N.Z. Expedition To Balleny Islands

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30654, 21 January 1965, Page 12

N.Z. Expedition To Balleny Islands

(From Our Own Reporter) WELLINGTON, January 20. A team of 13 New Zealand scientists and teclinicians has left Scott Base, Antarctica, on a special expedition to the Balleny Islands, an ice-clad chain of five Antarctic islands about 700 miles away.

Led by Dr. E. V. Dawson, principal scientific officer for the Oceanographic Institute, the group is travelling in the United States Navy icebreaker Glacier.

Formerly volcanic, the Balleny Islands stretch over about 100 miles from a point 150 miles north-east of Cape Kinsey, in Oatesland. The sea between is frequently im-

penetrable because of heavy pack ice. Access is difficult. Only two inlets offer prospects of landing shore parties and, even then, tide and ice conditions must be carefully judged. Although reconnoitred by helicopter, the islands have received scant attention since their discovery in 1839.

An officer of the Antarctic Division of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research said that the expedition hoped to spend about three weeks around the islands conducting oceanographic, geophysical and geological studies in co-operation with American scientists. Their work would include taking what specimens were available, seeking rock samples and trawling. The expedition includes two technical men from the Dominion Museum, Wellington.