Science: Mysteries of Antarctica

The Navy’s great Antarctic expedition ploughed southward last week. It would bolster U.S. territorial claims,* investigate sites for military bases, train personnel to cope with icecap conditions. But it would also study the almost unknown Antarctic continent with elaborate, modern instruments.

Antarctica is about the size of Europe and the U.S. put together, and most of it has never been seen by the human eye. Most, but not all of it is covered with level, monotonous névé (permanent snowfield feeding the continent’s icecap). In many places, great peaks stick up through the ice, as bare and forbidding as mountains on the moon. Rear Admiral Richard E. Byrd, the expedition’s commander, thinks there may be ranges 15,000 ft. high.

The present icecap, most geologists believe, is comparatively new. Millions of years ago, they think, Antarctica was warmer, even tropical. A seam of coal 180 miles from the South Pole proves that the continent was once covered with vigorous vegetation. There may be oilfields too, and mineral deposits, including portentous uranium.

Weather & Magnetism. The icy winds which howl off the icecap affect the whole world’s weather. Little is known about these winds. The Navy’s meteorologists will study Antarctica’s storms, using everything from sounding balloons to radar. They will take the temperature at all depths of the cold Antarctic seas, clock the powerful currents that surge northward to affect the climate of South America, Australia and Africa. The data they collect should help stay-at-home weathermen.

Another mystery is the South Magnetic Pole, thought to be some 1,200 miles from the geographical South Pole. The expedition’s scientists will try to locate it accurately. Another group will study the icecap itself, measuring the movement of the ice.

The Antarctic’s living creatures, from whales to comic penguins, will not be neglected. The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, eagerly awaiting a flood of new information, has briefed the expedition on how to get well-preserved specimens back to civilization: “Use knives in cutting them up. Never axes or saws.”

* Chile, which (like half a dozen other countries) claims a part of Antarctica and is its nearest neighbor, planned an expedition to “establish contact with that most remote corner of the national territory.”