Proposed Programme

The WAVE project was conceived with a view to understanding the volcanic and geochemical evolution of intraplate volcanoes in West Antarctica and to comparing volcanism and lithospheric structure of West Antarctica with documented parallels In the Ross Sea Embayment. The 1989 - 1990 field season specifically targeted the ECR (77° 15′ S, 126° 30′ W - 76° 15′ S, 126° W) for a number of reasons: 1/ ECR contains some of the youngest volcanism in West Antarctica. 2/ The volcanoes are large and, in the case of Mt. Sidley, particularly well exposed. 3/Reconnaissance sampling indicated considerable compositional range (from basalt to phonolite and peralkali rhyolite). 4/ Lithospheric xenoliths had been reported from one volcano (Mt. Cumming) in the range.

For the 1989/90 season the aim was to study all the volcanoes of the ECR (Mts. Waesche, Sidley, Hartigan, Cumming and Hampton) together with a projected visit to the USAS Escarpment. Delays due to availability of logistic support and poor weather led to curtailment of the field programme by approximately 50%. As a result, the field programme concentrated on Mt Waesche and Mt Sidley at the south end of the range. The reasoning behind this decision was simple: The reconnaissance work and radiometric dating studies (see Le Masurier and Rex 1989) indicated that Mt Sidley (at 4181m the highest volcano in Antarctica) and Mt Waesche were relatively young, the latter yielding rocks < 1ma. Consequently we were keen to ascertain whether any were currently active. Furthermore, these volcanoes are relatively close together offered superior exposure to the other volcanoes and showed compositional variation similar to the volcanoes of the Mc Murdo Volcanic Group.