PROBLEMS OF SOUTH

Evening Star, Issue 21582, 30 November 1933, Page 8

PROBLEMS OF SOUTH

FACING ADMIRAL BYRD AIMS OF EXPEDITION South of the Pacific Ocean aro some 1,500 miles of the Antarctic Continent that have never been sighted. Their position can only be guessed, writes R. N. Rndmoso Brown, in the ‘ Manchester Guardian.’ In the east this missing coastline abuts on the outlying islands of Graham Land, which were discovered by Charcot in 1909, and Hearst Land, sighted by Wilkins in 1928. To the west lie Alario Byrd Land, an extension of Edward Land (which Scott discovered in 1902). . On his last expedition to the Antarctic in 1929, Admiral Byrd discovered Alarie Byrd Land in a flight from his base at the Bay of Whales on the Boss Ice Barrier. A further discovery of that expedition, on the south of the barrier, was the extension of Amundsen’s Queen Maud Ranges to the south-east and tho apparent absence of any land on the eastern side of the barrier.

Up to that time it has been believed, largely as the result of Amundsen’s and Scott’s exploration, that the Ross Sea was a landlocked bight of the Southern Ocean, with its surface permanently covered with ice derived partly from the overflow of the surrounding ice-sheet of tho Antarctic plateau and partly from congealed layers of fallen snow. Along its northern side, where the Bay of Whales is situated, this ice-covered sea ends in a cliff of 10ft to 100 ft in height.

On its west and south is the lofty edge of the plateau through which valley glaciers pass. On its north-east is Edward Land, and farther south, along the eastern side, Amundsen from a fardistant. view reported Carmen Land. It was therefore believed until recently that this unknown Pacific sector of the Antarctic was a continuation of the great plateau that extends from the Atlantic and Indian Oceans across the Pole.

Now this theory is shaken. Byrd in 1929 failed to find any trace of Carmen Land or other land on the eastern side of tlie Ross Sea, while his extension of the Queen Alaud Ranges suggests that the plateau edge emerges on the Atlantic side in the AVeddell sea, and is perhaps continuous with those ranges seem dimly by the Scotia expedition in 1903 in the interior of Coats Land. If that is true, the Ross Barrier may prove to be only one end of a broad strait that extends across to the Atlantic, with the low Wilhelm Barrier in the south of the AVeddell Sea for its other end. It that is the case the lands Iving on the Pacific side of this strait consist of a band of large and small islands of a totally different structure from the Antarctic plateau. The plateau is an ancient area of more or less horizontal strata; the Graham Land Islands and possibly Hearst Land are partially submerged relics of folded mountain chains of Tertiary age, entirely comparable with the folded ranges of the Andes. A structural divergence of the opposite sides of the Antarctic Continent has long been known, but in the lack of knowledge of the interior and even of many parts of the coastline it has so far been impossible to say where these two formations of widely different origins met. Edward Land probably belongs to the Pacific structure; Alarie Bvrd Land is structurally unknown, as it has been seen only from the air. On the Weddell Sea side lies one of the most congested and dangerous areas of ice in the whole Antarctic. Brncc, Filclnicr, and Slmckleton have each tried in vain to penetrate that sea. On the Ross Sea side Ross, Scott, and others have failed to push their ships eastward. Now with new methods at his disposal Byrd is sailing front Boston for the Ross Sea in his second Antarctic expedition. The actual base presumably be at (be Bay of Whales in the Boss Sea, where Byrd will be able to dig out from the accumulated snow Ins settlement of Little America of three years ago. There some forty members of the expedition, many of whom served previously, will bo landed with stores, IoU dogs, motor tractors, and an aeroplane. No’ man has been more successful m Polar flying than Byrd, and he-intends in several long-distance flights to penetrate this unexplored sector. Distances are great, but fuel depots can be laid out over the barrier. A flight towards the AVeddell Sea would bo invaluable, but it would bo twice as long as lus flight to the Pole and back in 1929. The number of dogs, not to speak of the motor tractors, ensures that ground work on a large scale is contemplated. That is essential if an expedition is to justify itself in scientific results. The flights which led to the discovery of Alarie Byrd Land suggested useful sledge routes and areas of rock exposure. These will bo examined where possible in an attempt to solve the structural as well as the topographical problems, it is suggested that another flight to the Pole may bo tried. Along a new route this might prove important, for every route means a track through the unknown. Another matter of great interest on which light may be obtained is the thickness of the Ross Barrier and a determination at the areas where it is actually aground. It is expected that the expedition will reach its base early in the Antarctic summer, and after sending back its ship will remain ashore until the summer of 1934.