Interest in descent into crater

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33583, 11 July 1974, Page 1

Interest in descent into crater

Cameramen and journalists from six countries are seeking permission to go to the Antarctic next summer to cover the descent into the crater of Mount Erebus, one of the Antarctic’s two known active volcanoes.

The countries were Australia. Britain, France, Germany. Canada, and the United States, as well as many news media representatives' in New Zealand, said Mr R. B.

Thomson, superintendent of the Antarctic Division of the D.5.1.R., yesterday. Some of those seeking to cover the event had already worked with Dr H. Tazieff, one of the world’s foremost vulcanologists, Mr Thomson said.

Dr Tazieff has been invited to take part in the Erebus crater project by the Antarctic division because of his expert knowledge in the field. He will be responsible for the technical side of the descent to collect gas samples and samples of the molten lava.

The team involved in the Erebus project will consist of six Frenchmen, six New Zealanders, and two Americans. The leader will be Mr S. Nor-

man, the division’s field equipment officer, who was also deputy leader at Scott Base during the last two years. The other New Zealand participants have yet to be chosen, although there have been more than enough applicants, according to Mr Thomson.

The New Zealanders will mainly be responsible for getting the Frenchmen safely camped near the summit of the crater although some could be involved in the actual descent So influential is Dr Tazieff that he managed to pertuade the French Government to allow an Alouette 3 helicopter to be assigned to the Antarc-

tic mision. There was even the possibility of a French Transall cargo plane flying the helicopter and its backup crew and technicians from France to the Antarctic.

However, the New Zealand and American authorities estimated that the support necessary for the French effort in Antarctica would be much greater than for. the actual Erebus project itself, and so the offer was declined. United States Navy helicopters will be used on the project instead.

Dr Tazieff and the French team are due in Christchurch in late November.

two other major efforts to be carried out by the New Zealand team in tKe Antarctic

this summer involve a 1000mile traverse by two fourman parties operating in the Bowers Mountains and Evans neve of Northern Victoria Land, and the continuation by 18 New Zealanders of the Dry Valley drilling project. the University of Canterbury’s zoology unit will send about six persons to the Antarctic during the summer, the party possibly including a woman scientist who has been there before and a hus-band-and-wife team.

With the university party will be a French biologist who will study Adelie penguin breeding cycles for comparison with data already obtained at French Antarctic bases.