Enormous Changes In Antarctic Map

Northern Advocate, 7 March 1947, Page 4

Enormous Changes In Antarctic Map

(Special) WELLINGTON, This Day. Admiral Byrd is due in Wellington I today from the Antarctic. In a radio-telephone message last night to friends in New Zealand he said this would be his eighth visit to the Dominion. Since the United States had had to fight it was good to have the New Zealanders with them. The war had proved again that there were no greater fighting men in the world than the New Zealanders and in his opinion there were no finer people. THREE MAIN PURPOSES Speaking of his expedition, Admiral Byrd said its three main purposes were to explore, to serve science, and to test naval equipment under severe weather conditions. The last had been done by operating aeroplanes and ships late in the season and much had been learned. It was not generally known that the temperature in the Antarctic Circle averaged at least 40 degrees colder than in the Arctic region. Their scientific work had been curtailed by the shortness t of their stay, but islands and land masses under the icecap had been discovered. A large new area had been explored and photographed from the air and the discoveries included about 100 mountains, one of them 20,000 ft high, and three mountain ranges. There was still a vast unexplored area at the bottom of the world, he added, and there was room there for all, since science knew no bounds. HUNDREDS OF MOUNTAINS ‘‘Never in history has any expedition discovered so much unknown area and these will make enormous changes in existing maps,” said Admiral Byrd aboard' the Mt Olympus today. The message was relayed from New York. He added that his central group discovered “literally hundreds of mountains and mountain peaks never before seen by man. Some were 16,000 ft to 20,000 ft h'igh.” Admiral Byrd said some of the new land would be named in memory of the four men who lost their lives in the expedition. The 1947 front of the Ross ice shelf was photo-mapped. Admiral Byrd said this barrier changed every year, and maps from previous expeditions, when compared with this one, would provide additional valuable data regarding the movement of the great block of ice 400 miles square.