N.Z. ECHO SOUNDER FOR ANTARCTICA

Press, Volume C, Issue 29637, 6 October 1961, Page 9

N.Z. ECHO SOUNDER FOR ANTARCTICA

A portable echo sounding machine will be flown to Antarctica from Christchurch to be tried out in a joint United States-New Zealand oceanographic and hydrographic survey of the McMurdo Sound area.

The 2001 b machine will be operated by Mr N. M. Ridgway, an oceanographer of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, Wellington. If the echo sounder proves successful in ice conditions it will compreea a scheduled three months' surveying task to four to six weeks. Mr Ridgway will carry out his research with Lieuten-ant-Commander J. D. Peeler, the United States Navy staff hydrographer in the Antarctic.

Previously the surveys in the McMurdo Sound area have been carried out by drilling holes into the ice, putting charges down the holes and measuring explosion echoes. This was often laborious and time consuming, said Ueutenant-Com-mander Peeler. The method also involved the use of a drilling machine which weighed two tons and which Involved transportation difficulties. With the use of the portable echo sounder, which can be manhandled, it can be used around tidal cracks where the heavier machine could not.

Lieutenant - Commander Peeler said the survey would accomplish several objects. There was a shoal off Hut Point, the extent of which was not known. Information on the amount of water in the sound was needed for navigational charts. To prepare for the installation of some pipes from the bay to the Ross bland camp more information was needed about the submerged contours of the bay. A pipe will be laid to take water to the nuclear reactor. Another will be laid to take discharged matter from the camp when the new sanitary system operates next season. Mr Ridgway will stay at the Roes bland base carrying out his research for four weeks but this can be extended if necessary. The United States Navy oceanographers will continue to drill holes into the

ice down which weighted lines will be dropped to determine the depth of water beneath the ice. The results of the survey ghould be interesting, said Mr Ridgway, because they would show the profile of the sea floor in the area and the depth of water, which in turn could be used in the study of water currents there.