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Victoria University Antarctic Research Expedition Science and Logistics Reports 1979-80: VUWAE 24

INTRODUCTION

INTRODUCTION

Background (PJB)

Two of the outstanding problems in Antarctic earth science are the early history of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet and the history of the Transantarctic Mountains, and they may well be linked. The GLOMAR CHALLENGER made the first major breakthrough in 1973 by recovering cores from the centre of the Rose Sea showing that ice rafting began there 25 m.y. ago and has been going on ever since (Hayes et al., 1975), but whether the floating ice came from East or West Antarctica is still debated. The cores contained little information about the history of the Transantarctic Mountains because the holes were too far offshore, and there is unlikely to be much further information from on land, for no dateable sequences from the key time period (50-10 m.y.) are known to crop out on land in the McMurdo Sound region. The glacial history and the uplift of the mountains are likely to be best recorded in the thick sedimentary sequence seen in seismic profiles along the Transantarctic Mountain Front (Northey et al., 1975). This sequence can be sampled only by drilling.

The first attempt to core this sequence (DVDP15) reached 65 m sub-bottom before sea ice conditions terminated drilling (Barrett et al., 1976). The second attempt, which is described here, was much more successful, though drilling was again terminated by sea ice conditions before the target depth was reached. Further background to the drilling can be found in Barrett (1979) and in the Scientific Operations Handbook (Barrett s Waghorn, 1979). Personnel for the operation are listed in Table 1.

Location of Site and Setting up Camp (BAS)

Field operation of the MSSTS programme began with the arrival of an advance party of ten, including one from VUW, at Scott Base on 28 August 1979. Vehicles and equipment were prepared and a series of reconnaissances undertaken by Power wagon and Snotrac (Fig. 2). A flagged route closely following the southern and western boundaries of McMurdo Sound was established from Scott Base to New Harbour. Rough ice prevented an initial attempt to establish a route directly out to the MSSTS 1 site from the dump of DVDP drilling gear at Rig Point on the northern shore of New Harbour. During a Subsequent reconnaissance good travel was found on a route bearing 030 true from Butter Point.

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On September 19 a reconnaissance party arrived at a point at 77. 33.3S:164 23.4E. The locality of the site was reached by dead reckoning and the position on the sea ice was fixed by resection using a Kern DkM 1 theodolite. Although 3 km SW of the proposed site (Barrett, 1979) the site was logistically preferable, being nearer land, and scientifically acceptable, being within the region previously surveyed by seismic refraction methods (McGinnis 1979) and known to have at least 500 m of sediment overlying basement.

Sea ice thickness at the adopted site, 1.98 m, was more than sufficient for drilling operations; water depth was 196 m and not varying from this by more than ±10 m at points 50C m north, south, east and west. The site was 80 km by sea ice road from Scott Base and 26 km from Rig Point.

Two huts were established at the site and an attempt was made to flood the area with sea water to strengthen the sea ice platform. The attempt failed as the pumps froze - the air temperature was −35° C. In the following weeks equipment and fuel were brought to the site by D4 sledge trains from Scott Base, McMurdo Station and Rig Point. By October 10 the camp, consisting of two oil-heated Jamesways and six insulated plywood huts, was fully operational and most of the drilling gear was on site. The main party of drillers arrived on October 12 and the erection of the rig began immediately. Casing was lowered to the sea floor on October 20 and drilling began on October 21.

Figure 2. Map of McMurdo Sound, showing the location of MSSTS 1 and DVDP 15 and supply routes to MSSTS 1.

Figure 2. Map of McMurdo Sound, showing the location of MSSTS 1 and DVDP 15 and supply routes to MSSTS 1.

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TABLE 1. Personnel involved in MSSTS 1 Drilling.
Drillsite Crew
Drilling supervisor Jack Barclay MOWD
Drilling Supervisor Jim Gupwell MOWD
Driller Guy Holmes MOWD
Driller Terry Quigley MOWD
Driller Neville Quigley MOWD
Driller Richard Stacey MOWD
Driller Gerald Haugh MOWD
Driller John Marcuson MOWD
Driller David Rees Ant. Div.
Driller Vaughn Robson MOWD
Driller John Star MOWD
Drillers assistant Tony McPherson VUW
Drillers assistant Paul White VUW
Drillers assistant Frank Williams VUW
Logistics Manager Garth Varcoe Ant. Div.
Cook Warwick Bull Ant. Div.
Ass. Maintenance Officer Ray Matheson Ant. Div.
Field assistant Roy Arbon Ant. Div.
Drillsite scientist
Science Manager Bryan Sissons VUW
Geophysicist Paul Froggatt VUW
Core grabber Alex pyne VUW
Core grabber Ian Wright VUW
Geophysicist Dr Heinz Miller FGR
Core Lab. Scott Base
Site Geologist MSSTS Pt 1 Dr Peter Barrett VUW
Site Geologist MSSTS Pt 2 Dr Barry McKelvey UNE
Core Manager David waghorn VUW
Geological Asst. Barry walker VUW
Photographer Alan Ross VUW
Geochemist Dr Tetsuya Torii JARE
Geochemist Dr Kazuhisa Komura JARE
Geochemist Dr Shyu Nakaya JARE
Geologist Dr Yuki Yusa JARE
Geologist Dr Don Elston USGS
Geologist Steve Bressler USGS
Paleontologist Barbara Ward VUW/NIU
Paleontologist Mark Leckie NIU
Paleontologist Howard Brady MU
Note
VUW Victoria University of Wellington
NIU Northern Illinois University
USGS United States Geological Survey
UNE University of New England
FRG Federal Republic of Germany
JARE Japanese Antarctic Research Expedition
MU MacQuarie University
MOWD Ministry of Works and Development
Ant. Div. Antarctic Division DSIR, N.Z.