SUMMARY OF VUWAE 31

The 1986-87 Antarctic season saw the successful drilling of CIROS-1 in western McMurdo Sound. The hole reached a depth of 702 m, making it the deepest bedrock hole in Antarctica. The programme was co-sponsored by victoria University of Wellington (science responsibility), Geophysics Division DSIR (drilling responsibility) and Antarctic Division DSIR (logistic responsibility), and was the culmination of 5 years of planning and preparation. The aim of the project is to obtain a record of Antarctic Cenozoic history in the southwest corner of the Ross Sea by coring sedimentary strata offshore. The core extends the Antarctic glacial record back to the early Oligocene, and has provided the first evidence of early Tertiary vegetation, a beech leaf. The core also yielded the first evidence of petroleum generation from the Antarctic continental shelf. Currently over 20 scientists in New Zealand, Australia, Japan, USA and UK are working on various aspects of the core.

A seismic survey related to the CIROS programme was also carried out in the vicinity of the CIROS-1 site and alms to link the geological structure as determined by drilling with other seismic surveys from the western Ross Sea. The survey was jointly sponsored by Victoria University and Geophysics Division, DSIR.

The Mt Erebus geophysics programme this season successfully installed a TV camera on the crater rim which transmitted real time pictures back to Scott Base. The aim of this programme was to discover how the lava lake eruptions are related to the different types of seismic activity recorded from Mt Erebus.

A biochemistry programme to test the detoxication enzyme glutathione-s-transferase in Antarctic fishes was carried out from Scott Base. The effects of freezing on enzyme levels was assessed and the data obtained this season compared to that from the 1983/84 season.

In addition to the New Zealand Antarctic Programmes summarised above, three people from Victoria University participated with investigators from Rice University of Texas in United States Antarctic Programmes. These programmes included sediment trapping in the McMurdo Sound area in spring and summer, and the Deep Freeze 87 icebreaker cruises on USCGC Glacier. Although the cruise was shortened from that originally planned, good seismic data and sea floor cores were obtained from the Cape Hallet area and within McMurdo Sound.