ANOTHER ANTARCTIC VOLCANO

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31269, 16 January 1967, Page 14

ANOTHER ANTARCTIC VOLCANO

(Special Crspdt. N.Z.P.A.) SCOTT BASE, ' Jan. 15. Mt. Erebus is no longer the only volcano on the Antarctic continent known to be active. A New Zealand Antarctic research programme geological field party has found volcanic activity on Mt. Melbourne, 250 miles north of Scott Base on the Ross Sea Victoria Land coast. “Steam issues from small craters. The surrounding ground beneath the surface is too hot to touch, and there is a smell of hydrogen sulphide,” said the geologists. The senior geologist in the party was Mr S. Nathan, a graduate of the University of Canterbury. With him was Mr F. Schulte, a Fulbright scholar from North Dakota University who has just completed a year’s study at the University of Canterbury. Using motor toboggans, the party travelled 500 miles by sledge in seven weeks. They were taken into the field by ski-equipped Hercules aircraft and then travelled

mainly downhill along a ridge between the Campbell and Priestley Glaciers. The leader of the party was Mr R. Chisholm, of Rotorua, and the field assistant was Mr I. Stewart, of Motueka.

Mt. Melbourne, 18,900 ft, is close to where the party was picked up by an icebreaker. “We drove the toboggans to within 1000 ft of the summit, which was exposed rock,” said Mr Chisholm. “About the summit was unweathered volcanic scoria and distinct lava flows. The main craters were old, with smaller ones round their edge,” said Mr Nathan. “Unweathered cinder cones showed that there was volcanic activity in the last few hundred years, which, geologically, is recent. “Ice pinnacles six to 10ft high, and from five to 20ft in diameter, marked places where steam issued from the ground. “We knocked at one of these ice formations with an ice axe and found them hollow, the space inside being large enough for all four of us to climb in,” said Mr Nathan.

As the steam rose from the ground it would freeze to form the bizarre ice cones.

“Because we were not expecting to be in an area as warm as this, our thermometer went only as far as 50 degrees Centigrade. The ground was too hot to make accurate measurements,” said Mr Schulte. “Some of the rocks were too hot to touch. There was a smell of hydrogen sulphide, and when I put my ear to the ground I could hear the sound of boiling water. “Soil was forming in the ice-encased steam vents and there were patches of moss on the ground,” he said. Around the Cape Washington area, which Mount Welboume dominates, the party found “lava bombs.” These are unusual and rare geological formations of rock of up to 201 b. They result from lava solidifying as it is tossed into the air. Geological mapping of a 41,500-mile area was completed by the party to link this section of the Ross Dependency with parts explored in previous summers. “We found traces of copper in the granite rock,” said Mr Nathan. “This was geologically interesting but is not present in quantities to be mined.” Although not part of their project, the party visited an

Adelie penguin rookery noted by the Borchgrevink expedition at the turn of the century, and not seen by man since. The party counted 14,500 birds at the rookery. The chicks were not as advanced as the ones at the Cape Hallett rookery farther north. The icebreaker which returned the party to Scott Base stopped for a day at Franklin Island, just north of Ross Island. On this small island the geologists gathered samples of basalt which contained a type of rock thought to have been brought up from the interior of the earth by volcanic activity.

Scotland Boats France. —Scotland scored a one-point win over France in the Rugby international played in Paris, winning a rugged game by 9 points (a dropped goal and two penalty goals) to 8 (a goal and a try). It was the first match of this season's international championship, the annual five-nations’ test in which England, Ireland and Wales also take part