ANTARCTIC RESEARCH

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28728, 28 October 1958, Page 12

ANTARCTIC RESEARCH

Soviet Leader’s View The leader of the Soviet Antarctic expedition (Dr. E. I. Tolstikov) says that scientific research by nations operating in Antarctic regions and the international pooling of data and results should be continued, according to a United States Navy news release. Reporting from McMurdo Sound, where a Russian plane spent 24 hours during the weekend, the Navy says Dr. Tolstikov said that it was “essential that the momentum achieved in Antarctic scientific research and exploration during the geophysical year be maintained after the I.G.Y. ends on December 31. “The nations studying the Antarctic Continent should pursue the scientific objective together, but each should continue to work in the regions of their respective I.G.Y. programmes,” Dr. Tolstikov is reported as saying. Dr. Tolstikov said that Soviet scientific traverses appeared to have been confronted with conditions more severe than those facing American parties. A temperature of “more than 120 deg below zero, Fahrenheit” had been recorded at the inland station of Vostok, compared with minus 101.2 deg. F. at the American South Pole station.

Vostok, on an 11,000 ft plateau of ice, was in the coldest area oh the face of the earth, the Soviet leader was reported as saying. Its annual mean temperature was 86 deg. below zero centrigrade.