CORAL FOUND IN ANTARCTIC

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28490, 21 January 1958, Page 14

CORAL FOUND IN ANTARCTIC

Speculation By Scientists [From DENIS WEDERELL, ~T he Press” Correspondent with the U.S Antarctic expedition.! MCMURDO SOUND. Jan. 17. Three tiny fragments of coral and one complete cup of coral formation found here today may come to be regarded as among the most exciting scientif ? discoveries made in the Antarctic. Bleached white by the passage of years they were picked up above water level among the volcanic rubble of an old moraine off Black Island. 20 miles from McMurdo Sound. Dr. James Zumberge, a glaciologist. who with Dr. Lincoln Washburn. a biologist, found them while poking about seeking granite pebbles said the coral maybe was as much as 60,000.000 years old. The three explanations of their presence given by Dr. Zumberge were: (1) They were from an older deposit over which a glacier had moved—a sedimentary formation. But coral is delicate and unlikely to be so carried without being ground to dust; (2) it might be a type of coral, if such exists, which can live in cold water: (3) the Antarctic experienced a warmer climate before the present advance of the glaciers. The last warm inter-glacial period was some 50.000 years go but if they were fossil corals moved by a glacier they could be from the Tertiant period which began 60.000,000 years ago. Dr. Washburn was incline/ to be cautious and non-committal until the coral was identified on his return to the United States but he was still delighted with the find.