STORIES IN THE ROCKS

Hokitika Guardian, 14 March 1930, Page 3

STORIES IN THE ROCKS

GEOLOGICAL STUDY IN ANTARCTIC.

ICE CAME “VERT RECENTLY.”

DUNEDIN, March 12

“From the geological study of the rocks, there is no evidence at ail, so far we know, that the Antarctic was very cold until very recently. The presence of <_oai in tne mountains proves that the Antarctic bail a temperature or subtropical climate.”

The statement was made to-day by Professor Laurence Gould, the geomand second-in-command of the By id expedition, to a reporter. ‘L have been in expeditions before and, although we have accomiplisliod much, we have always returned without doing all that we set out to u 0,,” -aid Professor Gould. “But it was different this time. The geological vork of the expedition was very successful indeed. Last year we made a geological trip to King Edward Land, and made a map and geological study of the UocKel '.ler Mountains, winch were discovered by Admiral Byrd. The Rockefellers arc a. fo.v rang, m mon. tains, the highest being 2500 ft, and they lie 140 miles to the east of Little America, our base in the Bay of \Ybales. Tho great amount of bare rock made geological study quite easy, but until I lnivc examined the rocks I cannot say what nature they are. They are of granite, but it takes a great deal of study to figure out their characteristics.

“JJut far and away the most interesting geological trip was this summer, when wo made a sledge journey of loOd miles. With me on the ti ip wore Vaughan, Goodale, O’Brien, Thorne, and Crockett. We went directly south from Little Amenca until we reached The Queen Maud range. We climbed up tiie slopes to a height of about TDoUft to get the geological cross section of the range, and then travelled east along the loot of the range tor 420 miles. We found that those mountains are an exact continuation of the great mountain ranges studied lay the British on the west side of the Boss Sea. Our study extended the range of this great, mountain system which was studied by scott's party from the base at McMurdo .Sound. Our studies extended this range 300 miles beyond the point to which it was formerly known to exist, it is a most interesting range, being entirely different from the Southern Alps of New Zealand, the Andes, the Bookies, or the Himalayas, it is the largest range of mountains of its particular kind in the ,world. They are known to geologists as fault blocs: mountains. That is, perhaps, the most important single geologic..i contribution i was able to make.” The party studied many new glaciers, said Profesosr Gould, two of which would rank as the world’s largest glaciers. The trip proved - that the Jas s Sea extended very much further to the eastward than was generally supposed. On his chart, Amundsen showed land to the east. They found that it did not exist at ali, and that the range of mountains extended indefinitely eastwards. The range could be seen for forty miles Ibeyond the point at which they turned back. There was sufficient rock lor geological study in the Antarctic, he said, but it was extremely difficult to reach. The party climbed the face of .Mount Nansen for 6000 ft, over a very heavily crevassed glacier. vie mountain was heavily Hanked with ice. The mountains were very high, and they presented some of the most gorgeous mountain scenery in i,uo world. The Barrier was quite flat, said Dr Gould. At the foot the Queen Maud mountains were only 200 ft above sea level, and they then rose sheer to a height of loMOOft. The grandeur was magnificent. There was no land underneath the Ross Barrier declared Professor Gould. The barrier was a great floating block of ice, and the real boundary of the Boss Sea wa s the Queen Maud Mountains. The Barrier was sea ice, on which snow had packed thickly to immense depths of several hundreds of feet. ' He felt sure that there were islands in the sea under the Barrier, as it was anchored. On the way out to the mountain's 150 miles from the base the area was (badly crevassed and that indicated that the Barrier was resting on land and the movements of the Barrier had caused the crevasses.

“So far as we .positively know the Barrier floats on water and is anchored to the land. At Little America, it is interesting to note, we took soundings and recorded 1500 ft of water.

“In the Queen Maud Range copper was "discovered,,” said "the geologist, “but the most important discovery of all the scientific activity was the finding of coal on Mount Nansen. It was not found in commercially large qualities, but the great interest was that it proved beyond question that the mountains were a continuation of the range on the west side of the Ross Sea, where coal was previously found. “From the geological study of the ricks there is no evidence at all, so far as we know yet, that the Antarctic was very cold until very recently. The presence of coal in the mountains proves that the Antarctic had a temperate or sub-tropical climate.

“Would you say how many geological ages ago the change took place?” lie was asked.

“No,” he replied. “I will not speculate.”