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flN.THRCililE A NEWS BULLETIN published quarterly by the NEW ZEALAND ANTARCTIC SOCIETY (INC) Salt crystallisation and wind have taken more than one million years to shape this Antarctic granite in the style of a Henry Moore sculpture. Behind the rock above Lake Bonney in the Taylor Valley is a New Zealand geochemist, Dr CH. Hendy. university of waikato photo \/_l n i>|_ T Registered at Post Office Headquarters. C**«**^.M»t»««*« jin~7 0 VOL O, NO. / Wellington, New Zealand, as a magazine. OGpIGfTlDGl, It /O SOUTH GEORGIA "*.. SOUTH SANDWICH Is f SOUTH ORKNEY Is ^ \ ^ « - - - . / /o Orcadas arg Sanae s a Novolazarevskaya ussr A3 FALKtAND Is /°Signyl.uK ,■ ^K60*W / SOUTH AMERICA / / \ S O U T H q . a / v / E D D E L L SHETtAND-^Rj 7 HallevBavl dronning maud land ENderby \1 /SEA UK'Jy COATStd I / LAND >> Druzhnaya general Belgrano arg U S S R , . * > > ^ > - - " " \ / y\ \ Mawson ANTARCTIC <X1 MAC ROBERTSON LAND\ \ aust /PENINSULA'** (see map below) Sobral arg -Siple — USA Amundsen-Scon I queen MARY land 4MirnY EttSWORTH ') tAND 0Vostok ussr ^ MARIE BYRD . tAND WILKES LAND \ I JB?WVICTORIA .TERRE A 7v. ^PV>*/ LAND xv/ ADEUE^y /i20« S GEORGE V Ld,„_/?^ .... ... / — L'^^fXtx^'^K e n i n g r a>•d Dumont s k a y a dUrville\ / france USSR_,-' \ / ----"'BALLENY ls\ / ANTARCTIC PENINSULA 1 Teniente Matienzo arg 2 Esperanza arg 3 Almirante Brown arg 4 Petrel arg 5 Deception arg 6 Vicecomodoro Marambio arg ' ANTARCTICA 7 Arturo Prat chile 8 Bernardo O'Higgins chile 9 Presidente Frei chile <\, 0 5 0 0 1 0 0 0 K i l o m e t r e s 10 Stonington I. uk 13 11 A d e l a i d e I . u k y I ABBREVIATIONS; 12 Argentine Is uk ARG ARGENTINA 1 3 P a l m e r u s a p AUST. AUSTRALIA 14 Bellingshausen ussr • NZ NEW ZEALAND S.A. SOUTH AFRICA U.K. UNITED KINGDOM larsen USA UNITED STATES OF AMERICA U.S.S.R. UNION OF SOVIET SOCIALIST Ice Shelf ° 15° m REPUBLICS 0 1 0 0 k m HHTARDjIlD (successor to 'Antarctic News Bulletin') Vol. 8, No. 7 91st Issue September, 1978 Editor: J.M. CAFFIN. 35 Chepstow Avenue, Christchurch. 5. Address all contributions, inquiries etc. to the Editor. CONTENTS •i:>V_Airr"vri- ARTICLES MARINE RESOURCES I 237-239 mi WINTER SURGERY I 251 £ ■ ■ x-.i-v. POLAR ACTIVITIES mm . ^H NEW ZEALAND 214-227, 229 •*Vt" UNITED STATES 230-232 AUSTRALIA 244-247 JAPAN 227, 240-243 :£- UNITED KINGDOM 232 V- NORWAY 248 I ■■ POLAND 250 fU WEST GERMANY 243 i&uaf ,**Ur> GENERAL iJT^iHffttriwriiHlB'Wi''''1 v'K PRELUDE TO SPRING 233-236 iPT DRILLING PROJECT 228 SEAL PROTECTION 249-250 I I I THE READER WRITES 247 ANTARCTIC BOOKSHELF 252 I © New Zealand Antarctic Society (Inc) 1978. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any way without the prior permission of the publishers. ■ ..flpjppp £aw\fflu&a1§£tZVi T^,:^ji.,- m ANTARCTIC September, 1978 NEW ZEALAND PLANS FOR SEASON Two international projects — observations on Mt Erebus, one of Antarctica's two known active volcanoes, and studies of the glacial history of the Darwin Mountains area 250km south of Scott Base — are included in New Zealand's Antarctic research programme for 1978-79. New Zealand, French, and American scientists, including one woman, will participate in the Erebus project, and scientists from two universities will co-operate with United States parties in the Darwin Mountains. Remote projects in the programme groupgroup willwill combinecombine with the New will be a geological expedition to MarieZealanders Zealanders from from thethe UniversityUniversity olof Byrd Land, and a study of krill WaikatoWaikato andand VictoriaVictoria UniversityUniversity oiof resources by a New Zealand marine Wellington,Wellington, to to undertake undertake geochemistry, biologist who will work with a Polish geomorphology,geomorphology, and and sedimentologysedimentology in fisheries research expedition in the thethe DarwinDarwin Mountains,Mountains, BrownBrown Hills, waters around the Antarctic Peninsula. TentacleTentacle Ridge,Ridge, andand ByrdByrd Glacier Preparations will also be made this region.region. Field Field safety safety of ofthe the whole whole project season for a second attempt in the 1979- whichwhich maymay involveinvolve upup toto 55 people, will 80 summer to drill through the annual be bethe the responsibility responsibility of of the the New New ZealandZealand sea ice into the seabed sediments of fieldfield staff. McMurdo Sound, an international pro- ^^ n n n Pln .,„„ . „ inl.intnA „ Dr G.G.C. Claridge, who initiated a ject in which New Zealand, Unitedprogramme J*2££jTZSS&Z^"^*.* of Antarctic soil studies in 1959, and Mr LB. Campbell, will study nitrate salts in soil formations found on In addition to the major projects on some of the nunataks at the head of the Erebus and in the Darwin Mountains Darwin Glacier. This will assist their New Zealand will provide support for or hypothesis on the origin and formation take part in other international pro of these salts in other Antarctic loca grammes with the United States, Japan tions such as the heads of the dry valleys and Australia. Japanese scientists will and the Beardmore Glacier. work with New Zealand support in the Taylor Valley, and at Cape Bird on Ross Scientists from five universities will Island. undertake a number of field research projects, including programmes in bio DARWIN GLACIER logy, vulcanology, glaciology, geology, New Zealand will contribute a group geochemistry, geomorphology, and psy chology. Men, and seven women, from of six scientists and an Antarctic the universities, Antarctic Division, Division field staff of four to the Ministry of Works and Development, international project in the Darwin Lands and Survey Department, Physics Mountains. In addition two scientists lMIJJ»li)ll»lMl(^:iHVill>ViO>mitOMlMW ical Survey, Soil Bureau, Meteorolog project's base camp on the Darwin Glacier. ical Service, and Institute of Nuclear Sciences, will work on a wide range of Professor George H. Denton, of the projects. Government field parties' University of Maine, will head the research will cover glaciology, geology, United States programme, and his vulcanology, marine biology, and geo- '"w^ ..> ^'V. TfjT-t September, 1978 ,ANTARCTIC physical and topographical surveys. will be operated for the summer only. The normal scientific programme will NEW POWERHOUSE be continued by a team of four men led One feature of this season's pro by Mr Brian Doughty. In addition the gramme will be the erection of a new station will provide logistic and com powerhouse at Scott Base — the second munications support for New Zealand stage of the five-year programme for research parties working in the dry rebuilding the base. A combined Minis valleys. try of Works and New Zealand Army This year a Meteorological Service construction team will also instal two technician will make a comprehensive new generators and mechanical and set of weather observations at Vanda electrical services. Station for use in the First GARP Global Established laboratory research pro Experiment (FGGE) planned for Jan grammes in atmospheric physics and uary and February next year. GARP is earth sciences will continue at Scott the Global Atmospheric Research Pro Base and Arrival Heights through the gramme, an international programme year with two significant additions. of atmospheric science, and FGGE is an Ionispheric D-region observation equip intensive reconnaissance of the global ment will be installed at Arrival Heights atmosphere to determine the minimum by two scientists from the University of facilities needed to meet the objectives Canterbury physics department. Dr. of GARP research. Philip Kyle, of Ohio State University, will place seismic records at various REMOTE PROJECT locations around the base of Mt Erebus, One of the most remote field parties in and these will be maintained by Scott the New Zealand programme will be the Base staff. members of the Geological Survey's Auroral observations will be con expedition to Marie Byrd Land. They tinued with the all-sky camera, and will spend two months in the southern Professor Charles Wilson, of the Geo Edsel Ford Ranges of western Marie physical Institute, University of Alaska, Byrd Land, which are about 1500km will continue his observations of auroral from McMurdo Station, and will be infrasonic waves at Windless Bight away from Scott Base from early 27km north-east of Scott Base. This is a November to early January. joint United States-New Zealand exper Geological evidence obtained from iment started in the 1976-77 season. Marie Byrd Land by United States and New Zealand geologists suggests that WEATHER RECORDS the Campbell Plateau south-west of New From November 1 the meteorological Zealand may have once been contiguous with the area where the Geological programme at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station, which has been Survey party will work. The geologists will evaluate critically the basement carried out by the New Zealand Meteor ological Service for three years, will be geology of Marie Byrd land in terms of resumed by the United States Navy. In this proposition. They will study the future the Meteorological Service will largely Precambrian and Paleozoic update the Scott Base observing pro geology of the southern Edsel Ford gramme by making additional radiation Ranges, and evaluate the rocks as possible source rocks of the late Pal measurements, including some data eozoic and Mesozoic Torlesse rocks of analysis. It will co-operate with United States observers at McMurdo Station to eastern New Zealand. obtain data on the relationships between New Zealand's expedition, which will Antarctic circulation, and changes in coincide with a United Stated expedition atmospheric circulation over New to investigate the metamorphic base Zealand. ment rocks in the northern Edsel Ford Ranges, will be led by Dr Peter Vanda Station in the Wright Valley Andrews, of the Geological Survey.