Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
214
TRaSh oR TREaSuRE?
as humans have explored the antarctic wilderness further, their impact on it
has become more problematic. For instance, in 1974 I traveled to Lake Vanda in
Wright Valley across McMurdo Sound—a very beautiful place. My party had been
stuck at McMurdo Station for five weeks waiting to be put into the deep field,
and I had an acute case of cabin fever. So I ginned up a day trip by helicopter to
Lake Vanda, which I had always wanted to see because of its unique, ice-free
landscape. I was able to convince the National Science Foundation rep that
we should examine the lake because one of the members of the party was a
sedimentologist with an interest in the effects of algae in sedimentary environ-
ments, and we had heard that algae grew profusely in its frigid waters.
In late summer Lake Vanda is rimmed by a wide moat of meltwater, but
when we flew there in November the moat was frozen solid (Fig. S.15). The ice
around the lake was magnificently clear, becoming an ever-deepening field of
blue and shot through with lacy white fractures (Fig. S.16). In the shallows, the
clear ice revealed a blanket of algae wrinkled across the bottom.
as we hiked along the shore, marveling at the patterns in the clear ice and
the great walls of Wright Valley that rose more than five thousand feet above us,
we stumbled onto a collection of cans, rusting in a neat pile at the edge of the
Figure S.15. White ice of
the permanently frozen
portion of Lake Vanda is
surrounded by clear blue
ice formed following the
summer influx of melt-
water from glaciers at the
head and mouth of Wright
Valley. Note Vanda Station
in the lower right of the
photo.
