Discovering the unknown continent - Antarctica: Global Science from a Frozen Continent - page 18

Figure 1.15 A Crown Land sign at Signy Island, South Orkney Islands, which has now

disappeared. (Credit: R. Burton)

c expedition to the
continent was getting underway in Dronning Maud Land. Led by John Giaever
the Norwegian

Meanwhile the first planned international scienti

Swedish expedition also had Australian, Canadian, South
African and Finnish participants. The three main objectives were glaciology,
meteorology and geology as well as aerial surveying. Although during the expedition
three men died, a great deal of new science was achieved. Perhaps the most
important result was the seismic traverse inland in which it proved possible to
map the underlying rock, the pilot study for the detailed radio echo sounding
work carried out later by many nations to provide the present bedrock map of
the Antarctic continent itself.
Elsewhere in Antarctica other countries were also establishing research
stations. The Australian National Antarctic Research Expeditions was established
in 1947 for purely political reasons, to counter any threats to Australian Antarctic
Territory by Norway or the United States. Establishing stations

- British -

first on Macquarie

and Heard Islands, the Australians began to build their first continental station -

Mawson in 1954. The French were also actively beginning expeditions to

Antarctica in 1948 and building their

-

first station - Port Martin - in Terre

Adélie in 1950.