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	DIRECTIONS, COMPASSES, TIME ZONES
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DIRECTIONS
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__________
QUESTION: How do you give directions at the South Pole? Wouldn't 
everything point north?

ANSWER from Craig Mundell
You are correct. Theoretically, every direction from the South Pole is 
north. To get around this problem, people in the U.S. look at the 
continent as a grid map with McMurdo Sound to the bottom of the 
page and the Antarctic Peninsula to the upper left of the page. They 
then use directions like it was any other map, i.e., the top of the page is 
north, bottom south, etc. In fact, with the grid map system the navy 
pilots use here, they actually fly north from McMurdo to get to the 
South Pole.

ANSWER from Bob Loewenstein on February 8, 1995
Geographically speaking, every direction at the south pole is North 
(except up and down). But we do have to tell people things, like the 
wind direction is so and so. To do this, we adopt what is called a 'grid 
north' system, where north is in the direction of zero longitude (toward 
Greenwich, England). East is 90 degrees, South 180, and West 270.


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COMPASS NEEDLES
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__________
QUESTION: What happens to a compass needle when you stand right 
over the magnetic South Pole? 

ANSWER from Katy McNitt on February 7, 1995
I've never stood at the magnetic South Pole (it's somewhere in the 
Southern Ocean, a few hundred miles from the coast of Antarctica), 
but I can tell you what happens at the Geographic South Pole. On a 
good-quality compass, the needle will still point toward magnetic 
north. But the compass on my zipper-pull just spins in slow, lazy, 
unpredictable circles.


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MAGNETIC FIELDS
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__________
QUESTION: Are there any unknown magnetic fields in Antarctica 
similar to those supposedly found in the Bermuda Triangle? If so, 
where is it located?

ANSWER from Todd Duncan on 1/4/95:
I don't know much about the supposed magnetic fields near the 
Bermuda Triangle. You probably know that ships and airplanes can 
use compasses for navigation. The Earth has an overall magnetic field 
that roughly lines up with the north and south directions, so the 
alignment of a magnetic compass needle allows ships to tell which 
direction they are heading. (If you're interested in learning more about 
magnetic fields, ask your science teacher how to set up an experiment 
with a bar magnet, some iron filings and a compass to see how the 
compass needle points along the field lines). I guess the suggestion 
about the Bermuda Triangle is that if there is something like a large 
iron deposit producing a strong magnetic field in the area, then a 
compass might point somewhere other than north, so that you could 
get lost because your directions are confused.

There are scientists who study the magnetic fields around the South 
Pole. The way in which the Earth's magnetic field is generated and 
how it changes over time are very complicated questions. But 
magnetic fields are produced by electric currents (you might want to 
ask your science teacher about an experiment to detect the magnetic 
field produced by a current, too), so there are electric currents in the 
Earth which produce its magnetic field. One thing the scientists try to 
do is model the structure of the Earth's magnetic field and determine 
the position of the south magnetic pole. The pole is where a compass 
needle points--there are magnetic fields all around, including where 
you are now, so I can't really tell you a specific place where there is a 
magnetic field. But you can give the position of the magnetic pole. 
The position of this magnetic pole is changing with time, and I think it 
actually is now somewhere in the ocean, off the coast of Antarctica.


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NAVIGATION
*************
__________
QUESTION: How did early explorers who tried to reach the South 
Pole navigate? Our class thinks that magnetic compasses wouldn't 
work and using the position of the stars wouldn't work either.  

ANSWER from Deane Rink 
Your class is correct on both counts. Magnetic compasses do tend to 
go screwy down here, and the stars are not visible during the summer 
(i.e., warmer) months when exploration was first attempted. But 
you also can navigate through sighting the sun, especially if you have 
accurate time-keeping devices that allow you to tell time of day and 
number of elapsed days during those months when the sun never sets 
and counting sunsets would be impossible. By tracking the rotations of 
the sun around the polar sky and determining the angle at which the 
sun appears at a given time, one can roughly determine one's position 
on the planet. This skill had been developed by early explorers long 
before the Antarctic was mapped, so that technology was well-
understood by the Amundsens and Scotts and Shackletons when they 
started their inland treks.


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		TIME ZONES, ZIP & AREA CODES
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**************
TIME ZONES
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___________
QUESTION: How do time zones work in Antarctica?

ANSWER from Craig Mundell on December 15, 1994
Time in Antarctica is very strange and does not seem to follow time 
zones like you are used to. Most of the stations down here set their 
time with either the place that they communicate with the most, or the 
point of debarkation from the "real world." For example, McMurdo 
Station is on the same time as Christchurch, New Zealand, since we 
communicate a lot with offices there and that is where we depart from 
when coming to McMurdo. Along the same lines, South Pole Station 
and the rest of the field camps that originate from McMurdo are on the 
same time since they all work together. However, Palmer Station, 
which is another U.S. station that is on the Antarctic Peninsula, is set 
closer to the time in Punta Arenas, Chile, since that is the closest "real 
world" station and is the point of debarkation for people going to 
Palmer.

But to make things a little more complicated, Vostok, which is one of 
the Russian stations, is set on the same time as Moscow, Russia. This 
is probably due to the fact that this is where they have most of their 
communications. So the final answer is that there are no set time zones 
in Antarctica and you would not be able to figure out the time here by 
looking at a map. 

__________
QUESTION: Is it true that the time zone for the continent is eastern 
plus 18 hours?

ANSWER: from Craig Mundell on January 8, 1995
The time at McMurdo is EST plus 18. However, this is only because 
the time zone of Christchurch, New Zealand, is EST plus 18, and we 
use Christchurch time. This would be the same for all of the camps 
that are linked with McMurdo even though they are spread across the 
continent, and most likely several time zones. For example, South Pole 
Station is located at the geographic south pole, where all time zones 
converge, yet it is linked timewise with McMurdo (or truly, to 
Christchurch NZ).  

Then, to use the same example as before, Vostok station is based on 
Moscow time which is EST plus 8 hours, or 10 hours behind 
McMurdo time. It can then be said that you can not safely guess time 
in Antarctica based strictly on the geographic time zone lines.

____________
QUESTION: How is time measured or divided?

ANSWER from Deane Rink
The American program in McMurdo and South Pole all run on New 
Zealand time, which is 18 hours ahead of American Eastern Standard 
Time. Palmer Station on the peninsula runs on South American time. 


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AREA CODES & ZIP CODES
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__________
QUESTION: How do Area Codes and Zip Codes work in Antarctica?

ANSWER from Craig Mundell on January 9, 1995
There are no area or zip codes in Antarctica. The way these work is 
actually similar to the time zones in that it varies by station. At 
McMurdo station, our "area code" is actually in Sacramento, 
California. That is where our satellite carrier is based. The mail we 
receive comes via military means from an FPO box in San Francisco, 
California, so the zip code is in San Francisco.

The bases for other countries most likely work in a similar manner.