Russian ship returning to Antarctic

Press, 16 January 1986, Page 10

Russian ship returning to Antarctic

PA Wellington The Mikhail Somov, which called at Wellington after being rescued from )ack-ice in the Ross Sea ast year, is returning to Antarctica as part of the latest Russian expedition, the Novosti Press Agency reports. The ship is carrying equipment, fuel, food and researchers for four Russian x>lar stations, and was the ast ship of the expedition’s convoy to leave Leningrad. The director of the Russian Antarctic programme, Dr Yevgeni Korotkevich, said nearly 160 research programmes were planned l or the expedition, involving geophysicists, biologists, meteorologists, astronomers and other scientists. The Soviet Union has seven permanent research stations and two seasonal

bases in Antarctica. Geologists have already visited the Soyuz base, in the vicinity of the Prince Charles mountains. Fourteen snow rovers delivered specialists to the Komsomolskaya station. They demothballed the station, and began making scientific observations. They are now building an ice airfield for transport planes and flying laboratories. Meanwhile, a tractor-led train of sledges continues its advance towards the Vostok station in the central region of the continent. A thermal drilling mole in the ice at that station has reached a depth of 2,200 metres, with samples of ice more than 200,000 years old being recovered. It contains microscopic particles of volcanic ash and air bubbles, trapped bacteria and cosmic dust.