ANTARCTIC WEALTH?

Hokitika Guardian, 26 April 1929, Page 8

ANTARCTIC WEALTH?

MYSTERIES OF THE FAR SOUTH INTERNATIONAL INTERESTS.

QUESTIONS BYRD .MAY ANSWER

Commander llvrd’s expcdition to t Ik‘ Antarctic I::is focused attention upon that isolated :i:t(1 litllo known Continent, still in its ico age. Antarctica is esiinuitod to embrace an area ni •1,0!)(),(KK) square miles, the' whole of which is covered uy a Continental ice sheet, the greatest ice mass in the world. The depth of the ice sheet is

•n-'ihh-niafioal; some scientists hold that it; is 2000 feet thick, others believe that this figure is too conservative. The ice has buried all of the land except, tlie highest and steepest mountain jieaks and a few areas of volcanic rock

along the coast. The ice moves down to sea as an extended glacier along the coatfl; in depressions between the mountains it forms true valley glaciers. 'J.lie moiin.tain chains form a bn tress lor the \ast central plateau, HOOD to 10.000 feet above sea level, on which the ■South Pole is situated.

For geographical purposes, Antarctica is divided into four quadrants, wn.eli take their names from the seas or the lands to the north. Ihns we have the African. Australian, Pacific, ind American quadrants. The coastlines of the African and Pacific quadrants are virtually unknown. Only a small coastal area o! the American quadrant has been under the observation or explorers, hut the Australian quadrant, which includes the I’os.s Sea sector, is comparatively well known. Of all the expeditions that have landed on the coast of Antarctica null jive have penetrated more than 200 miles inland, and all hut one of these have been based on the lioss Sea sector where the explorers journeyed rapidly over the surface in the short miil-sum-?m-r to seek their objective, either the South Magnetic I ole or tin* South Pole. it. F. Priestley, who was attached to the scientific stalls ol expeditions led !;v Sir Ernest Shackleton and ( aptain Robert Falcon Scott, says that “of the interior, beyond the field of view opened up by the traverses to the South Magnetic Pole and a western traverse from -Mc-Murdo Sound by Scott in 1903, only the region in the immediate vicinity of the converging lines of the Shackleton, Scott, and Amundsen routes to the Pole has been under direct observation.”

AUSTRALIAN QUADRANT.

The Australian quadrant is bounded oil the east by (toss Sea and extends westward to Queen -Mary Land, including South Victoria Land, Oates Laud, King George V. .Land. Adelie Land, and Wilkes Laud, discovered by tin? American naval officer, Charles 'Wilkes, in 1810.

'lhe western rim of Ross Sea is a. belt of mountain country, the mountains (8000 to la,ooo feet.) rising from the Ross Rirrier, a vast sheet ol shell icy covering an area of about 100,000 square miles. It is on the Harr'er, near the Day of Whales, a natural harbour in the ice HiHV, at the face of this shell, that Rvrd has made Ins base of operations. \t the western end of the Harrier, stands Ross Island, which is dominated mV two .volcanoes, Mount Erebus and .Mount. Terror, named from the two ships of Sir .James Clark Ross, whose \ntarrtie voyages were among the most fruitful in polar history. Erebus (13,300 feet) is slid active, a smoking cone, amid white desolation.

Tlip Harrier, ex tend in g amiss Boss -sea {n T\ing Edward VII Land, is morn than 400 miles lona. Tts width frain the sea faee to the mountains {Linking the polar route is 400 miles. Shelf ice. is a formation peculiar t'».Antarctica, and the Barrier is the greatest shelf of all. It is the creation of glacier tongues '.hat rolled down 'from the mountains and overran the submerged portion oi Ihe continent in the Ross Sea sector. I 1 ’ven to-day the hinterland discharges ice to the Ross Sea, through several “■lacier channels from five to ft I teen miles wide, and in some cases one hundred miles long.

Whether the Harrier is afloat or rests on the bottom is a disputed quos--ion. Scott thought it was alloat, and snnported his statement with de>-p •oiindim.'s taken off the face of H" shell. Amundsen disagreed with Scott, 'he Norwegian’s instruments recording no movement while he was encamped at the Rav of Wha'es. Amundsen con;ended that at this particular point !’..e Harrier had not inbred since Ross discovered it, in 1811. The ice dill's mi the Harrier face range in height tr.mi ini) to lot) feet, hut at the Ray of Whales the cliffs are only aho'tt twenty feet high.

Incidentally, the Harrier is a notable iceberg “factory.” Here bergs ol great size are “calved,” amid the (bunders of .fractured ice.

The Pacific quadrant has Ross Sea as its western boundary, and here in King Edward VII. Land are noticeable outcroppings of nick. In his first extended lliglit Iron) the .Hay ol Whales, Commander Herd reached this sector, seeing the Scott Nunataks (rocky peaks that modestly show themselves above the snow) and the Alexandra .Mountains. lie lound a new island, put fourteen peaks on the man, and caught a glimpse of the hitherto unseen hinterland beyond. Later (lights should reveal even more knowledge about this territory, and perhaps cnaole geographers to fix definitely the coastline of the Pacific quadrant.

AMKRICAN INTEREST

In the American quadrant the Weddell Sea area, a huge indentation. Coat. |.i ml, Charcot Land, and Graham Land are sectors that have attracted the attention of various explorers. Recently Sir George Wilkins made (lights over Graham Land and discovered that it was not part of the continent proper, hut two islands. One ol the master geograhpieal problems concerns the possibility ol the continent itself being divided. Weddell Sea. in the American quadrant, is almost opposite Ross Sea, in the Austiulinn quadrant. Were these two seas at one time connected by a strait that subsequently was overlaid with the ice ol the Polar plateau. In other words, is Antarctica solid land mass, or is it two island hound together by the ice sheet.:' One sees on the map ol the Aliican fiuadranl the names Enderby Land. Kemp Land, and Kaiser Wilhelm 11. Land. They are little more than names. One rock .the Gaussberg. an extinct volcano at the eastern end ol tlie quadrant, .has been investigated b\ geoglogists. otherwise this stretch ol coast is term incognita.

Antarctica oilers an unlimited fielo for scientific research. The geographer seeks detailed •information which will given him not only a comprehensive and accurate chart o>l llie c-oast al region but a complete geographical picture of the mountain ranges and the Polar plateeau. The geoglogist is keenly interested in the structure oi the ice-sheathed land and the accumulation of geological moraines and outcroppings of rock. And the glaciologv of the Continent needs incidation.

QUESTIONS AWAITING ANSWER

How thick is the ice sheet? An echo-recording instrument might give the answer. What arc the topographic ’features of the buried land? Ls the ice cap receding; Some scientists say “Yes” hut they do not know why. What was the prcglacial history ol the Continent? Did Antarctica in bygone ages have a temperate climate? There is evidence of warmer condilions than now exist, and it is apparent that parts of the Continent supported a land flora .swamps, and forests, capable of forming hods of coal for coal •has been found over a large area between King George V. Land and Ross Sea.

Antarctica is a region of storms

•bo intense cold and the hii/./.aro -> that sweep down 'from the Polar Plateau create disturbances that have a marked influence upon weather conditions in .South America and Australia.

Hence meteorological studies in Antarctica are of supreme importance t > those Continents, both of which have large agricultural interests and must of necessity have the benefit ol all scientific information on which to base their weather lorecasting services.

Sir Douglas Mnwson says that “in the matter of the Aurora Anstrnli*

■arefill and detailed observations of the manifestations are anxiously awaited. This is the more desirable because in the Antarctic regions tindisplays appear to exhibit more clearly than in the Arctic certain fundamental features which may assist in an Ring at a satisfactory explanation of that remarkable phenomenon.

The imni.es of Ross, Slmekleton. Scott. Amundsen, and Mawson stand out in the history of the Antarctic exploration. Ross discovered the Barrier Shnckleton was the first mail to reach the Polar Plateau. Scott readied the South Hole a month after Amundsen, who hhv'.ed a new trail through the mountains and discovered it- Alawson visited the South Magnetic Polo fpie- \ ioiislv located by David), and tlicrby won distinction. Wilkins has recent lv made contributions to tin- knowledge oif Antarctica.

Hvrd Ims now carried the American Hag to this Continent of mystery, seek ing to reveal some of its secrets.