Mapping Task Nears End

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30269, 23 October 1963, Page 12

Mapping Task Nears End

(N2. Press Association)

CAPE HALLETT, October 21. The biggest dog sledge expedition undertaken by the New Zealand Antarctic Research Programme left Scott Base yesterday to begin this summer’s geological survey and mapping work in the Ross Dependency.

With 36 husky dogs, the six men boarded a United States Hercules aircraft, at McMurdo Sound last evening to fly to Hallett Station. 350 miles to the north. From a sea ice camp they will be flown to the western extremity of their north Victoria Land survey area during the next two days.

Led by Mr Bob Miller, the Wellington surveyor who led dpg team reconnaissance work for the New Zealand part of the trans-Antarctic expedition, the party will travel about 700 miles and map about 25,000 square miles

of mountain country by the end of January.

Their geological survey will tie in with Russian work done in Oates land in 1958 and with Australian coastal surveys.

This expedition will virtually complete New Zealand’s task of mapping the Ross Dependency. In future seasons small-scale expeditions for specific geological and geophysical research will be the rule.

Most previous field parties have consisted of four men with two dog teams but because this year's survey area is so large and mountainous, six men and tour teams have been combined

The deputy leader is Malcolm Ford, a surveyor of Wellington. Other members are Arnold Sturm, of Toronto, senior geologist, Simon Carryer, of Christchurch, geologist, and Frank Graveson, of Dunedin, and Maurice Sheehan, of Invercargill. field assistants. Messrs Ford. Graveson and Sheehan wintered at Scott Base to prepare for the expedition. Dogs sledges and rations were loaded at the McMurdo Sound airstrip yesterday afternoon in 45 degrees of frost and bright sunshine.

“1 am most impressed with the boys who wintered at Scott Base.” Mr Miller said on departure. “All that could possibly have been done and thought of has been done and the party is a very strong one.”

Mr Sturm, who came to New Zealand on his honeymoon early this year and then discovered he could work for the expedition, said he hoped some interesting problems of Antarctic geology would be solved by the survey.

“From aerial photography and previous reports by geologists who have approached our area, we have a fair idea of what the geology is like and do not expect any surprises,” he said. “But if we can relate the rock strata of this very mountainous northern area to the rocks found further south in Victoria Land, our picture of Antarctica’s geological development as a whole will be clarified."

While the geologists look at rocks, the surveyors will spend many bitter hours on mountain top survey stations. They may be able accurately to determine the height of Mount Minto, a giant among Antarctic mountains, probably about 15,000 feet.