USGS Contributions to Antarctic Science and Mapping

By Tony K. Meunier

Since its founding in 1879, the USGS has carried out many field-based international programs in biology, geology, hydrology, and mapping. Among the furthest afield of all such activities is the USGS mapping and science program in Antarctica. For over 50 years, starting in 1946 with geophysical and geologic surveys and in 1957 with topographic mapping, USGS employees have been part of every U.S. expedition to Antarctica--the coldest, driest, highest, windiest, and most remote continent.

Working on the East Antarctic Polar Plateau requires extreme protection against the cold and wind. This was the author's daily working garb during a two-month search for meteorites.

The Office of Polar Programs of the National Science Foundation (NSF) provides financial and logistical support for USGS activities in Antarctica through the U.S. Antarctic Research Program. USGS projects complement NSF studies to achieve long-term mission-oriented basic research that is conducted in concert with NSF and academia. Since 1959, the USGS has mapped over 1,450,000 square kilometers of the continent that was previously unmapped. The USGS has also conducted marine, airborne, and satellite studies, as well as mapping and coring of the ice sheet. As the Nation's natural science and mapping agency, the USGS is able to provide highly trained cartographers, geologists, geographers, and geophysicists who are skilled at using the latest technology in remote settings and adverse conditions in Antarctica. In addition, USGS operates an ice-core facility in Denver, Colorado, where Antarctic ice cores are archived for research purposes, and maintains the world's largest archive of Antarctic maps and aerial photography at the U.S. Antarctic Resource Center in Reston, VA.

At 90 degrees South, the geographic South Pole is situated on top of 9,000 feet of glacial ice. Gravity and other factors cause the ice under South Pole Station to flow elastically down slope at about 10 meters per year. Since the 1950s, the USGS field surveying teams have been requested to position the exact location of this geodetic point known as the South Geographic Pole, which is the point on the surface at the southern spin axis of the earth. Custom-made markers have been placed in the ice on January 1 each year since 1992, the first repositioning using GPS surveying.

The modern epoch of civilian Antarctic exploration for scientific purposes began during the International Geophysical Year (IGY) in 1957-58. Public Laws 85-743 and 87-626, signed in August 1958 and September 1962 respectively, authorized the Secretary of the Interior, through the USGS, to support mapping and scientific work in Antarctica. USGS mapping and science programs have played a vital role in the advancement of science in Antarctica.