Antarctic expeditions

The number of scientific articles published on meteorites has increased dramatically in the last few years few of these, however, concern themselves with small meteorites, the size of which lies between that of the normal meteorites (from centimetres to metres in size) and that of interplanetary dust particles. In the course of an Antarctic expedition, scientists (mainly from French institutions) collected micrometeorites from 100 tons of Antarctic blue ice (Maurette et al 1991). These micrometeorites were only 100 400 pm in size five samples, each consisting of 30-35 particles, were studied to determine the amount of the extraterrestrial amino acids a-aminoisobutyric acid (AIBS) and isovaline—both of which are extremely rare on Earth—which they contained. The analysis was carried out using a well-tested and extremely sensitive HPLC system at the Scripps Institute, La Jolla. Although the micrometeorites came from an extremely clean environment, the samples must have been contaminated, as they all showed traces of L-amino acids. Only one sample showed a significantly higher concentration of AIBS (about 280 ppm). The AIBS/isovaline ratio in the samples also lay considerably above that previously found in CM-chondrites. 

The great advantage of the technique is that the measurements do not affect normal daily activities in any way, so it can be used to measure energy expenditure in a number of different activities or conditions (e.g. by cyclists in the Tour de France race, climbers on Mount Everest, members of a trans-Antarctic expedition, women during pregnancy or lactation, obese animals including humans carrying out their normal daily activities) (Prentice 1988). 

A similar suggestion is made for maintenance of the mental activities of Mike Stroud and Ranulph Fiennes during their long trans-Antarctic expedition when, at times, their blood glucose fell to about 1 mmol/L (Chapter 13). Unfortunately the blood level of ketone bodies was not measured during this trek. 

Quantitative studies of energy metabolism and fuel utilisation in very prolonged physical activity were performed by Mike Stroud during his Antarctic expedition with Ranulph Fiennes in 1992. One part of the study was measurement of energy expenditure by the dual isotope techniques (Chapter 2). Calculated over the whole expedition, the average daily energy expenditure of Stroud and Fiennes was 29 MJ but on particularly arduous days it increased to... 

Table 15.5 Percentage Antarctic expeditions of energy derived from carbohydrate, fat and protein and total energy of food taken in several...

Table 15.7 Loss of body mass, fat and fat-free mass during a prolonged Antarctic expedition and in one individual fasting...

Sournia A (1988) Phaeocystis (Prymnesiophyceae) How many species Nova Hedwigia 47 211-217 Treshnikov AF (1964) Surface water circulation in the Antarctic Ocean. In Russian. Sovet. Antarkticheskaia Eksped., Inform, biull., 45 5-8. Eng. transl. (1965) In Soviet Antarctic Expedition, Information Bulletin, 5 81-83... 

Murray, 1. (1906). Scottish National Antarctic Expedition Tardigrada of the South Orkneys. Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 45,323-338. 

The exploration of the interior of Antarctica and the race to the geographic pole started with the British National Antarctic Expedition of 1901-1904. It was jointly sponsored by the British government and by the major British scientific societies of the time and was led by Commander Robert F. Scott (1868-1912) of the British Navy (Huntford 1986a). The objective of this expedition was to explore the Ross Sea sector of Antarctica. Tbe expedition was given a new ship christened the RRS Discovery which was designed and built for exploration in Antarctic waters. The third officer of the crew was Ernest Henry Shackleton (1874-1922) who was entrusted with the job of preparing the Discovery for a 3-year voyage to Antarctica (Fig. 1.9a and b). 

Atkinson read a Burial Service after which the tent was collapsed and a large snow cairn was erected on top of it. The members of the search party returned to Cape Evans on November 26 and were greatly relieved that Campbell and his men had returned in their absence from their winter-over on Inexpressible Island. The Terra Nova arrived at Cape Evans on January 18,1913, but before the remainder of Scott s second Antarctic expedition left Cape Evans, Atkinson and a group of men erected a cross on the summit of Observation Hill located directly behind McMurdo Station in order to commemorate the five men who died after reaching the geographic South Pole of Antarctica. The cross in Fig. 1.16 carries the names of the men who went to the pole (Captain Scott, Wilson, Bowers, Oats, and Evans) and an inscription selected by Cherry-Garrard (Bull and Wright 1993) ... 

Fig.1.25 OneofthemoderntractorsusedbytheCommonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition (1955-1958) led by V.E. Fuchs nearly fell into a large crevasse. In spite of its precarious situation in this photograph, the tractor was recovered and the tractor train continued to South Pole Station and eventually reached Scott Base on Ross Island (Photo Royal Geographical Society, reproduced by permission)...

Universitetsforlaget, Oslo, Norway Allen AD (1962) Geological investigations in Southern Victoria Land, Antarctica. New Zealand J. Geol. Geophys. 5 278-294 Amundsen R (1912) The South Pole an account of the Norwegian Antarctic expedition in the Fram, 1910-1912. Two volumes. John Murray, London Anderson PJ (1974) Richard Evelyn Byrd polar explorer. The Iron Worker 28(4) 2-13... 

Byrd RE (1935) Discovery the story of the second Byrd Antarctic expedition. Putnam, New York Byrd RE (1938) Alone. Putnam, London Campbell KSW (ed) (1975) Gondwana geology papers presented at the Third Gondwana Symposium. Australian National University Press, Canberra, ACT Chapman W (ed) (1965) Antarctic conquest the great explorers in their own words. Bobbs-MerriU, New York Cherry-Garrard A (1922) The worst journey in the world. 

Jones TO, Bakutis EE (1966) Introduction to the Antarctic Journal of the United States. Ant J US 1(1) 1 Joyce EEM (1929) South polar trad the log of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition. Duckworth, London... 

Solomon S (2001). The coldest march. Scott s fateful Antarctic expedition. Yale University Press, New Haven, CT Splettstoesser JF, Dreschhoff GAM (eds) (1990) Mineral resources potential of Antarctica. Antarctic Research Series, vol. 51. American Geophysical Union, Washington, DC Steger W, Bowermaster J (1992) Crossing Antarctica. Knopf, New York... 

Anonymous (1990) Scientific report Greenpeace Antarctic expedition. Greenpeace International, Amsterdam, The... 

Prior GT (1902) Report on rock specimens collected by the Southern Cross Antarctic Expedition. Report on Southern Cross Expedition. British Museum, London, pp 321-332 Rastiill RH, Priestley RE (1921) The shale-graywacke formation of Robertson Bay. British Antarct Terra Nova Exped, 1919. Nat Hist Report, Geol l(4b) 121-129. British Museum of Nat Hist, London... 

The geology of the Queen Maud Mountains was first explored by Laurence Gould during Richard Byrd Ss first Antarctic expedition (1928-1929). Gould used dogsleds and had to travel 800 km across the Ross Ice Shelf just to reach the Queen Maud Mountains (Section 1.5.2 Gould 1935). The geological maps of... 

The Thiel and Pensacola mountains were mapped by geologists of the US Geological Survey (Schmidt and Ford 1969). The geologic map of the Shackleton Range was published by Clarkson (1982) and by Clarkson et al. (1995) based on field work of geologists from many countries. The Theron Mountains were discovered and described by members of the Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition (1955-1958 Section 1.5.4 Stephenson 1966). 

Fuchs VE, Hfilary E (1959) The crossing of Antarctica The Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition, 1955-58. London... 

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