Earlier Penetration Of Antarctic Ice Possible

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29363, 16 November 1960, Page 23

Earlier Penetration Of Antarctic Ice Possible

American ships working in the Antarctic this season will probably make an earlier penetration of the ice and cover more ground on oceanographic and mapping surveys than in previous years because of the loosening effect of the Chilean tidal wave in May. Captain E. A. McDonald, deputy commander of the American operations, and commander of the ship programmes, said yesterday that aerial surveys and reconnaissance parties had reported the ice in many parts of the continent and especially round the Bellingshausen and Amundsen sea areas, to be more broken this year than in previous seasons. “The ice is just as thick, but more broken,” he said. Three icebreakers, the Glacier, Eastwind and Staten Island, will arrive in the Antarctic about December 5 and spend up to a month crashing a channel through the bay ice in McMutdo Sound to the American base on Ross Island. The fourth icebreaker, the Edisto, has been delayed in Panama with engine trouble and will not arrive in the Antarctic until about December 30. One hundred tons of cargo for construction work at the inland Byrd station will be carried on board the Glacier, and the Eastwind will carry 30 tons of explosives for blasting on the nuclear power plant site at McMurdo. The cargo ships taking part in this year’s supply operation, the Private John R. Towle, the Arneb. and the Greenville Victory, and the tanker Alatna, will travel to McMutdo in early January. Four Ships

Four ships are being used this year instead of three to carry the extra equipment necessary for the reconstruction of Byrd station, the nuclear power plant, and renewal of Antarctic communications. In January, the Glacier and Staten Island will return to Lyttelton for a short rest period before leaving on a three-month expedition to the Amundsen and Bellingshausen seas. They will leave Lyttelton late in January. The ships will meet near the Thurston Peninsula, break a channel through the ice to set up a small summer scientific station on or near Bear Island, and then travel round the coast of the Amundsen Sea, taking oceanographic readings, collecting rock samples and insects and making a map of the coastline. The geological structure of the mountains in the Wrigley Gulf area will be studied and compared with those on the Thurston Peninsula. A check will be made on the height of Mount Siple, which has been recorded as a 15,000 fit peak. it was believed that the mountains in the Wrigley Gulf area were of volcanic origin, while those on the Thurston Peninsula were similar to the South Ameri-

can Andes, said Captain McDonald. A theory that a channel connects the Ross and Bellingshausen Seas will be investigated. Scientists will be carried on board both ships. When the Amundsen Sea expedition has been completed, the Glacier will travel atone to a small Chi lean base on the southwest coast of Gnaharntand to pick up three American scientists who have been working there. Biological research wiH be carried out on Seymour Island where relics of six-foot tall prehistoric penguins have been unearthed. From there the ship will sail to Zabodovski Island, the most northern point in the Sandwich Island group, to study animal life and observe an active volcano. The Staten Island will return to the .United States up the west coast of South America and the Glacier will travel along the east coast, calling in at a few ports on the way.