Geology Reference
In-Depth Information
bumping. On the third try, we gained a little altitude
and then kept climbing. Once we were securely aloft, we
were directed to return to our seats. Forty minutes later
we landed on the ice at Willy Field. Later that day at
McMurdo, I described our takeoff to a woman pilot,
who told me we had had a jet-assisted takeoff. Even so,
it was no fun.
the huge letters JARE. Thus we received our own snow-
mobiles for exploring the scene and carrying meteorites
from the field to camp or pulling Nansen sleds for setting
up temporary camps.
We made daily searches for meteorites on the Main
Icefield, in a moraine on the western edge of it, and some-
times on the polar plateau beyond it. I found that the
wind scoops around boulders almost invariably held
small, cherry-sized stony meteorites, which, no doubt,
had skittered across the ice in the wind and fallen into the
scoops. A study of 145 of these cherry-sized stones,
weighing less than 150 grams each, was published by
McKinley and Keil
[1984], who showed that although all
of these stones were chondrites, they included some new
and rare types. They found 19 specimens of a chondrite
containing previously unknown intergrowths of graphite
and magnetite in their matrixes. They also found one
example of a new type of carbonaceous chondrite and
two specimens of a rare enstatite chondrite.
Having 24 hours of daylight and a bright yellow-orange
tent to live in suited me perfectly. I quickly found that
being cold was no real problem, given padded clothing
and a cozy sleeping bag. One night, I awoke about mid-
night and heard tremendous winds coursing down north-
ward past my tent. This was something unusual so I
snatched up my camera and burst out of the tent. There,
I saw lines of snow and ice crystals sweeping over the
low-lying end of the range and all along the ice sheet. The
midnight Sun was shining over the highest peak of the
Allan Hills so brightly that my light meter indicated I
could not get a picture. I closed down the meter as far as
it would go and snapped, expecting the worst. But in
1.9.3. The Allan Hills
The Allan Hills camp was close to the edge of the
Main Icefield, which made it easy to find and collect
meteorites. I had a yellow Scott tent to myself, Dean and
Bill shared one, and Shiraishi had his own tent. I had no
stove for cooking because I was expected to have my
meals with the others. This was a pleasure, considering
Shiraishi's store of frozen foods from Japan. He parti-
cularly enjoyed munching on frozen Brussels sprouts
as though they were candy. I had my own snowmobile
and fully enjoyed it without realizing how lucky I was.
This was the first season that the NSF had furnished
snowmobiles to ANSMET members. Some people at
McMurdo seemed to regard the new meteorite project as
rather a bother, taking money and equipment away from
more traditional pursuits. So, for the first two seasons,
the ANSMET teams had to await helicopters to move
long distances, and had to hike between close ones. This
made no sense at all to our Japanese companions, who
finally arranged for snowmobiles to be shipped directly
to them from Japan. Suddenly, the NSF managers saw
that they could not send ANSMET members out on
foot, or as hitchhikers, alongside snowmobiles bearing
Figure 1.7.
The midnight sun on the Allan Hills at 12:15 a.m. 6 January 1979. A corner of my yellow tent is in the wind scoop at
lower right. South is at the top of the picture.
