Evening star., 1950-10-06
Antarctic Oasis Area
Mystery Near Solution
Port of Marginal Moroine
Left by Retreoting Glacier
By Thomas R. Henry


The mystery of Burgers "oasis," the
large ice-free area off the coast of the
Antarctic continent with its blue, green
and red lakes amidst an otherwise un-
broken wilderness of ice for many thou
sands of square miles, is close to salts
factory solution.
The area, covering more than 100
square miles, is part of marginal mo-
raine left by retreating glacier which
dropped great masses of gravel and boul-
ders. picked up somewhere in the interior
of the continent, as 1t receded. There is
considerable evidence that the glaciers
on this part of the continent are receding
or have receded in the recent past.
The actual forming of the "oasis" may
have occurred many years ago. But any
recent readvances of the ice have not had
sufficient push behind them to surmount
the hills of rock which 1t piled up. The
ice rivers in this region always flow very
sluggishly in comparison with the torren-
tial glaciers, 1000 miles to the westward
which pour into the Ross Sea, surmount-
ing every possible obstacle.
Ice Flows Around Area.
AS consequence, any returning ice
has flowed around the area, pouring into
thick ice shelf which has a deceptive
appearance of land and through which it
would be impossible for any ship to
penetrate.
This is the conclusion of scientists who
accompanied the Navy's icebreaker expe-
dition to this region two summers ago
after complete study of the records OBJ
tanned during a weeks stay in what
appears to be about the weirdest region
on earth.
Early reports, 1t appears, were some
what in error. The oasis was described
as being several miles inland This was
mistake due to the appearance of the
ice shelf. Actually it is on the edge of
the sea and it's elevation hardly rises
above sea level.
Water in the lakes one of which is
about two miles long, first was reported
as fresh. Samples analyzed from the ice
breaker expedition show that 1t ranges
from the salt content of sea water to
brackishness. Thus the lakes appear to
be Of two sorts. The larger ones are arms
Of the sea coming up under the ice shelf.
The smaller are ponds formed by melting
snow and glacier ice which have no out
let's, and hence gradually grow saltier
and saltier. One of the major problems
of the men who camped there was to
find fresh water for drinking. This could
be obtained only by melting snow, and
snow in summer-probably also in win
ter-is very rare on the "oasis."
Wilderness of Rock Piles.
The "oasis" area itself, the Navy scien-
fists found, was an indescribably wild
wilderness of rock piles. The stones
dropped by the retreating glacier were
of all sizes and varieties, from the size
of house to the size of a marble. They
were piled up in the uttermost con-
fusion. AS one of the party says: You
had to walk three or four times the dis
tance to get anywhere" Among the
rocks, black and red garnets were abun-
dant, but none of the stones were of gem
quality.
The confusion of colors among the
rocks was such as to provide an almost
perfect natural camouflage. A helicopter
from the icebreaker returned to rescue
the men after week. They laboriously
had cleared landing space. This they
had surrounded with bright yellow flags.
Here also they had set up a white tent.
Yet the helicopter pilot, lowering just
overhead, had great difficulty in finding
it. Some of the party were eamped on an
copter lowered over them but the oper-
ator could not distinguish them among
the rocks. They finally attracted atten-
ton to themselves by flashing signal
mirror in his eyes. They got out just a
few minutes ahead of bad storm which
might have left them marooned in the
rock desert for weeks.
Even with full provisions. the difficulty
of life in the region left the explorers
exhausted after the week among the
heat-radiating rocks under the brilliant
midnight sun of the Antarctic summer.
It was not possible to determine
whether the glacier still is in retreat or
feebly advancing, although there is con-
siderable evidence that there may be a
general recession of ice over this part Of
the continent.