N.Z. to maintain Ice activity

Press, 21 May 1987, Page 9

N.Z. to maintain Ice activity

New Zealand will maintain its scientific activity in Antarctica next season at a level comparable with last year’s field programme, according to the Minister of Science and Technology, Mr Tizard, yesterday.

New Zealand scientists would co-operate with teams from the United States and Italy in international ventures, and observers from other countries would work with the New Zealand research programme, which begins in early August, he said.

About 200 scientists and base and field support staff would be involved in 48 projects, covering Earth, life, atmospheric and physical science disciplines.

The Governmentapproved programme, submitted by the Ross Dependency Research Committee, will also involve six New Zealand universities and several Government departments, including research divisions of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research. Co-operative studies with the United States will be made at Cape Bird and with the American Geological Survey Dry Valleys seismology programme which involves telemetry recordings in the Scott Base laboratory. New Zealand biologists will join the Italian expedition to Terra Nova Bay in Northern Victoria Land. four-man geological

expedition will fly to a remote area of Marie Byrd Land, 480 nautical miles west of Scott Base. Its work will be directly related to an international geological project involving New Zealand, the United States, and Britain. It is due to begin in the summer of 1988 and continue for five years. The Scott Base rebuilding programme this summer will involve Ministry of Works and Development personnel, and a team of New Zealand Army engineers who will complete connecting ways and the interior finish of the base vehicle workshop, the main structural undertaking last season. Vanda Station will be a support base scientific

field parties doing research in the Dry Valleys region of Victoria Land. Staff there will run meteorogical and climatological programmes in the area. The Ministry of Defence will again provide a significant contribution to the joint United States/ New Zealand logistics operations with R.N.Z.A.F. Hercules flights between Christchurch and McMurdo, cargo handling and crash fire crews. During the latter part of summer a joint New Zealand Army and Navy team will handle ship cargo at McMurdo Station. A working party wilU 4

visit Cape Hallett in January, 1988, with American icebreaker support to complete a clean-up of the site once occupied by a United States-New Zealand station. Mr Tizard said that survival training exercises near Scott Base for the members of the research programmes being run by both these countries, and for New Zealand defence personnel, would be led by a team of New Zealand and United States safety experts. New Zealand’s Antarctic research programme will end in mid-February, with 12 people staying at Scott Base over the, winter.