ing the first wintering at Scott Base in 1957. It was of great interest to those souls who had lived at Scott Base to hear many years ago that the old es tablishment was being rebuilt. Q hut was pulled down first and replaced with modern prefabs. The other huts were progressively replaced and a desalination plant established to save the long-suffering mouse humping ice blocks into the melters. New Neville Copelatid on the ice. building continues to this day, and sad to say the Post Office no longer that time on I was alone with my tech could be used for punching up call exists. nician Allan Dawrant to nut out all bands for loading into the Morse auto I was thrust into the hurly burly of communication problems. Perhaps I when opening a sked. Base routine just before Christmas may go down in history as the last The above routine had to be fitted 1972 as a rush replacement for the full-time morse operator working an in with Base chores and many was the appointed postmaster, who had to "inland" station, as Olivetti teleprint time that I huffed and puffed my way return to New Zealand. A hurried ers were installed for telegraph traf into the radio room to meet a sked week of medicals, x-rays, dental fic the following year. clad in down gear and mukluks. checks and a brush up on Post Office After Les returned to New Zealand Consequently it was a battle between procedures, plus the settling of my I was saddled with three daily CW work and propagation to get on the private affairs, was the prelude to my (Carrier Wave - used for morse) air and pursue my hobby. trip south. schedules with the International Tel Having brought little equipment In those days the summer season egraph Office in Wellington where I with me due to the short notice of my was an extremely busy one for post had been previously employed. Plus departure, I commenced CW trans office staff. There was a fluctuating daily afternoon radio telephone missions on 14040 kHz using a 7020 population of some 1500 at McMurdo schedules with Island Services Wel rock (jargon for a crystal with that fre 2 miles away, as well as up to 30-40 lington, and three evening radio tel quency) in one of the old RCAs (Ra on Base, all of whom wanted stamps ephone skeds on Mondays, Wednes dio Corporation of America radio and toll calls at the same time. In days and Saturdays. It may be of in equipment) hooked up to the trans addition, different ships were visited terest to CW operators with a service mit rhombic (the big aerials at Scott in port once they had docked at background to know that the Z code Base) in late February. The old DSIR McMurdo after the passage of the ice was used almost exclusively for con quite naturally forbade amateurs op breaker, and stamps were sold as well trol of the telegraph circuit with the erating during the busy summer sea as the PRO's books. odd Q signal sandwiched in. There son to preserve security of their com My official job as Post Master was were two old 1938 vintage teletype munications. The arrangement was shared with Lester Price (call sign Wheatstone keyboards, very worn cumbersome and inflexible and only ZL5AP) until early February. From out and hopeless for traffic, but which lasted a short while. A little later I

Volume 18, No. 3 & 4, 2001 OVER MY SHOULDER Antarctic

was lucky enough to be able to bor row a Collins KWM2A from our American friends through the gap. These sets are used extensively for communicating with American field parties. The only snag was that they required a 110 volt generator to be lugged in the rear. At Scott Base we were ambidex trous power-wise and the 110 volts on station was no problem. I set myself up in a corner by the RCAs on the technician's small workbench (see photograph). Being close to the aerial patch panel too made a difference for a coax hook-up when commercial skeds were finished. The Collins set would poke out about 150-200 watts, and when communications were good I had no trouble raising North and South America, Europe, Russia, and Australia. My old enemy was the adjacent Ionosonde, which gave a 22 second vertical burst every so often. The American machine some 2 miles away was a horizontal affair and gave no trouble. We in the Post Office were full of glee one day in January when the laboratory's roof leaked during a thaw and their aerial lead-in bowls filled with water putting the wretched Ionosonde out of action for a few days. We had our problems too with the leaks, but they were mostly in the public foyer and over the PRO's desk. Luckily the radio room roof held for the week or so of panic. If I remember correctly there was a photo published nationally by the NZPA showing Butch the cook sailing boats in his flooded kitchen! I suppose I was fortunate in gain Neville Copeland's radio. ing some 630 CW (carrier wave) QSOs (shorthand for 'radio contact') during the padre) at the 'Hamshack' (radio Don Baker (call sign WB5JJK/KC4) my stay down south. I have no yard room) above the road to Scott Base. I from Stanford Research Institute who stick to go by, but I am still receiving was an official member of the shack ran the satellite tracking station. He the odd batch of QSLs via the bureau having gained my patch by punch operated a beautiful 100ft full rotat- (A QSL was a card posted to the ra ing up marsgrams at odd times. The able beam at Arrival Heights for con dio operator to acknowledge message Navy have Mars circuits (Military tact with his parent university. He received, with information on signal American Radio Service for patching also was in the phone patch business strength, exchange conditions, date in calls between service men and their (but not fsk) and would sandwich this and time, and personal details of the families) just outside the ham band activity in whenever possible. At his receiver). I worked some of the Rus on 14 MHz and most of the phone own laboratory in downtown sian Antarctic stations, but missed the and fsk (Frequent Shift Keying - like McMurdo he ran a KWM2A with a Aussies, although I chatted via tel teletype) patches back to the States lOOOw linear amplifier on the side for etype to a New Zealander working are worked in this region or on 40 general hamming. I was offered a lin for them at Mawson Station. metres. Dave Porter was the main ear too, but due to space considera Mel Pennington (call sign handler in the States for this type of tions couldn't fit it in at Scott Base. WB5APF/KC4) was at McMurdo traffic, and I believe he employed a So as you can see I was doubly for that year and ran KC4USV with his staff of about six people. tunate in having open house at these devoted band of helpers (including The only other ham that year was Continued on Page 74

Volume 18, No. 3 & 4, 2001 Antarctic FEATURE

"Ham on Ice" Continued from Page 73. The Reconstruction other three outlets for the odd QSO (radio contact). During my term I acquired a bug (type of semiauto matic morse key) from the Americans of Scott Base to send some 12,500 groups of stock take traffic from the Leader back to Christchurch, and also used this on by Murray Mitchell the ham rig. Editor's Note Midwinter, the Christmas of the Originally built for a few years only, In the early 1970's, responsibility Antarctic continent, was a time of Scott Base still exists today, bigger and for the redesign of Scott Base was as great festivity. I was late mouse and better than before, with only one of its signed to the Christchurch Office of can vouch for the sorry state of the original buildings remaining. the Ministry of Works, a move that mess and myself the next morning. Between the early 1970s and 1988 coincided with the establishment of At the dinner each Base member pre Scott Base was completely the Antarctic Division of DSIR in sented another with a hand-made reconstructed, with only minor Christchurch. I moved from Welling present. I drew the cook's name out additions and changes since then. ton to Christchurch in 1978 and took of the hat and made him a three-foot In 2000 the New Zealand Institute of over responsibility for the structural inscribed wooden spoon out of a Professional Engineers (IPENZ) concept and design of the Scott base piece of 4x2. In turn I was given a honoured the new Scott Base design redevelopment. I was privileged to be wonder electronic gizmo by a labo with its Award, commemorated by a part of a design team that comprised ratory technician, which spells out plaque and citation now in the main architects, structural engineers, me "courage sacrifice devotion" (in entrance of Scott Base. chanical engineers and others em scribed on the American polar Murray Mitchell was one of the team ployed by the design section of MOW, medal), at 12 wpm in honour of my responsible for the redesign of Scott a company now operating as Opus being a CW fiend. I nearly ended up Base and he recalls the challenges that International Consultants Ltd. with a 5 second self-destruct tape re had to be met before a new, world- As with the original structure, the corder based on "Mission Impossi class base could be achieved. aim was to design a base that pro ble" but there was some problem vided safety and security in an ex with the CO2 bottle I believe! The original Scott Base was erected treme environment as well as com Having left the mainland (New in 1956 to provide accommodation fortable living and working space for Zealand) in a great hurry I had the for New Zealand's 1957 International the people living there. Inevitably, problem of QSL cards too (acknowl Geophysical Year (IGY) projects and budgetary constraints had to be part edgement cards - see earlier), but to support New Zealand's part in the of any equation too. The re-construc luckily Whitcombes came to the res Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Ex tion began with the building of Q Hut cue with a rush rubber stamp that pedition (TAE) [See Antarctic Vol. 14 in 1976-77, and its completion the fol ended up on stock take cards when no 4 pl23; Vol 15, no 1, p22-24; no 2, lowing season. Throughout the re the small stock of cardboard was p46-47; no 3, p71-74; no 4, p75-98]. development programme the pattern used. I sent the bulk of the card out New Zealand contribution for the was to erect the building shell dur on Winfly at the beginning of Septem TAE was the laying of supply depots ing the one summer season, then to ber, with the later QSLs following me on the Ross Sea side of the Antarctic enclose and secure it against the com out in late October. continent. That first building, desig ing winter. The following summer the I was thankful at times during the nated A Hut and now known as TAE internal building - linings, partitions dark days to have my hobby, al Hut, was officially opened on 20 Janu and services (ie plumbing, fire pro though communications dropped out ary 1957. This was the Mess at Scott tection, power, air-conditioning, tel in May and didn't came back in Base for many years. Other buildings ephones) would be completed. This strength until the beginning of Au followed. Intended for a few years approach has been modified in recent gust. Other memorable experiences only, those first six buildings, joined years and much internal finishing is include an adventurous field trip by covered walkways, served New now completed by some of the win manhauling to Castle Rock; visiting Zealand well for approximately tering- over personnel prior to the the historic huts; visiting the Dry Val twenty years. By then increased de following summer. leys; assisting with the annual seal kill mands on the Base had made it clear One of the foremost requirements (for dog tucker); winning the "best to Antarctic Division Director, Bob for buildings in Antarctica is warmth. groomed" beard award; sunset and Thomson, that it was necessary to re Designing for heat production was sunrise parties; a rough 60-mile trip develop and rebuild Scott Base. This the task of mechanical engineers who over the sea-ice to Marble Point; ex task was to utilise the energy and included Martin Barrett and Ross ploring various ice caves; and lastly skills of many people. Here is one Major. It was critically important on waiting impatiently during a week of person's account of some of the de the structural side to retain that blizzards to return to New Zealand. sign challenges posed by such an ex warmth and the answer to this lay in treme environment. the choice of cladding materials. The

74 Volume 18, No. 3 & 4, 2001 FEATURE Antarctic original base used insulated plywood panels manufactured in Australia. The choice of cladding panels changed during reconstruction. The first building, Q hut, used 200 mm thick prefabricated panels, clad with plywood and lined with gibraltar board. A polythene vapour barrier was installed behind the gibraltar board lining to prevent the water va pour created by people within the building from freezing to form ice in the fibreglass insulation. The Q hut wall panels were heavy to transport and erect, and provided only limited insulation. Subsequent buildings at Scott base used strong, lightweight Telecom satellite Earth Station at first crater on Arrival Heights. cool-store type panels which are eas Photo: The late Garth Varcoe. ily handled and provide effective and reliable thermal insulation. These shop (Stage 7) failed the load test. serving construction of the power were manufactured by two or three Subsequent investigation of the house, and mindful of the short con New Zealand companies. The panel, by pealing back the panel fac struction period available, I designed ing, revealed an area of low-density subsequent buildings on timber pole powerhouse (Stage 2), accommoda foam near midspan, which could tion, ablutions and mess (Stage 3a, platform foundations. These founda have failed in service under wind tions are easily adjusted to fit the 3b), administration (Stage 4), Hatherton Laboratory (Stage 5), light loading had it not been detected. ground's natural contour on site by Ice heave and the build up of snow workshop and standby powerhouse using a chainsaw. Most snowdrifts beneath buildings is a major problem around the base are now limited to (Stage 6) and heavy workshop (Stage in polar building and reducing this areas where the design air space be 7) all used polyurethane foam exte rior panels with steel sheet facings. was another challenge. Ice heave of neath buildings is obstructed by tem The most recent building erected at ten occurs when warmth from within porary storage containers adjacent to Scott Base, the 1999 ablutions block, a building causes melting of the snow the buildings, or adjacent to short has polystyrene insulation in lieu of beneath the floor. When the melted lengths of building with inadequate the polyurethane foam as the New snow refreezes it expands putting ground clearance. Zealand manufacturers of the previ upward pressure on the flooring with When faced with the prospect of ous panels have all ceased trading. destructive results. Every time this building within the very short time This is unfortunate because over the cycle recurs the problem grows. Pre window that the brief Antarctic sum normal temperature range experi vention is much easier than dealing mer provides, it is necessary to incor enced at Scott Base (-50°C - + 5°C) with the problem once it begins. porate into the design the ability to Before starting the rebuilding of build quickly. You could call it the polyurethane foam provides substan Scott Base, wind tunnel tests were tially greater efficient insulation than "Lego" factor—designing a building the more familiar polystyrene foam. carried out on a scale model of the where as much as possible has al For the purpose of comparison, poly base at MOW Central Laboratories in ready been constructed and pre-fab- urethane panels in the living and ac Gracefield to investigate methods of ricated before the materials arrive on commodation buildings are 150 mm reducing the deep snow drifting on Base. the leeward side of the original build thick, whereas the polystyrene pan Design and prefabrication of build els in the stage 8 ablutions block are ings. The tests showed that construct ings in New Zealand, suitable for 250 mm thick to provide equivalent ing buildings on stilts, about 800 mm erection at Scott Base by the New insulation. The current buildings at above ground level with an unob Zealand Army construction team, Scott Base are very well insulated, structed air space beneath, would imposed special constraints. Indi and require less heating to maintain prevent or substantially reduce deep vidual building components had to a comfortable living temperature snowdrifts forming around build be lightweight and suitable for erec than conventional domestic buildings ings. Based on this investigation sub tion by hand as there was no crane at of similar size in temperate New Zea sequent buildings at the base have Scott Base until after the heavy work land been built above ground level on shop was completed in 1988. They piles. The first two buildings, Q hut also had to be easily assembled at Typical cladding panels used for and the powerhouse, were built on stages 2 to 7 were subjected to rigor subzero temperatures, by workers ous load and adhesion tests super steel stilts, but during erection on site, with gloved hands and simple hand vised by the Ministry of Works, prior these buildings required difficult and tools. All building components were to acceptance. A number of very long time consuming excavation of the fro code marked and scheduled on the wall panels manufactured for the zen scoria foundation to create foun drawings. These markings were dation pads at a common level. Ob high gable walls of the heavy work- Continued on Page 76

Volume 18, No. 3 & 4, 2001 Antarctic FEATURE

The Reconstruction The next three buildings were the tion of Stage 6, the light engineering of Scott Base Command Centre, the Hatherton workshop, all building components Laboratory and the light engineering to construct and enclose the building Continued from Page 75 workshop (Stages 4,5,6). These three shell were transported early in the transferred to components after fab buildings were all similar but quite season by air. That was to change rication, which helped independent different in form from the preceding with the heavy pre-cast concrete com ones. Each had independent internal checking of component dimensions, ponents for the heavy workshop. and allowed clear identification dur portal frames in the transverse direc These were transported south by ship tion. This, unlike the accommodation at the end of one construction season ing construction. The first building I designed was and mess buildings, allowed more and erected on site the following summer. probably the most complicated of all. flexibility for possible future usage. This was the new accommodation, It allows for the removal or alteration By the end of 1988 Base reconstruc ablutions and mess building. The of internal partitioning without af tion was substantially complete and the next major project at Scott Base building was to be erected on three fecting the building's structural levels in order to follow the existing strength. One feature of the light en was the Antarctic Telecommunica tions Project, code named SES, Satel ground contours. Our advice from gineering workshop is its heavy tim those on the spot at the time had been ber floor, providing the added lite Earth Station. This was a major that it was not possible to excavate a strength necessary to support heavy Telecom project involving Telecom, horizontal site in the frozen scoria to engineering machinery and the the then Ministry of Works and the allow the building to be all on one stand-by generator. A unique feature New Zealand Antarctic Programme. level. Our thinking on this was later of that generator is that it is supported At the time of its construction and to change. To familiarise the building on airbags to prevent the transfer of successful commissioning in January construction team with what they machine-generated vibrations 1992 it was the southernmost perma would have to do, we decided that a through the building structure. The nent telecommunications satellite trial run of the building erection two generators in the powerhouse are link in the world and opened a whole would be a good idea. The Army pro supported on separate steel piles into new communication era. vided the construction team to go the ground beneath the building. The A feasibility study was commis South and the ideal location for the airbags have proved to be an innova sioned in 1989 for a suitable site close trial run was the King Edward Bar tive and very successful alternative. to Scott Base. The criteria were: 1. An racks. This site was perfect. It pro The heavy engineering workshop unobstructed view of the satellite; 2. vided a huge, open, covered space (Stage 7) includes a number of unique Adequate access for construction of with plenty of height and room to features. These include a suspended the 9 metre diameter antenna and its concrete floor slab capable of sup enclosing 15 metre geodesic dome on spare. The Army, by skill and inge a raised foundation (to prevent snow nuity, was able to replicate within the porting a twenty two tonne point Barracks the sloping construction site load in any location. As a result, drift packing underneath which on which we would build at Scott tracks on the Caterpillar D-8 bull could obstruct the bottom metre or so Base. The whole exercise clearly dozer (the heaviest vehicle in the of the antenna.); 3. It required either showed the necessity to uniquely fleet) can be removed and serviced in a guaranteed 100% reliable independ the warmth and shelter of the work ent power supply, or to be supplied identify each building component by via a cable from Scott Base or type and number. We devised a sys shop. It is to be regretted that the de tem of building by numbers! It high sign brief for the workshop did not McMurdo Station. include helicopter servicing, as a mi The satellite is located in a lighted the need to dimensionally check all components prior to des nor increase in building height would geostationary orbit and is in continu have allowed undercover helicopter ous line of sight, only 6 degrees above patch. This was followed and stood us in good stead for all subsequent rotor and turbine removal. The con the horizon. Telecom identified five crete floor, covering an area of 600 possible sites from New Zealand, building in Antarctica. Any awkward four on Hut Point Peninsula, and one procedure would be at least twice as square metres, was pre-cast in New difficult working in sub-zero tem Zealand. By careful design and detail on Black Island. Black Island pro vided the best view of the satellite. peratures. It was excellent to identify ing it was erected on site in two days and work through many of the pos using a team of eight people. This was Unfortunately it was a remote site sible difficulties in an unpressured an achievement of which all involved which would have required building environment. can be proud. This workshop was the and maintaining a separate inde Over the years the New Zealand last of the major buildings to date in pendent power supply. This would the re-construction programme. Sub have been a very costly alternative on Army was to supply the construction team for each stage of the re-devel sequently an additional small ablu a site inaccessible for maintenance tions block has been added adjacent during the winter months. Crater Hill opment. The team was new each to Q-Hut in 1999. was rejected because the steep sides time, sourced from a different mili A feature of all Antarctic building of the crater made access almost im tary base, and whilst there was no that must always be addressed in the continuity of personnel, each group possible for construction machinery did an excellent job, under difficult logistical planning is transport of and line of sight to the satellite was materials from New Zealand to the obscured by Mt Erebus. Of the working conditions. continent itself. Up until the comple remaining three sites - Knob, First

76 Volume 18, No. 3 & 4, 2001 Antarctic

Scott Base, Antarctica. Photo: Antarctica New Zealand Pictorial Collection.

Crater and Second Crater, First Cra lightweight geodesic dome panels for ings could be moved contributed to ter at Arrival Heights offered the best then. The typical triangular panels the success of the project. I have to view of the satellite and an estab were the height of a man and behaved confess to a few sleepless hours prior lished access road for the construc effectively like a kite in windy condi to off-loading of the drilling rig from tion. It also allowed a landline link tions. The foundations of the dome, the Italian ship Italica on the sea ice from Scott Base, which would pro like Scott Base, were built above 20 kilometres offshore. The rig vide a reliable power supply as well ground to preclude snow build up. weighed around 20 tons and I could as a fibre optic communication cable. The success of this project is reflected only hope that it would not descend The site I recommended was on top in the clear and reliable telephone through the ice to the bottom of the of First Crater, adjacent to a Desig communications Scott Base has with sea. The ice was thinner than I would nated Site of Special Scientific Inter the rest of the world. have wished and did crack as we est (SSSI). During construction One final project, which perhaps carefully towed it on a very long ca Telecom made the decision, on tech can be viewed as a mobile camp with ble to the safety of thicker ice. The nical grounds, that it was necessary links to Scott Base, was the multi-na opportunity to design the sleds and to relocate the antenna site 10 metres. tional Cape Roberts deep-drilling drilling rig was an interesting varia This effectively located it within the project site. New Zealand's contribu tion from other work I had been in SSSI, a controversial decision that I tion was to provide accommodation volved with. had difficulty accepting. and the drilling-rig. The construction The Antarctic part of my working The feasibility study for the site of this temporary base was very dif life has been one that I have valued was carried out early in the summer ferent to that for Scott Base. After enormously. Space does not allow season of 1989 and one significant much brainstorming with Jim Cowie mention of the many people I have memory is of working survey instru and Alex Pyne the idea of converting been fortunate to meet and events I ments in thick gloves. In fact at times standard insulated shipping contain have been part of over the years. The it was almost impossible, as many ers was arrived at. These were to pro apparent simplicity of these buildings will know, and you are forced to re vide high quality, secure, warm, du belies their sophistication, not just move the gloves and bear the cold. rable accommodation for living, structurally, but in the power supply, During the construction phase two working and research laboratory heating and fire safety systems de years later a major difference we ex space. The original decision was to signed by the mechanical engineers, perienced compared with construc design and build half a dozen special and the reverse osmosis water treat tion on the Base was the wind. The sledges to transport the container ment system designed by Wolfgang winds blew almost continuously, 30- buildings to the camp and drill sites Janata of New Plymouth. The success 50 km per hour much of the time. The at Cape Roberts. However we de of the buildings is reflected in the fact late Garth Varcoe would put the an cided it was effective and efficient that other countries have chosen to emometer out of the window of the operationally to provide a dedicated adopt some of the methods we devel Toyota before we even got out of the sledge for each container. This proved oped in designing Scott Base to deal cab on site! When we discovered that very satisfactory and the ease and with the challenges posed by the the wind blew less between 2.00am- flexibility with which the 40 sledges, Antarctic environment. 8.00am we scheduled erection of the drilling rig and many container build

Volume 18, No. 3 & 4, 2001 Antarctic FEATURE Antarctic Bases No. 1 Terra Nova (Italy)

Italy became a Signatory to the Antarctic Treaty on 18 March 1981, and legistration was passed by the Italian Government for a National Programme for Research in Antarctica (PNRA) on 10 June 1985. The first Italian expedi tion to Antarctica was mounted during the 1985-86 season, partly to begin sci entific research on the con tinent and largely to identify a suitable site in Terra Nova Bay for a permanent base. Construction of the base was started the following season, which allowed Italy to become a full Consulta tive party to the Treaty. In 1988 Italy became a member of SCAR during the XX Italian tracked vehicle alongside the Twin Otter at Terra Nova Bay during SCAR Meeting held in Hobart, Aus movement of a scientific party into the field. Photo: PRNA tralia. The Italian Programme has base and are transported from New ther 460m2. The 400m2 set aside for manned the base for 15 consecutive Zealand by ship at the start of each accommodation has been substan years, steadily expanding both the season. tially increased this season. Techni base and its scientific programme. Terra Nova Base is built on a north- cal services, such as the power plant, The programme has successfully col south trending granitic peninsula in fresh water plant, incinerator, water- laborated with other nations, such as Terra Nova Bay south of Gerlache treatment plant and the helium and France, United States, Germany, New Inlet on the coast of the Northern nitrogen liquifier occupy 450m2. Car Zealand and in the multinational Foothills. The base is built on bed pentry, electrical and mechanical Cape Roberts Drilling Programme. In rock well above the sea, but there is workshops occupy 500m2 while 1200 1996-97 it constructed the Concordia easy access to a wharf in a bay to the m2 is set aside for storage. A 15m re Base at Dome C for deep ice coring. northeast and to the fast ice to the search boat is drawn up on a slipway The Italian Programme includes al northwest. It provides summer sup when not in use. most 300 personnel. port for its very varied science pro The base is powered by four die- Terra Nova Base is resupplied an gramme, and a staging post for its sel generators (2xl40kW and nually by several ships, which dock more remote field events in northern 2x300kW). Freshwater is from a at the wharf or the edge of the sea ice Victoria Land and on the Polar Pla desalination plant and treated in front of the base. Most personnel teau. Many of the buildings for sci wastewater is discharged at a cove arrive by Italian C-130 Hercules, ence and accommodation are modu south of the base. There is a network which lands on the fast sea ice in a lar in design and easily erected. There of roads for up to 44 vehicles, includ nearby bay close to the base. The first are a predominance of slate blue and ing large transporters used during the Hercules landing at Terra Nova Bay red colours. unloading of cargo. was made in November 1990. Some In 1997-98 the base had 1250 m2 times a Twin Otter is also used for allocated to labs, offices, management field parties. Several helicopters, and leisure and eating areas. Various Photos of Terra Nova base continue on charted from Helicopters New Zea astronomical observatories, aquaria Page 82. land Ltd, are regularly used from the and specialised labs occupied a fur

Volume 18, No. 3 & 4, 2001 BOOK REVIEW Antarctic Foothold on Antarctica The First International Expedition Through the Eyes of its Youngest Member

by Charles Swithinbank. Reviewed by Wendy Lawson

This book describes the Norwe the expedition were overshadowed (about ice depth, ice velocity, ground gian-British-Swedish Antarctic Expe by those of the much larger efforts of ing line dynamics) in some detail. dition 1949-1952 from the perspective the International Geophysical Year Indeed, it is fascinating to find that of its youngest member, Charles that took place shortly afterwards in of the expeditions 15 or so members, Swithinbank, who was 22 at the time 1957-1958. However, although it took several of them (Robin, Schytt as well of his selection. The expedition estab me a while get 'hooked' into the book, as Charles Swithinbank himself) have lished a base called Maudheim in I surely did. Some of the most enjoy been significant in term of glaciology Dronning Maud Land, at 11 degrees able and memorable aspects of the in the last 50 years, and many of the West, and spent two years there mak book relate to the descriptions of the others have been significant in other ing a wide range of scientific obser relationships between the men and areas of Antarctic. vations and measurements, some of their main mode of transport - the This was a truly scientific expedi which were highly significant and dogs. The sense of growing mutual tion, where scientific work - much of ground-breaking at the time. In more respect and affection, the sense of which would be considered routine general terms, the expedition is sig humane and compassionate - and yet monitoring in today's output-ori nificant in Antarctic history, in that it sensible - treatment of the dogs is ented environment - was the raison was the first Antarctic expedition that strong and a pleasure to read. The d'etre of the expedition, and the real was international in its conception, other aspect of the book that is both reason for its journeys and explora planning and membership. With interesting and heart-warming, and tions. It was tightly staffed: the ratio shades of our own Cape Roberts something on which Charles of support staff to scientific staff was Project, there was an international Swithinbank reflects at various small, with the scientific staff provid committee comprising members of stages, is the commitment to mutual ing most of their own support. It was the three national committees that cooperation that developed between a catastrophe in more ways than one steered the planning and operation of expedition members from different when three of the expedition's mem the expedition. nations that formerly had extremely bers were killed in a terrible accident, The book is very much a personal competitive approaches to Antarctic and left the rest of the expedition reel account, and seems to be based partly activities. There was also no formali- ing and wondering how they would on memories, and partly on extracts sation of any class distinctions within cope. By the time I reached the end from diaries written at the time. The the group once they reached the base, of the book, I was left with a sense of resulting style is charming - in a very although they were initially required understatement, a sense of respect for Oxbridge way The description near to divide between officers' and crew's the honesty and frankness of the ac the start of the book of the selection mess on the whaling boat on the jour count, and for the expedition and its process to which Charles ney down. achievements. Also, a sense of sad Swithinbank was subjected is charac The expedition was led by John ness for the unnecessary loss of life teristic. Apparently, the then Director Giaever, a Norwegian from Tromso, that occurred, as well as recognition of the Scott Polar Research Institute, who was is his late forties. Accord of an expedition that was ahead of its Launcelot Fleming, who was inter ing to the book, John Giaever spent time in terms of international coop viewing the young Charles for a po long periods at Maudheim closeted eration and streamlined scientific fo sition on the expedition, quickly dis in his small bedroom area, apparently cus. All in all, Charles Swithinbank's pensed with formalities on realising having an awful time of it, as revealed memories of the expedition that prob that he was dealing with a proficient by extracts from his diary. This re ably defined his subsequent career rower. Instead, they went out on the freshing sense of honesty and lack of probably won't knock you off your Cam in a pair-oared boat, and Charles judgement about different people's feet - it is not a melodramatic account was duly tested for his teamwork and experiences of expedition life is in - but it will set you thinking about the strength. He passed this practical test stark contrast to the stiff-upper-lip transformation of Antarctic opera with flying colours, and was added accounts of 'awful places' of earlier tions, and indeed of society in gen to the expedition's staff. years. In many ways, then, this expe eral, through the twentieth century. The fifty years that have elapsed dition seems to have marked a between the expedition and the writ change from the intensely competi Dr Wendy Lawson is a Senior Lec ing of this account mean that there is tive, heroic era of Antarctic activities, turer at Canterbury University, a certain lack of immediacy in the to the cooperative, scientific, modern Christchurch, with an international repu prose, that is not completely balanced era, as well as to what some have tation for her glacialogical research in by the greater sense of perspective called the 'mechanised age'. Antarctica and New Zealand. She is also that those 50 years might bring. In Some of the expedition's findings on the Board of both Gateway Antarc many ways too, as Charles points out, were highly important, and the book tica, and Antarctica New Zealand. the great scientific achievements of describes the glaciological ones

Volume 18, No. 3 & 4, 2001 79 Antarctic British Polar Exploration and Research A Historical and Medallic Record with Biographies 1818-1999

By Lieut. Col. Neville W. Poulsom and Rear Adm. J.A.L. Myres CB (Savannah Publications, 2000) Review Copyright 2001 by Glenn M. Stein, Apopka, Florida, USA.

As a researcher and collector of 45% for this medal is stated in the text, polar medals for 17 years, an updated Brittsh Polar when in fact, a further eleven medals and revised edition of Lieut. Col. exist in private collections and insti Poulsom's 1968 work The Wltite Rib Exploration and Resea tutions. bon had been anticipated for several A Historical and Medallic Re Turning to the 1904 Polar Medal, years. The result is a book three times iographies which covers expeditions for both the the length of its predecessor. - 1999 Arctic and Antarctic and is still issued The text of the new work regard today, it is pleasing to see so many ing descriptions of the primary med details under the recipients' biogra als concerned (Arctic 1818-55, Arctic phies. Unfortunately, mention is not 1875-76 and 1904 Polar Medals) and always made of polar services for related expedition histories, was es which no medal/bar was awarded to sentially taken directly from The the individuals. The particularly White Ribbon. frustrating thing about the biogra On an early Antarctic note, the in phies concerns the listing and han troductory paragraph to Franklin's dling of recipients' medals and arti last expedition says that the Erebus facts, which in several cases are not mentioned at all. and Terror "...had been used by Sir ' James Clark Ross in his three memo Oddly, the style of noting individu rable voyages in the Antarctic in 1839- sued." by a man's name, he is assum als' awards changed from the First 43 (for which there was subsequently ing the blank in the Remarks column and Second Arctic Medals to the Po no medallic recognition)." It should of the original roll means a medal was lar Medal. In the former, the exist be noted that Ross did request an never issued for that individual. I ence of medals is stated in the text, Arctic 1818-55 Medal (First Arctic) for asked a long time medal researcher but in the latter, individuals' entitle his crews, but it was refused by the about this, and this person replied: "I ments are simply noted in the vast Admiralty. As several of these men agree that the lack of positive infor majority of cases. As with the Arctic also participated in Arctic voyages mation is an insecure basis to decide Medals, it would have been so much which qualified for the award, it's a categorically whether or not a medal more meaningful, from a collector's pity that a full listing of these "north has or has not been issued." Perfectly and researcher's point of view, to in and south men" was not included in genuine named/attributed medals clude various artifacts and docu the book. may forever be frowned upon be ments accompanying the Polar Med The heart of this reference work cause there was "No medal issued.". als. Finally, the medal rolls do not lies in the biographical and medallic One of the sections of the book that differentiate bar only awards (except information. There is no doubt that I was particularly keen on seeing cov in one instance) to men who already there has been a wealth of data added ers the Arctic 1875-76 Medal (Second had a Polar Medal. since the publication of The White Rib Arctic). A wealth of information ex I wrote earlier about omitted infor bon, and that this information will ists in published sources alone regard mation and in fact, there is wasted benefit collectors and researchers for ing both officers and other ranks who space in the book's design, thus al years to come. I am mystified, how participated in this expedition. How lowing for more information if more ever, by the minefield of errors and ever, a mere 14 pages are devoted to thought had been put into this area. omissions due to the severe the 155 recipients of H.M.S. Alert and For example, it was repetitious to underutilization of published data Discovery, and the private vessel print the various gazette entries, and and original research available to the Pandora. It is difficult to understand other authorities, three times, thus authors. why two well known books about the needlessly taking up space. Much is Some 250 pages contain an alpha 1875-76 voyage were not consulted made in the book about the different betical listing of persons eligible for (at least, they are not listed in the bib years of service on the Discovery In the First Arctic Medal, along with liography), as they contain much use vestigations' Bronze awards (1925- varying amounts of information. ful biographical information. These 39), and this could have been con Though this section has many bio are Capt. Sir G.S. Nares' Narrative of densed down to a couple of pages graphical details, much of what is in A Voyage to the Polar Sea (two vol with years of service included in print in various books has been left umes/1878) and Rear Admiral A.H. brackets after the men's names. untouched. Markham's The Great Frozen Sea The next area of concern is the When Poulsom has "No medal is- (1894). In addition, a survival rate of chapter titled "Other Medals and

Volume 18, No. 3 & 4, 2001 BOOK REVIEW Antarctic

Medallions". The Royal Geographi cal Society (R.G.S.) medallic informa tion is enhanced by a list of recipients of Royal Medals, but remarkably, de LET HEROES SPEAK scriptions of the Special Medals lack any mention of naming. In the case of medals issued by the Antarctic Explorers 1772 - 1922 United States government, some were issued officially named, but this is only mentioned in one case. The by Michael H Rosove, Published 2000, Naval Institute Press Annapolis, Maryland, USA. special British Sea Gallantry Medal US$34.95. (Foreign Services) given to certain Americans who searched for Sir John Reviewed by Baden Norris Franklin is incorrectly referred to in a First Arctic biography, and is not described at all in this chapter. Also, Until I read this work I was of the What comes through very clearly the Grinnell Medal is mentioned in strong opinion that the world at large is that the men involved in unlock the First Arctic section, but is absent had more than sufficient Antarctic ing the secrets of Antarctica were a from this chapter. histories, most of them flawed special breed. Mainly seamen, ordi A final note addresses the images through a lack of balance. Strong nary men doing heroic things rather of recipients. Only officers' pictures nationalistic leanings mar their efforts than heroes performing heroics. Un are published for the First and Sec to portray the subject objectively. doubtedly some sought personal ond Arctic Medals, and the quality of In my opinion, the better of a very fame, while others were driven by these images varies. It seems odd that mixed bunch was the production by nationalistic pride. What is certain is the engraving of George Strong Nares Readers Digest 1985, "Antarctica"; that none achieved any great wealth that is until "Let Heroes Speak" ap wearing only his First Arctic Medal through their endeavours no matter was used, since a fine portrait photo peared. It is rare indeed to find such what the motive had been. a well researched, fair and very read The author must be congratulated graph exists showing him as a Vice Admiral, wearing both First and Sec able account of the fortunes of a for achieving such a fine balance in a ond Arctic Medals mounted together whole group of men from various subject that has many pitfalls for the and the insignia of a Knight Com nationalities and backgrounds united unwary. He, with skill has avoided mander of the Bath (Civil). This pho in the desire to unravel the secrets of "taking sides" in many issues that the frozen south. tograph is even mentioned in the text. plague Antarctic history. What he has It would have been nice to see var Spanning the period from 1772 produced is a book that demands a ied images, such Danish Eskimo Dog with James Cook to 1922 and Ernest place in every polar library and a Shackleton's final expedition, it al Sledge Driver and Interpreter Johann prominent place on the bookshelves Carl Christian Petersen, French Navy most covers the most important pe of all who are interested in the sub riod of Antarctica, its locating, chart Ensign Emil DeBray or the ject. Greenlanders Hans Christian ing, exploration and exploitation. A minor blemish, which may an Hendrik and Johan Frederik Wille. 1 say "almost" because, for reasons ger citizens of Lyttelton, is the re Known images of the first two indi unexplained, it fails to make any ref peated misspelling of the port's viduals show them wearing their erence to the expedition of 1910 by name. Despite this, there is no doubt First Arctic Medals, as well as other Nobu Shirase in the Kainan Maru. I that this is the best book on Antarctic awards, and all these individuals would have thought this expedition history to surface for many years. served on British expeditions. warrants mention before, say, that of "Let Heroes Speak'by all means, but It was a pleasure to see a photo John L Cope. much more important is to "Let He This omission aside, the reader is graph of one of the few women to roes be Heard". Well done, Michael receive the Polar Medal, Dr. Margaret introduced to a full and exciting his Rosove! Through writings such as Ann Bradshaw. This New Zealand tory of the continent, warts and all. these we are at last starting to listen. scientist "...made a major contribu From Cook onwards each probe tion to the New Zealand Antarctic into the southern polar regions is ex Baden Norris is one of New Zealand's amined, each leader's achievements foremost Antarctic historians and is Programme over a period of 17 are measured, not, I am pleased to years.". The bar on her medal reads Curator of Antarctic History at ANTARCTIC TO 1992, and she is pic note, in comparison with others, but Canterbury Museum. He was a tured wearing the award. in isolation. As a consequence, a fair member of one of the earliest groups to ness is achieved that is not often revisit the historic huts after they were Glenn Stein is a polar historian with a present in histories of this nature. "abandoned" and helped to free them The reader is helped through the deep interest in official and unofficial from the build up of ice and snow. He medals awarded for polar exploration pages of "Let Heroes Speak'by the pro currently serves on an Specialist and scientific study. He is a dynamic vision of adequate black and while Advisory Committee to the Antarctic teacher, designer and artist at the illustrations, complimented by maps Heritage Trust and is a frequent of the polar areas. lecturer on tour ships to the Antarctic. University of Florida, USA.

Volume 18, No. 3 & 4, 2001 81 Antarctic FEATURE

Left: Plan of Terra The Italian supply ship Italica against Nova Base. the sea ice in Terra Nova Bay. Photo: PRNA. PRNA.

Terra Nova Base Continued from Page 78

1. Main building - 2 Power-generators • 3 Fuel tanks lor generators - 4 Desalinators/ nitrogen and helium liquitiers and geological laboratories • 5 Sea water pumps - 6 Water treatment plant - 7 Incinerator - 8 Fuel distributor/battery recharging station/ hyperbaric chamber - 9 Warehouse hanger -10 Workshop and vehicle hanger -11 Guest rooms -12 "Pinguinattolo" recreation area Terra Nova Base nestled amongst • 13. Warehouse containers -14 Wharf -15 Helipad -16 Helicopter fuel pumping station -17 He licopter fuel tanks -18 Future expansion area -19 Geomagnetic laboratory - 20 Integrated auto mated module - 21 Aquarium/ laboratories granite outcrops. Photo: PRNA.

82 Volume 18, No. 3 & 4, 2001 NEWS Antarctic Space mapping catches Antarctica in motion Antarctica may appear to be a land hundred metres frozen in time, but it certainly is not of its nominal still. Glaciers spread from the conti track on each or nent's centre to the sea, icebergs break off and crash into the ocean, and great bit," said Rolf Mamen, Direc "rivers" of ice snake through the ice tor General of sheet, evidence of a dynamic relation Space Opera ship between this remote continent tions at the Ca and global climate. nadian Space A joint NASA and Canadian Space Agency. Agency mission now provides a more Precise navi comprehensive view of how the Ant arctic ice sheet moves and changes gation and data from the six and may help answer some funda passes have mental questions about whether the made it possible ice sheet is advancing or retreating. to create detailed The initial mapping campaign, the 1997 Antarctic Mapping Mission, re topographic sulted in the first high-resolution ra maps and to measure the dar satellite map of the continent. The second phase, the Modified Antarc speed of the tic Mapping Mission completed No moving glaciers. "Most of the Ant vember 2000, once again charted Ant arctic ice sheet arctica with space-based imaging ra dar. This second mission allows sci moves imper- cep l y sow y jne Antarctic Peninsula showing earlier position of the entists to see how the continent has but nevertheless Ursm ke sMfed Photo: NASA changed over the past three years as well as a wealth of new information surely, says sci on the movement of the most active ence team member Dr. Frank Carsey of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, new map of Antarctica for compari region, the marginal half of the ice son with the one made in 1997. The sheet. Pasadena, California. "This mission gives us an overall process of turning the radar images "The 1997 map became a bench into map-quality mosaics will take mark for studying changes on the snapshot of how the ice moves and about a year to complete. how it is changing. By measuring the continent and also revealed fascinat "We already can see several extent and velocity of the moving ice ing features, including enormous ice and estimating its thickness, we can glaciers along the Antarctic Peninsula streams in East Antarctica, that we coastline where the ice edge has re estimate how much ice may be lost had never seen before. We expect to treated over 30 kilometres in just three find even more surprises from this into the ocean from Earth's largest storehouse of freshwater," Carsey years. But this is not the whole story. We also see places where the ice sheet second, even more detailed map that added. "These calculations are impor will help us unravel some of the mys is advancing, such as the Amery Ice tant for understanding Antarctica's teries behind how our global environ Shelf. The Antarctic Ice Sheet is huge, contribution to the present rate of sea- ment behaves," said Dr. Ghassem and this is the first time we have the level rise of about two millimetres, or data to study and compare ice sheet Asrar, Associate Administrator for the thickness of a dime, a year." NASA's Office of Earth Sciences, behaviour around the entire conti Mission scientists are now devel Washington, D.C. nent," says mission principal inves For the new mission, the Canadian oping velocity maps that show the direction and speed of the ice. They tigator Dr. Kenneth Jezek, of Ohio Space Agency's RADARSAT-1 satel have already created the first-ever State University's Byrd Polar Re lite trained its imaging radar on the search Centre. "These data will help complete velocity maps of the spec marginal half of the continent twice tacular Lambert Glacier, a sinuous ice us determine whether the local during each of three consecutive 24- stream more than 500 kilometres changes we see represent expected, day periods, ending 14 November episodic behaviour or whether they 2000. "The mission was a challenge long, which reaches speeds of more than one kilometre a year once the ice represent regional trends driven by for us because we had to accurately spreads onto the Amery Ice Shelf. changing climate. " navigate the satellite to within a few Source: NASA Press release They are also beginning to create a

Volume 18, No. 3 & 4, 2001 83 Antarctic TRIBUTE Robin Langf ord Oliver 21 December 1921 -1 February 2001

Robin Oliver was a true 'Old Antarc Beardmore Glacier region. tic Explorer' and looked the part. He Robin officially retired in 1982 but was born in New Zealand, the son of this meant little change to his routine. Dr. W. R. B. Oliver, Director of the Do He was a key figure in the Fourth Inter minion Museum in Wellington from national Conference on Antarctic Earth 1928 to 1947. Robin entered Victoria Sciences held in Adelaide in i982. Lec University College (University of New tures, seminars and conferences contin Zealand) in 1939 and studied geology ued as if nothing had happened. under Charles Cotton. In 1943 he com Some wonderful stories exist about pleted his Master's degree, and shortly Robin's academic forgetfulness. Such after was called up for military service. as the time he couldn't find his car after Like all students of the early 1940's, a day at the university and reported it the exigencies of war impinged on Rob to the police as missing. The following in's studies in various ways. His major night he went out as usual to his car, contribution to the war effort was as a automatically remembering where he 'Hardy Man' in 1944 and 1945, a coast- had left it and was stopped by the po watcher for enemy ships on wind-swept Robin Oliver on a visit to New lice on his way home for driving a sto Subantarctic Campbell Island. Any Zealand in 1999. len car. The one about the time Robin spare time was used to study the geol went back to his university office in the ogy of the island, and with Charles Zealand Alpine Club. In January 1965 middle of a lecture he was giving to Fleming, another Campbell Island he was aboard the Nella Dan when it fetch something, but instead sat down coast-watcher, and Harold Finlay he was struck by a freak storm off Wilkes at his microscope and forgot about his subsequently produced The Geology of Station. The wind rose from dead calm waiting students, is even better! Campbell Island. to 50 knots in only five minutes and the A couple of years ago Robin stoically Back home, and now with the New ship was struck by a giant wave that took part in a rigorous South Island Zealand Geological Survey, Robin made tore away the ship's motor boat and fieldtrip after the International Sympo too close a study of a volcanic eruption rubber landing pontoon. Robin was sium on Antarctic Earth Science that of Mt Ruapehu, and with a badly part of the small party who set off in was held in Wellington. As late as mid- burned leg, was forced to observe the the launch to retrieve the escapees in January this year he was at the Allan White Symposium on S-type granites at V-J Day celebrations from a hospital very rough seas. bed. It was during this period with the Robin had two seasons in the La Trobe University in Melbourne New Zealand Geological Survey that Vestfold Hills (1970-71,1976-77) and in where he was seen to be as fit and ac Robin first met his future wife, Helen 1980-81 accompanied ANARE to Her tive as ever. He was 75 before he gave Pirie, who had studied geology in Auck ring Island and Casey. His last Antarc up cricket, squash, tennis and abseiling. land. tic fieldwork was in 1981-82 when he A week after returning from the Robin spent 1946 to 1949 as a geolo was part of a joint Australia-New Zea Allan White Symposium Robin suffered gist with Shell in Venezuela after which land-US party to Northern Victoria a severe stroke. He never recovered and time he enrolled as a doctorate student Land. Robin's Antarctic involvement is died on 1 February aged 80 years. at Cambridge. Here he met up with commemorated in Oliver Bluffs in the - By Alan Mason several other New Zealanders and mar ried Helen Pirie. After completing his Ph.D. Robin was offered an assistant lectureship at Oxford but in 1955 joined the Canadian Photographic Survey Corporation as a photogeologist. In this capacity he vis ited Ceylon and Pakistan, where he was kidnapped by a gang of renegades and held for a short time. In 1958 Robin was appointed lecturer at the University of Adelaide, where he remained for the rest of his working life, rising to senior lecturer. He became in volved in Antarctic research and made seven trips to Antarctica (1959-60,1961- 62, 1964-65, 1970-71, 1976-77, 1980-81 and 1981-82). His first trip was part of an eight-man survey and geological Ex pedition to the lower Beardmore Gla cier organised for 1959/60 by the New 84 Volume 18, No. 3 & 4, 2001 TRIBUTE Antarctic James Maurice Maitland Caff in, MBE 1 August 1912 -13 January 2001

James Caffin was eminent in jour Antarctic affairs and his integrity as nalism and Antarctic affairs. Widely a journalist is indicated by his known as Jim, he was educated at Mt concurrent position as a correspond Albert Grammar and Christchurch ent for United Press International, Boys High School. From there he Associated press, the Sydney Daily passed on to Canterbury University Telegraph and contribution to Ameri College. In 1931, at the age of 19 or 20 can magazines. He was also inter he joined the staff of the Christchurch ested in other media and was a Star and Times but moved to the Wel founder member of the Christchurch lington Evening Post in 1935 and on Film Society. He organised the first ward to the New Zealand Herald in international documentary film fes Auckland later the same year. In 1941 tival held in New Zealand in 1950. he returned to Christchurch to take Writing was not his only interest, up a position with the Christchurch he was keenly interested in Aviation Press where he remained with one and in 1953 was asked to join the short interruption for war service management committee for the Lon until he retired in 1977. For twenty don to Christchurch air-race held to years he was the newspaper's Chief celebrate the development of Reporter and in addition Literary Jim Caffin MBE. Christchurch International Airport. Editor from 1974 until retirement. countries. Amongst the highlights of his full It is said that his interest in Ant As a result of this activity Jim and interesting life numbered his two arctica was inspired by an interview amassed a major Antarctic archive visits to Antarctica in 1959 and 1961 with Rear Admiral Richard Byrd on now housed in Canterbury Museum. during the exciting period when New his second Antarctic Expedition 1933- His contributions to Antarctic knowl Zealand's involvement in the IGY 35. His interest led him to an involve edge and communication were recog was metamorphosing into an ongo ment with the New Zealand Antarc nised by the award of an MBE in 1984 ing commitment to Antarctic explo tic Society where he was Canterbury and the naming of a valley in his hon ration and research. Few media visi Branch Chairman (1975-76) and our in South Victoria Land, near Mt tors to the continent have been as suc President of the Society in 1977-78. Bastion. cessful and committed advocates of His major contribution to the Society Jim Caffin's contributions to the Antarctic involvement as Jim Caffin. however, was as Editor and major community were not limited to - By Keith Clegg. contributor to the Society's quarterly bulletin Antarctic, producing 43 issues Caffin Valley, Antarctica. spanning over a decade. During this period the magazine grew to be a re spected and trusted voice on Antarc tic matters, largely as a consequence of Jim's wide knowledge and con tacts. Jim provided lively thumb-nail sketches of Antarctic exploration and research gathered from a range of personal contacts scattered across the world. Jim corresponded with mem bers of most national programmes and Antarctic reached over twenty Colourful Antarctic Tartan A new tartan (left) has been de servation. The British Antarctic Sur season, when BAS photographer signed by Celtic Originals, a small vey was approached for help and ap Chris Guilbert took photographs of tartan business on the Isle of Mull in proval, and the UK Antarctic Herit scientist Keith Reid wearing an Ant Scotland, to provide those who visit age Trust was suggested as a worthy arctic Tartan shirt on Bird Island. Bas the continent with more than just charity of support for the preserva said "The British Antarctic Survey memories. The tartan will also raise tion of Antarctic Historic Huts. have welcomed this initiative in pro- funds to help support Antarctic con The tartan visited Antarctica this Continued on Page 86

Volume 18, No. 3 & 4, 2001 85 Antarctic news

White represents the ice-covered con they cross represents the South Pole. Colourful tinent, ice floes, and the edge of the Two bands of grey surrounding this Antarctic Ocean. Grey represents white heart depict nunataks, moun Antarctic outcropping rocks, seals and birds. tain ranges, and exposed coastal Orange represents lichen, Emperor rocks. Around the coast Antarctica's Tartan and King penguin (head) plumage. life forms are found, so the colours Yellow also represents penguin plum that follow in the sett, orange, yellow, Continued from page 85 age and the summer midnight sun. black and white, represent the wealth Black and white together depict pen of animal life on the land margin and viding a different and artistic inter guins and whales. Pale blue repre in the seas. Orange also represents the pretation of the beauties of the Ant sents crevasses in the ice and shallow lichens that encrust the rocks. Sur arctic. We believe that the generous blue icy waters of the ice shelves, rounding the land pale blue and gift of profits from this enterprise whilst dark midnight blue represents white depict the ice shelves whilst the could materially help in the conser the deep Antarctic Ocean and the outside is edged by thick bands of vation of our Antarctic heritage sites." darkness of Antarctic winter. The de The colourful tartan was inspired midnight blue for the ocean deeps sign is based on the geography of and the dark winters. Each sett is by various images in Alistair Antarctica. The large square of white separated by a thin band of white that Fothergill's book Life in the Freezer, at the centre of the sett represents the represents the edge of Antarctica. especially the book's cover photo of Where these cross, the Southern Cross two King penguins. The colours light of Antarctic summer on the ice- covered continent. This is quartered is depicted. This, viewed diagonally, forming the tartan are white, grey, by threads of pale blue which repre also represents the Scottish saltire, - orange, yellow, black & white to sent the zero/360, 90, 180, and 270 tribute to the fact that 2001 is the cen gether, pale blue and dark midnight lines of longitude. The point where blue. The symbolism is as follows. tenary of the first Scottish Polar ex pedition to the Antarctic.

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86 Volume 18, No. 3 & 4, 2001 ANTARCTICA

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C NEW ZEALAND ANTARCTIC SOCtETYlMl g Btlllngthauterv (Huisil) Clung Cheng (Orc«l Wall) (PRO