V9 Antarctic Peninsula_Voyage_Log

Antarctica: A Continent for Science
David Macdonald, Lecturer (Geology) & Expedition Guide
Until the advent of mass tourism, Antarctica’s tagline was: “A continent for science”.
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Antarctica affects the rest of the world in a variety of
ways, so “Antarctic Science” should really be “Global
science that happens in Antarctica”. Although many
early expeditions were purely geographical in scope,
there were some important scientific expeditions in the
late 19 th to early 20 th centuries. In this “Golden Age” of
exploration, there were many scientific contributions
from Antarctica which changed our view of the earth’s
evolution and environment.
Indeed, three expeditions brought back proof that
Antarctica once had a warm climate. Scott’s first
expedition (1901-1904) found coal from 250 million
years ago in the Transantarctic Mountains;
Nordenskjӧld’s Swedish Antarctic Expedition found
warm-water fossils on James Ross Island; and the Scotia
Expedition under Bruce (1902-1904) dredged
fossiliferous 500 million-year-old limestone from the
Weddell Sea. Scott’s second expedition (1910-1913)
found fossil leaves(Glossopteris) in the Transantarctic
Mountains. These fossils belong to an extinct order of
seed ferns from 299-252 million years ago, only found
in the southern hemisphere continents and India. They
were used by Wegener in 1924 in his work on
continental drift to reconstruct the former
supercontinent of Gondwana.
In the years after the First World War, the focus
changed from individual expeditions to national
pursuits, such as the British Discovery Investigations –
the first permanent oceanographic body in the world.
During 33 years (1918–51) of pioneering work, the
research ships collected an enormous amount of
oceanographic, biological, and geographical data.
Among the results of the investigations was the
discovery of both the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and the
Antarctic Convergence - the natural boundary of
Antarctica.
By the end of the Second World War, the move to
create national organisations was complete, with the
formation of the Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey
(now British Antarctic Survey), the Australian National
Research Expeditions) and other civilian operations
(France, New Zealand, South Africa, etc).
As a result of these organisations and better logistics,
the rate of scientific discovery soared, and new polarspecific
studies proliferated. Some highlights include:
• 1957-58: The International Geophysical Year (IGY)
was an 18-month collaboration between 67
countries. Antarctica was the focus, with 12 nations
participating. Many new scientific stations were
created and the IGY was a resounding success as it
led directly to the Antarctic Treaty
• 1959-1996: The discovery and delineation of
subglacial Lake Vostok is a great example of scientific
cooperation. Lab studies showed that ice under very
high pressure reverts to water and in 1964, seismic
soundings from Vostok Station were used to
measure the thickness of the ice sheet. This
suggested the existence of a subglacial lake. British
airborne ice-penetrating radar in the 1970s detected
unusual radar readings, suggesting a freshwater lake
below the ice. In 1991, a radar satellite revealed
that this subglacial water body is one of the world’s
largest lakes. We now know that there are at least
140 subglacial lakes in Antarctica.
• 1980-present: The US-funded collection and curation
of Antarctic meteorites has recovered about 22,000
meteorites from Antarctica (about 75% of all known
meteorites worldwide). There are samples from the
Moon, Mars, and asteroids.
• 1985: In hole in the ozone layer over Antarctica was
discovered from ground-based instruments at Halley
Bay and Faraday (British Antarctic Survey).
• 1986: Research at McMurdo Station, the main U.S.
scientific station in Antarctica, established that
chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) as the probable cause of
the Antarctic ozone hole (US NSF). These two bits of
work lead to signing of the Madrid Protocol on 1987,
banning CFCs.
5 JAN 2020 – 14 JAN 2020
Volume 2, Issue 9