Coaly Fishy And Fossils Brought From Antarctic

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29775, 19 March 1962, Page 12

Coaly Fishy And Fossils Brought From Antarctic

United States scientists carrying out research in Antarctica have returned from this year’s field efforts with more than nine tons of scientific data and collected specimens, according to the American National Science Foundation. The material includes written records, coal samples, fossils, a 701 b meteorite, record-size fish, dessicated seals, penguin heads, ice cores, water from warm lakes, marine specimens from the sea beneath an ice shelf, film, and magnetic tape. Most items reached New Zealand aboard the U.S.S. Arneb on the first leg of the journey back to more than 30 universities, colleges, research institutions and Government agencies which have participated in the United States Antarctic research programme. All Antarctic data and specimens obtained this year were not transported aboard the Arneb; some were carried home by the individual researchers during earlier departures. However, 18,8351 b of data and specimens arrived in the United States on the Arneb this week, amounting to about 1800 cubic feet of material. Of this, 4275’ h was frozen materials that have to be maintained in this condition until they are returned to laboratories in the United States.

Among these are ice corings taken on the 1052-mile overland traverse made through a large portion of Ellsworth Land by a party of seven from the University of Wisconsin, flsh that are the largest ever taken from the waters of McMurdo Sound,

several penguin heads that are to be sent to Germany for special anatomical studies, and some dessicated seals that may be hundreds of years old. The rest of the nine tons is meteorological data from the Hallett, Pole, Byrd and McMurdo stations, very-low-frequency magnetic tape recordings, the records obtained at Sky-Hi, the foundation’s summer scientific station in Ellsworth Land, and films of auroral displays taken at'the McMurdo, Pole, Byrd and Ellsworth stations. Also, a 701 b stony-iron meteorite found in the Horlick Mountains by a geological party from the United States Geological Survey is being shipped back to the United States Geological Survey and the Smithsonian Institution for careful analysis. Coal samples, notably from Antarctica’s first ‘‘coal mine” in the Horlicks, are also being sent back to the United States. The Horlicks coal, the least weathered coal hitherto obtained in the Antarctic, was ‘’mined” by a geological party from the Ohio State University, and represents the closest thing to a standard analytic coal sample ever secured in Antarctica.

Among other interesting specimens are several marine organisms, including sea spiders, marine worms, corals and sponges, collected from the waters beneath the Ross Ice Shelf by two biologists from Stanford University. These specimens are the first ever collected from the sea beneath a permanent ice shelf. Even water is included in the material collected. Several gallons of water from two unusually warm freshwater lakes, found last season to have temperatures up to 72deg Fahrenheit, are being shij f.ed back to the University of Kansas for detailed analysis. Numerous rock samples were also collected, mainly by the six geological field parties concentrating on the areas of the Sentinel and Horlick Mountains and McMurdo Sound.