Antarctica How to Open Up the Coldest Cache

Is Antarctica a frozen trove of natural resources? Scientists first saw evidence 15 years ago that there might be oil beneath the area’s coastal waters, and some geologists believe any such deposits could be the world’s last untapped “elephants,” as huge fields are called. Yet no provision existed to regulate exploration for petroleum or for anything else in Antarctica, a continent that has been run more or less by multinational committee since 1959. Now representatives of 33 nations have finally agreed on a treaty to govern development of all natural wealth on — and under — the southern land mass. Says State Department Official Tucker Scully, who headed the U.S. delegation at the talks in Wellington, New Zealand: “The treaty is a good balance between protecting Antarctica’s ecology and potential commercial use.”

Unexplored until the early years of this century, Antarctica holds largely scientific interest for Washington, which operates four permanent stations on the continent, including the only encampment at the South Pole. In 1959 the U.S. and eleven other nations agreed on a treaty banning military activity and all nuclear materials there. They and eight subsequent signatories became in effect the continent’s government. Members included the countries that lay territorial claim to parts of Antarctica — Argentina, Australia, Britain, Chile, France, New Zealand and Norway — as well as the U.S. and the Soviet Union, which do not recognize the sovereignty of any nation on the continent. Among other things, the group regulated scientific investigation and enforced a moratorium on commercial exploitation in the region. Like the original treaty, the new one sidesteps the issue of territorial claims.

Probing Antarctica’s secrets is an intimidating task. Winter temperatures regularly plunge to -100 degreesF, and the pole itself is sunless for six months. But in recent years the Soviet Union and other nations have fished Antarctic waters for tiny crustaceans known as krill and for other seafood. Scientists suspect, but have not proved, the existence of uranium deposits similar to those located in southern Australia and South America, to which Antarctica was attached some 150 million years ago. The presence of other minerals, including gold and diamonds, is believed possible. But since most deposits would lie beneath an ice cap with an average depth of 1 1/2 miles, exploration or recovery is not currently feasible.

Oil could be something else. During the past decade, at least eight nations, including the U.S., have conducted seismic explorations of Antarctica’s continental shelf. But even if recoverable quantities of oil are discovered, formidable obstacles, including icebergs sometimes as large as the state of Massachusetts, would stand in the way of setting up drilling rigs.

Initialed on June 2, the new agreement is supposed to protect the continent’s delicate environment. All 20 members of the governing group will have to approve the opening of any part of Antarctica to mineral exploration, and a series of applications and approvals will be required before development is even considered. The accord will take effect only after 16 of the 20 sponsors formally approve its terms, a process that will probably extend well into next year. Even so, many environmentalists oppose any thought of disturbing the frigid region. The treaty “is a sellout of the environment to mining interests,” charged Kelly Rigg, Antarctica campaign director of Greenpeace International, an environmental group that operates the only independent research station on the continent. Greenpeace, which plans to lobby against treaty approval in several countries, wants the continent to remain an international wildlife park.