Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
172
the Columbia Broadcasting System were a weekly feature of the second, making “our
men in Antarctica” part of the daily conversation.
A major goal of the expedition was to determine the thickness of the ice sheet and to
ascertain whether or not a water passage linked the Ross and Weddell Seas. Techniques
developed for the exploration of oil, employing reflected seismic waves produced by ex-
plosions at the surface, were used to map the ice-rock interface at the base of the ice sheet.
Because of the ambitious air agenda, weather forecasting was an integral part of the
program. The expedition continuously recorded systematic weather observations for 365
days at Little America, and all remote parties kept weather logs. A plan to winter over
three men for meteorological observations at an advanced base camp on the polar plateau
had to be curtailed when depot laying was less successful than had been hoped. Finally,
Byrd occupied a small station by himself one hundred miles south of Little America. In-
adequate ventilation in his hut, a room nine by thirteen feet sunk into the snow of the
ice shelf, created a lethal struggle for the man, balancing the carbon monoxide produced
when the stove was fired against the penetrating cold when it was not. With long lapses
of consciousness, Byrd's condition finally became apparent to those on the radio back at
Little America, prompting a risky rescue in the polar night by tractor and airplane, re-
turning the admiral to safety.
Also, for the first time in Antarctica, the expedition used mechanized ground travel
productively. The vehicles included a Cletrac tractor, two Ford snowmobiles, and three
Citroen trucks fitted with tracked treads and front skis. Successful runs south on the ice
shelf during the austral autumn of 1934 established a series of depots 50, 100, 125, and
155 miles from Little America. Dog teams also served the expedition, but the machines
proved themselves able to transport heavier loads over greater distances for longer periods
of time.
Plans for the following summer were to send a geological party eastward to explore
Marie Byrd Land, to send a second geological party south to Supporting Party Moun-
tain, there to proceed to the east beyond Gould's farthest point, and to send a geophysi-
cal party south to ascend Scott Glacier and attempt to measure the thickness of the ice of
the polar plateau. The southern parties were to use dogs for their travel, but the Citroen
tracked vehicles supplied depots out 300 miles. The greatest uncertainty was whether the
tractors could make it through the heavily crevassed area encountered by Amundsen's
and Gould's parties at 81° S.
On November 1 the geological and geophysical parties waited at the 209-mile point
while the Citroens closed on their rear. When the tracked vehicles failed to appear, the
geological party returned to mile 193, where they found tractor no. 3 wedged in a gaping
crevasse. With great diYculty the machine was extracted from the slot. After consult-
ing by radio with Byrd, the geophysical party was recalled, and the combined parties re-
turned to mile 159, where they tried another southerly route, 10 miles to the east. When
this route proved equally impassable, they decided to send the geophysical party eastward
with the tractors onto the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, and the geological party south with
dogs, supported by two members of the geophysical party. On November 14 at the 300-
mile point, they laid a depot, and the supporting party returned to Little America.
The geological party numbered three. The leader, Quin A. Blackburn, was geologist
