Scott Island

Scott Island is only about 3 km wide and is bounded by a steep cliff (Wright and Kyle 1990b). The only landing was made in Decanber 1992 by the Morning Expedition of Captain W. Colbeck. The rock sample that was collected on this occasion was later identified as aphonohte by Prior (1907) consistent with a chemical analyses that was included in the report of Wright and Kyle (1990b). 

The chemical analyses of five dredge samples (Johnson et al. 1982) indicate that four of the analyzed samples are phonolites and one is mugearite (Campsie et al. 1983). The high concentrations of alkali metals (Na O + K O 8.83-13.11%) and of silica (SiO 50.93-58.76%) suggest that these rocks evolved by fractional crystallization of basanite magma (Wright and Kyle 1990b). 

---

Scott Island is a large submerged free-standing volcanic mountain that rises from the seafloor to a height of about 100 m above the surface of the ocean (Womer and Orsi 1992). It is located at 67°30 S and 180°00 about 500 km east of the Balleny Islands. 

The volcanic activity of the Balleny Islands and of Scott Island is related to their location between East Antarctica and Australia (Duncan and McDougall 1989 Lanyon et al. 1993, 1995). Partly for that reason, the Sr/ Sr ratios of the volcanic rocks on these islands are lower than the Sr/ Sr ratios of lavas on the mainland of northern Victoria Land. Hart and Kyle (1993) reported that the volcanic rocks of the Melbourne and Hallett volcanic provinces have higher Sr/ Sr ratios than the lavas on the off-shore islands including Franklin, Coalman, Possession, Scott, and the Balleny islands. 

The HIMU component typically has a high 206pb/204pb j. bo between 20.5 and 21.5 and a low Sr/ Sr ratio between 0.7025 and 0.7030 which places it in Fig. 16.42 on an extension of the hyperbolic Sr-Pb isotopic mixing line loosely defined by the Cenozoic volcanic rocks of the Hallett volcanic province. The volcanic rocks on the Balleny Islands and on Scott and Peter I islands have isotopic compositions of strontium and lead that overlap those of the Hallett volcanic province. However, the Sr/ Sr ratios of the Balleny/ Scott islands are low (0.7025-0.7030), whereas those of Peter I Island (0.7038-0.7040) are normal for oceanic island basalts. 

Wilson TJ (1995) Cenozoic transtension along the Transantarctic Mountains-West Antarctic rift boundary, southern Victoria Land, Antarctica. Tectonics 14(2) 531-545 Womer G, Orsi G (1992) Volcanic observations on Scott Island in the Antarctic Ocerm. Polarforschung 60 82-83 Womer G, Viereck L (1987) Subglacial to emergent volcanism at Shield Nunatak, Mt. Melbourne volcanic field, Antarctica. Polarforschung 57(1,2) 27-41... 

Wright AC, Kyle PR (1990b) Scott Island. In LeMasurier WE, Thomson JW (eds) Volcanoes of the Antarctic Plate and Southern Oceans. Antarctic Research Series, voL 48. American Geophysical Union, Washington, DC, pp 452-453... 

SCOTT NIXON, University of Rhode Island, Narragansett JON SUTINEN, University of Rhode Island, Kingston NANCY TARGETT, University of Delaware, Lewes PAUL TOBIN, Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association, Fairfax, Virginia... 

Thompson, J., J. Proctor, V. Viana, W. Milliken, J. A. Ratter, and D. A. Scott. 1992. Ecological studies on a lowland evergreen rainforest on Maraca Island, Roraima, Brazil. I. Physical environment, forest structure and leaf chemistry." Journal of Ecology 80 689-703. 

Scott, H.D. Thacher-Rcnshaw, A. Rosenbaum, S.E. Waters, W.J. Green, M. Andrews, L.G. Faich, G.A. Physician reporting of adverse drug reactions. Results of the Rhode Island Adverse Drug Reaction Reporting Project. JAMA, J. Am. Med. Assoc. 1990, 263 (13), 1785 1788. 

Antarctic Studies. Possibly some of the most constant temperatures of ice-ocean waters exist in the Ross Sea of Antarctica, particularly on the western end of Ross Island along the edge of the Ross Ice Shelf in McMurdo Sound. The U.S. National Science Foundation has operated a biological research laboratory at McMurdo Base (a U.S. Navy installation) for nearly two decades, and nearby is the smaller New Zealand installation, Scott Base (12). The Antarctic program of the authors laboratories began in 1964 under the auspices of the U.S. National Science Foundation at McMurdo Base on Ross Island (12). Research programs varying from two to five months in duration were conducted in each of seven different years in that vicinity. 

Fig. 1.2 James Weddell (1787-1834) and Matthew Brisbane were hunting seals in the South Shetland and South Orkney Islands in 1823 when they turned their ships south and sailed into a large embayment in the land mass of Antarctica now known as the Weddell Sea. They reached a point even farther south than Captain Cook when they decided to turn back. They were fortunate to have penetrated this far into the Weddell Sea and to have escaped unhurt because the pack ice in the Weddell Sea is notorious for trapping ships (Photo by the Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge, used here with permission)...

Fig. 1.3 Jules C. Dumont d Urville (1790-1842) was a French naval officer and navigator who led the French Naval Expedition to Antarctica from 1837 to 1840. He was an experienced explorer who had worked in the eastern Mediterranean Sea followed by two expeditions to map the coasts of Australia and New Zealand and to map variations of the magnetic field in the South Pacific euid the Southern Ocean. He used two ships (Astrolabe and Zelee) in eui attempt to find the magnetic pole in Antarctica Although he failed to achieve that objective, he named Adelie Land along the coast of East Antarctica after his wife and discovered two large islands off the coast of the Antarctic Peninsula (Photo by the Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge, used here with permission)...

Fig. 1.5 Captain James C. Ross of the Royal Navy of Great Britain together with Captain F.M. R. Crazier was one of the most successful early Antarctic explorers between 1839 and 1843. The two British Navy Captains discovered the Ross Ice Shelf and sailed along it to the coast of Victoria Land. They also discovered Ross Island and named its two principal volcanoes after their two ships Erebus and Terror (Photo by the Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge, used here with permission)...

The ship was equipped with two steam engines and carried 335 t of coal. The expedition left England in August of 1901 and reached Lyttelton Harbor on the South Island of New Zealand at the end of November of the same year. After restocking the ship with provisions, the expedition headed south to Cape Adare and followed the coast of Victoria Land to Ross Island. From there, Scott sailed east along the edge of the Ross Ice Shelf to the coast of West Antarctica which he named King Edward VII Land. 

Fig. 1.9(a) Robert Falcon Scott (1868-1912) led two expeditions to Antarctica in 1901-1904 and 1910-1913. Although he reached the geographic South Pole in 1912, he and his men perished on the return trip to his base on Ross Island (Photo by the Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge, used here with permission) (b) Ernest Henry Shackleton (1874-1922) also led two expeditions to Antarctica in 1907-1909... 

The Terra Nova reached Ross Island without incident and unloaded a disassembled wooden hut and the supplies of the expedition at Cape Evans where Scott had decided to set up his base camp. By mid-January ofl911,thehutinEig.l.l4had been erected and aU of the supplies had been stowed. 

Fig. 1.14 Scott s hut at Cape Evans on Ross Island from which he started his trek to the South Pole during the British (Terra Nova) Expedition of 1910-1913. Cape Evans in Figure 1.11 is located only 24 km from McMurdo Station compared to 35 km for Cape Royds. Scott s hut at Cape Evans was later occupied by...

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) ... 

After Amundsen retnmed to Norway, he began preparations for an expedition to the North Pole using the Fram which Fridtjof Nansen (1861-1930) had agreed to lend him for this pnrpose. However, when Dr. Frederick Cook and Robert Peary both claimed to have reached the North Pole in late 1908 (Cook) and early 1909 (Peary), Amundsen decided to attempt to reach the South Pole instead. He announced this change of plans only after he had left Oslo in August of 1910. When he reached the island of Madeira, he informed his crew and asked his brother to send a telegram to Robert Scott who had left London on June 1 of 1910. 

---