Diverse Antarctic Research Projects

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31210, 7 November 1966, Page 8

Diverse Antarctic Research Projects

(By a staff reporter who re cently visited Antarctica) One of the most ambitious Antarctic programmes undertaken by the United States National Science Foundation will be followed this season. A threemonth study of 1500 miles of Antarctic terrain will range from a magnetic survey of mountain ranges to a new type of radar probe of land contours beneath the ice.

It is hoped that the mountains fringing 1300 miles of Antarctic coastline can be studied and surveyed in the three-month period beginning this month. The operation will be conducted from bases to be established along the coast of Byrd Land by means of helicopters, motor toboggans and ski-equipped transport planes. Survey lines of about 1500 miles will be laid out, using electronic distance-measuring devices. Precise positions of peaks and other landmarks will be established so that maps can be made from aerial photographs. Operations this month will be based in the Ford Range, where the United States Antarctic Service had a field base in 1941. Gravity readings and radar measurements of ice thickness will be made at many points. A half-ton of equipment will be flown to these sites to confirm radar depth measurements by explosion soundings.

Aircraft will fly back and forth along grid lines carrying magnetic equipment to survey the entire region. The 5000 miles of projected flight lines should indicate which mountain ranges are volcanic in origin and which are composed of sedimentary rock. Penguins will be captured to study how they navigate

by the sun, how they keep warm, and how their body chemistry has adjusted to extreme cold. Dr. Wernher Von Braun and others from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration are to study the ice-free valleys in Victoria Land, west of McMurdo Sound, to see if it is suitable for testing vehicles and other equipment designed for landings on the moon and Mars. Among the items that will need testing under conditions as much as possible like those of the moon is a drill that can extract rock samples from depths as great as 100 ft. Another is a vehicle designed to travel on the moon’s surface. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena is interested in finding a place where it can test in a realistic manner the life-detection devices to be landed on Mars. The dry valleys of Antarctica may provide the answer, although it is believed they are probably wetter than most of the Martian surface.

The valleys are kept free of snow by the arid climate and by high winds funnelled into them. They are protected by mountains from the flow of the great ice sheet towards the sea. In the same desert-dike area the mummies of seals 1200 years old are to be collected to see if, in 12 centuries, seal body chemistry has evolved in some way. The proteins and acids in the mummies will be compared with those of presentday seals. Search for Fossils The programme includes an effort to determine whether Africa, South America and Antarctica were once part of the same continent. This will be done by seeking the fossils of certain shellfish. The fossil remains of these mussel-like shellfish have been seen in the Sentinel

Mountains. Since they live only in fresh or brackish water, the species cannot migrate across ocean areas. If those found in Antarctica are similar to those in the rocks of neighbouring continents, it would indicate these land areas were once attached to one another. Other projects include the erection of a 102 ft weather tower at Plateau Station and the installation of an Army drill at Byrd Station that will ultimately drill a 8679 ft hole in the ice to give information on the rate of snow accumulation, seasonal temperature variations, deposit of extraterrestrial material and the physical conditions of the ice and of the rock beneath. A psychological study will also be made of the men confined to the South Pole Station during more than five months of darkness next year. It is hoped this will provide knowledge useful in planning long space missions.