mm^umamm A N E W S B U L L E T I N p u b l i s h e d q u a r t e r l y b y t h e NEW ZEALAND ANTARCTIC SOCIETY ■ H.M.N.Z.S. ENDEAVOUR about to tie up in Winter Quarters Bay. On right, Vince's Cross and Scott's hut. J. Calvert photo. MARCH, 1965 AUSTRALIA Winter and Summer bases Scott- S u m m e r b a s e o n l y t H a l l e f t "cton NEW ZEALAND Transferred base Wilkes UStcAust Temporarily non -operational. .KSyowa TASMANIA , Campbell I. (N-l) , ^ V - r . ^ ^ N . AT // \$ 5«|* Pasar'C ^rd(i/.sA . *"Vp»tuk , N |(I/.«.AJ i - S c o t t ( U . 5 J i t - A N T A R. M^ciJ ^>cwj a fi/V wX " < S M a u d **$P -Marion I. ttM DRAWN BY DEPARTMENT OF LANDS 1 SURVEY WELLINGTON, NEW ZEALAND, MAR.I9l»4- 1 " . " E D I T I O N m ilHl^IBS^IKB^k (Successor to "Antarctic News Bulletin") MARCH, 1965 Editor: L. B. Quartermain, M.A., 1 Ariki Road, Wellington, E.2, New Zealand. Business Communications, Subscriptions, etc., to: Secretary, New Zealand Antarctic Society, P.O. Box 2110, Wellington, N.Z. CONTENTS EXPEDITIONS New Zealand The Central Nimrod Glacier Geological Expedition: M. G. Laird Victoria University Research in Ice-free Areas: W. M. Prebble The D-region Project: J. B. Gregory France United States First Leg of Traverse Australia Belgium-Holland U.S.S.R South Africa Argentina United Kingdom Chile Japan Sub-Antarctic Islands British South Georgia Expedition Big Ben Conquered Special Articles: Hallett Closed Antarctic Stations—I. Mawson Measuring Depth of Ice by Radar The Weddell Seal Population of McMurdo Sound: M. S. R. Smith One More Frontier Crossed We Should Have Helicopters: H. S. Gair More Veterans Pass The Reader Writes Bookshelf March, 1965 NEW ZEALAND RESEARCH TEAMS SPEND BUSY SUMMER podes Island to Campbell Island. "ENDEAVOUR" The cruise ended on February 5. H.M.N.Z.S. "Endeavour" has this season completed three cruises, two Continuous echo sounding records to McMurdo and one in sub-Antarctic were obtained, and at each station waters. thesamples benthic of the(bottom surface living) sediment animals and The U.S. tanker turned N.Z. sup were trawled. A number of sediment ply ship left Lyttelton on December 6 cores were also taken for a study of loaded with 30 tons of general stores the history of sedimentation in this for Scott Base, five tons of cool area. stores, a tractor, a generator and a sno-trac vehicle, as well as her main Landings were made on Enderby load of fuel oil for the U.S. Antarctic Island in the Auckland Islands, and Programme. Five days later, 900 on Antipodes Island. Shore parties miles south of Bluff, she transferred banded nesting albatrosses, obtained 12,000 gallons of fuel and 38 bags of geological specimens and collected mail to the weather-picket ship U.S.S. interlidal animals. The castaway "Mills". This was done during snow depot on Antipodes Island was in squalls and in rough seas. good order and has apparently not The first ice was sighted the fol been visited since November 1962 when a party from N.Z.O.I. stayed lowing day. It grew progressively overnight. A brief call was made to thicker, with occasional patches of collect mail and specimens from open water but the ship steadily worked south till she met the ice Campbell Island where the hospi breaker "Glacier" off Cape Royds. tality of the Leader and personnel of the Meteorological party was greatly "Glacier" was joined by "Staten appreciated by both oceanographers Island" and the two icebreakers and ship's company. made a passage for the final leg to an anchorage at Hut Point, onh 200 ft. The echo soundings have given from Scott's historic hut. This was new information on the morphology on December 18. Christmas was cele of the Bounty-Antipodes area. The brated alongside the ice. Bounty Islands stand on a broad The homeward voyage began on shallow platform which slopes gently December 22 and ended at Lyttelton down, while Antipodes Island rises on the last doy of the year. abruptly from deep water. The two groups are separated from the 200 to OCEANOGRAPHIC CRUISE 300 fathom depths of the Campbell The vessel left again on January 11 Plateau by minimum depths of on a purely scientific mission, an almost 600 fathoms. oceanographic cruise in the sub- Together with previous ones, this Antarctic. cruise has given sufficient knowledge [We are indebted to Mr. I. N. Estcourt, of the distribution of benthic animals leader on the cruise, for this note.] on the Campbell Plateau to allow On this cruise the northern and useful comparative studies. Once the eastern parts of the Campbell Plateau animals have been identified their were studied by the N.Z. Oceano relationships with faunas of other graphic Institute. Stations were areas will be studied, both from the worked along lines from the Snares viewpoint of the origin and relation Islands to Port Ross in the Auckland ships of the New Zealand marine Islands, from Snares to the Antipodes fauna, and by detailed comparison and Bounty Islands, and from Anti with other local areas such as the March, 1965 A * 11 r • iil NEW ZEALAND NAVY DIVERS examine the under-ice world in McMurdo Sound. J. Calvert photo. Chatham Rise which have similar SKIN DIVERS depths and sediments. The "Endeavour" clivers wore "wet Thanks are due to Commander suits" specially designed for use in Silk and the ship's company for their Antarctic waters. As is usual, they are of sponge-rubber and absorb co-operation and interest in making water which is warmed by body heat this cruise a success. and becomes an insulation against the cold; but these special suits are of a more flexible and slightly thin THIRD CRUISE ner material and fit closer to the "Endeavour" arrived at McMurdo body. on February 21 and left again for TRITIUM CONTENT New Zealand on February 23 carry- Following up Claude Taylor's study support staff. She of the tritium content of Antarctic ach Lyttelton on snow, Judd flew to the South Pole March 3. and Prebble to Byrd late in January to collect snow samples. MUCH IN A NAME RETIREMENT Mr. G. W. Markham, who has One of the weather observers to be been Superintendent of the Antarctic stationed at Wilkes this year is Mark Division since its formation, is to J. Forecast. retire shortly. March, 1965 THE CENTRAL NIMROD GLACIER GEOLOGICAL EXPEDITION by M. G. LAIRD The prime purpose of this expedi ing no sign of us, the plane returned tion was to solve several geological to McMurdo Sound and tried again problems which had been raised by later, this time with more success. earlier work in the general area, and With the party finally assembled, also incidentally to fill in gaps in and a depot containing seven weeks' previous mapping. I had prior gen supply of food and fuel set up at the eral knowledge of the region from put-in site, we headed north on Nov a trip south in the summer of 1960— ember 12 to a massif ten miles away 61, and felt that the unexplored to begin work. We found that the northern and western portions of the toboggans were relatively sluggish at Holyoake Range, together with the the high altitude and it took us two equally unknown Cobham and Swith- hours to reach our destination. inbank Ranges would be the most After two days geologizinp here, we likely areas to supply the answers. returned to the depot, picked up I felt that it was also important to some food and fuel, and headed compare the rocks on both sides of south along the western flanks of the Nimrod Glacier, so the western Cobham Range. A week was spent side of the Queen Elizabeth Range to examining Cobham Range and nuna- the south of the Nimrod Glacier was taks to the west. We had hoped to thrown in for good measure. The visit Half-Dome Nunatak to the total added up to an area of nearly south-west of Cobham Range, but a 3,000 square miles, which was to be very bad crevasse field prevented studied in some detail. For this pur this. pose the party had at its disposal two motor tobaggans and four CREVASSE FIELDS After returning to the depot, we sledges. sledged 30 miles down the Prince We had originally hoped to begin Phillip Glacier to Cambrian Bluff, a field work on November 1, but for locality I had visited briefly on my various reasons a start was delayed previous trip four years ago. The until November 10. On this date John previously unvisited western side of Chappell (geologist) and I, together the Holyoake Range was examined with a toboggan and food supplies on this trip, together with the eastern were flown by Dakota to a landing side of the Cobham Range. The site at 6,500 ft. on the Polar Plateau, Prince Phillip Glacier gave us our four miles north of the northern end first experience of crevasse fields, of Cobham Range. This site had been but the motor toboggans seemed to selected for put-in on a reconnais handle crevasses well and there were sance flight carried out earlier. An no accidents. We flagged much of the other plane carrying the other two route down the glacier to make our members of the party, Graham Man- return trip easier, and this, coupled sergh (geologist) and Dave Massam with much probing of crevasse lids (mechanic/field assistant), left an and route finding, made our progress hour after us, but did not turn up slow.