Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
234
Figure 7.12. The conduit
along which lava erupted
at Mount Early is displayed
in this image from close to
its summit. The yellow rock
on the right is palagonite,
a fragmented glass that
was produced at an early
stage of the eruption when
the magma poured into
the overlying ice sheet
and shattered. as the dark
magma on the left rose
through this quenched
glass, boiling of water at
the interface between the
yellow and the black pro-
duced fluidization channels
that shot into the as-yet-
unconsolidated palagonite.
years before. Their camp, put in by R4Ds, included a Jamesway structure and used snow-
mobiles for the first time to visit nearby outcrops of rock.
During the 1962-1963 season at the Mount Weaver camp, the party had had continual
diYculties in keeping their snowmobiles running and was eagerly awaiting the promise
of a helicopter to assist in the geological mapping. The one outcrop somewhat beyond
Mount Weaver, which the party had reached by snowmobile, was Mount Early, the coni-
cal peak fifteen miles to the south that Blackburn's party had spotted on December 10,
1933 (see Fig. 6.10). Much to the geologists' surprise, Mount Early was a small volcano,
the southernmost volcano on earth. As they climbed to its summit, fragmented magma in
the outcrop gave the appearance that they were actually ascending up along the volcano's
eroded throat (Fig. 7.12).
During the first week in January, three helicopters visited the geologists' camp. First
Pete Bermel and Captain Frank Radspinner, the army commander, arrived to make con-
tact and determine the geologists' goals; the second helo brought in a drum of fuel; and
the third, piloted by CWO John D'Angelo, arrived ready to fly at the geologists' bidding.
Their first request, obviously, had to be Mount Howe. From the summits of Mount
Weaver and Mount Early, one could clearly see that the mountain was built of sedimen-
tary layers (see Fig. 6.11). What better geological justification to be the first humans to
set foot on the southernmost rock on the planet? The Huey landed at the foot of the
cliV, where almost immediately the geologists found Glossopteris in the strata. When the
mountaineers pulled out the ropes to scale the cliV, D'Angelo smiled at their machismo
