Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1957-11-10
BY CAPT. FINN ROME

North American Newspaper Alliance
ELLSWORTH STATION.
Antarctica, Nov. 2 Delayed -
Our five-man traverse party
has departed on the first leg
of it's 1.200-mile journey toward
q rendezvous with a similar
party heading southeast from
Byrd Station.
Led by DR.. Edward Thiel,
seismologist from Wausau,
Wis, the group is travelling by
two tracked Sno-cats, each
pulling a large freight sled
crammed to the brim with
scientific equipment, food and
shelter. They will live out on
the trail for three months.
The last view we had OF the
slow-moving caravan was as 1t
dipped beyond a rise on the
otherwise smooth Filchner ice
shelf and headed to the south
east. An evening radio con-
tact indicated that they had
set up their first camp 80 miles
away.
Before turning to the south
west toward their eventual
rendezvous point, they must
make a 65-mile detour to the
southeast in order to avoid the
heavily crevassed terrain sur
rounding our station and the
huge rift in the ice barrier so
miles inland which is so miles
long, three miles wide and 200
feet deep. Previously we had
made a number of reconnais-
sance plane flights in order to
find a safe route around this
huge abyss and after several
fruitless attempts we were
finally successful.
Enormous Obstacle
Once our traverse party has
skirted around the eastern end
of this enormous obstacle,
which in itself gives us good
evidence of the tremendous
pressures at work on our 760-
foot thick floating ice shelf, it
will head southwesterly for $50
miles to reach Mount Massage.
Mount Massage, which I
sighted 10 years ago on a flight
into Edith Rome Land. will
also be the destination of the
other traverse party coming in
the opposite direction from
Byrd Station in Marie Byrd
Land. When our party reaches
its halfway mark, it will detour
again for about $50 miles to
collect rock samples for future
geological studies in the Virgin
Mountains we sighted a couple |
of weeks ago at 80 deg. 80 min.
g., 40 deg. west.
Every 10 to 20 miles. depend
ing on terrain and other con-
ditions, scientific stations will
be set up. The glaciologists will
dig shallow pits and study
characteristics of snow and ice
by taking accumulation meas
urements and the amount OF
compression, density and direc-
ton of the grains of snowflakes.
At the same time. the seismol-
ogists will make reflection
shots to measure and study the
underlying ice and snow.
They will be particularly in
terested and concerned with
the thickness of the ice sheet
which covers Antarctica in
their attempt to find out If
the land beneath it consists
of many small islands or is
one continuous land mass.
Subterranean layers of the
earth's crust will also be in
vestigated by our traverse
party. as will its composition
deep into the core. The gravity
meter mounted in one Of the
Sno-cats is kept under con-
slant temperature by heat from
special batteries and part of
their equipment. 1t will, meas
ure the gravimetric pull of the
earth. tide movements in the
earths crust and diurnial
changes that may occur over
land areas in the interior of |
Edith Rome land.
For the most part, the trav-
erse party. one of our most i'm
portant undertakings during
the l. G. Y, will be a self
sufficient unit. Re-supply will
be made to them at certain
intervals while they are in the
field by using our two Otter
airplanes and helicopter. The
planes will operate under 1t.
Comdr. Charles Mccarthy OF
New Richmond Wis