Sth Georgia expedition struggling for funds

Press, 22 October 1983, Page 8

Sth Georgia expedition struggling for funds

The need to raise about $20,000 in less than three weeks could mean another postponement of a longplanned scientific and mountaineering expedition to South Georgia by four New Zealand men.

Geological mapping of a remote part of the subAntarctic island’s interior is the expedition’s major aim.

Dr lan Turnbull, a Dunedin geologist, said yesterday that South Georgia — south-east of the Falkland Islands in the Atlantic Ocean — might have been on the margin, with New Zealand and Antarctica, of the ancient continent of Gondwanaland.

The expedition’s two geologists have worked with New Zealand rock similar to rock in South Georgia. ‘lt is really a compare and contrast exercise,” said Dr Turnbull, who works for the New Zealand Geological Survey. “We will be applying mapping techniques developed in New Zealand. “The unifying theory we

are working under is that South Georgia and New Zealand were both margins of the ancient continent.”

The expedition would take its members to London, Ascension Island, and the Falkland Islands on their way to Royal Bay on South Georgia. The final leg from the Falklands would be on a British Navy landing-type craft.

Mr Alan Knowles, the expedition’s deputy leader, is a former reporter for “The Press” and now a Television New Zealand researcher in Wellington. “Basically, we are four mates who decided four years ago that we would like to do an extended trip,” he said. South Georgia fitted in with work that the two geologists had been doing on continental drift and the movement of tectonic plates. The four were also mountaineers, and would be able to use their skills on the steep mountains that rise from the sea on the island’s

south-east side.

Large glaciers similar to Mt Cook’s Hochstetter Icefall reach the sea in some places. The expedition’s base at Royal Bay, about 30km from the former whaling station community at Grytviken, has only a small, three-bunk hut which belongs to the British Antarctic Survey.

Mr Knowles said that the expedition would be sleeping in snow caves and tents — partly to evaluate the worth of snow caves as shelter on the island —

during a minimum of six weeks exploring the mountains and inland from Royal Bay. “We will be climbing to get rock samples,” said Mr Knowles. “The place is dotted with virgin mountains. Because we are mountaineers, we will be going for the tops.” Mr Knowles will be doing a survey of seaweeds between the high and low tide lines at Royal Bay for the D.S.I.R.’s Oceanographic In-

stitute in Wellington. He will also be gathering insects for an entmologist. It was possible that a documentary film could be made if its sponsorship could bring in more money for the $40,000 expedition, which was “teetering on the brink” of being called off at present because of the financial shortfall.

An updating of costs to get from London to South Georgia had been the most recent setback. Mr Knowles said there was “virtually nothing there” on South Georgia these days aside from “a few Marines at Grytviken and some scientists on Bird Island.”

The feverish activity during early days of the 1982 Falklands conflict had passed. First planned in 1979, the New Zealand expedition was first delayed because the British Antarctic Survey was too busy in 1980-81, then again during the war between Britain and Argentina.