Title: NSF/Tokyo Report: Victoria Land Coast Expedition Date: December 2, 1997 The National Science Foundation's offices in Tokyo and in Paris periodically report on developments abroad that are related to the Foundation's mission. These documents present facts for the use of NSF program managers and policy makers; they are not statements of NSF policy. Special Scientific Report #97-38 (November 19, 1997) VICTORIA LAND COAST EXPEDITION The following report was submitted by Dr. Paul Arthur Berkman of the Byrd Polar Research Center of The Ohio State University, 108 Scott Hall, 1090 Carmack Road Columbus, Ohio 43210. Dr. Berkman prepared this report as part of a collaborative research project supported by the NSF Office of Polar Programs. This report first appeared (in Japanese) in Kyokuchi (the Polar News) No. 63. Dr. Berkman's studies in Antarctica continue. He is currently in the first year of a three year collaborative study with Professor Kazuomi Hirakawa of Hokkaido University in Sapporo, Japan. The title of their joint research is "Cenozoic Environmental Variability in Antarctic Coastal Areas." Dr. Berkman's participation in the project is supported by the NSF Japan and Korea Program; Professor Hirakawa's support is provided by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS). This project is one of the joint projects supported under the U.S.-Japan Cooperative Science Program. Dr. Berkman can be! reached via email at:Paul+@osu.edu It was a sunny day during the winter of 1993 when the e-mail message arrived at the National Institute of Polar Research (NIPR) that my expedition along the Victoria Land Coast was going to be funded by the National Science Foundation. I had been in Japan with my family since January as part of a yearlong fellowship from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS). The year was going well - I was studying Japanese, learning about the culture of Japan and making many good friends - and it gave me great pleasure to tell Professor Yoshio Yoshida, who was my host, about this opportunity to continue our collaboration into the future. The Victoria Land Coast Expedition was my first opportunity to lead a team of scientists in Antarctica. I had spent four seasons including a winter down south, but the challenge of leading an expedition was something entirely new. This expedition, from October 1994 through February 1995, extended along the Victoria Land Coast from McMurdo Sound (78 deg S) to Terra Nova Bay (74 deg S). The first phase of the expedition focused on the raised beaches and Holocene fossils in McMurdo Sound while the second phase concentrated on the emerged marine features in the Terra Nova Bay region. The overall objective of this research was to evaluate the coastal environmental variability associated with the southward retreat of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet along the Victoria Land Coast after the Last Glacial Maximum. Throughout the expedition, I was accompanied by Professor Mike Prentice (Co-Principal Investigator and glacial geologist from the University of New Hampshire), Mr. Skip Van Bloem (my graduate student in Environmental Science) and Mr. Oriol Solé Costa (mountaineer and expedition safety specialist). In addition, Professor Olafur Ingolfsson (glacial geomorphologist from the University of Lund in Sweden) participated in the first phase while Professor Kazuomi Hirakawa (glacial geomorphologist from the University of Hokkaido in Japan) participated in the second phase of the expedition. The expedition also involved several Global Positioning System (GPS) specialists, including Mr. Brett Baker (University NAVSTAR Consortium in Colorado) who participated throughout the second phase. Logistics for this expedition were anything but straightforward. In West McMurdo Sound, or more precisely Explorers Cove at the base of the Taylor Dry Valley, we had a 4-section pre-fabricated Jamesway that included a pre-way stove, work areas and living areas for 4 persons. We also had three Scott Tents for visitors and members of the field team. We had six skidoos (which required constant maintenance); 3 dual-frequency GPS receivers with antennas and batteries which required constant recharging; and two lap-top computers which were run off an inverter attached to a 12-volt deep-cycle battery that was charged from an array of solar panels. Food, water and fuel were brought out to us regularly from McMurdo Station by Coast Guard helicopters. During this first phase of the expedition we also had a reconnaissance mission with Twin Otter fixed-wing aircraft that we used for surveying the raised marine features along the Victoria Land Coast up to Terra Nova Bay. We used the skidoos to move between coastal areas ranging from the Ferrar Valley to Spike Cape which is just south of Granite Harbor. There were abundant marine fossils in the raised beaches, primarily the scallops (Adamussium colbecki) and clams (Laternula elliptica), which we collected for subsequent geochemical analyses to interpret their radiocarbon-ages and ambient environmental (temperature and meltwater) characteristics. The location and elevation of the fossil sites, along with the adjacent sequences of raised-beach strandlines, were measured by kinematic GPS surveys. Each of these kinematic surveys was interpreted in relation to a permanent static GPS site which was embedded in bedrock and measured with centimeter precision. After completing our research in the McMurdo Sound region we began preparations for our camp move to Terra Nova Bay. At the end of December 1994 we closed-up our camp at Explorers Cove; packed all of the tents and camping equipment; divided the food into weekly breakfasts, lunches and dinners which we packed into rock boxes; and then loaded all of our gear onto 2 helicopters for the 11/2-2 hour flight to Terra Nova Bay. This second phase of the expedition was coordinated with the Italian Antarctic Program (ENEA) in collaboration with Professor Marco Nigro from the University of Pisa. Our first camp in the Terra Nova Bay region was in Evans Cove with the Hells Gate Ice Shelf to our right and the monstrous Drygalski Ice Tongue in view to the south. Across the water was Inexpressible Island where Scott's Northern Party wintered-over at the beginning of this century. It's a constant wonder to be living, working and surviving in Antarctica - in a remote and hostile land where human history only began in the 18th century. In between the strong katabatic-wind storms (which bring air-masses accelerating down from the polar plateau sometimes in excess of 160 km per hour) we surveyed the raised marine features and dug into beaches which were composed of large stones and few fossils in marked contrast to the fossiliferous sandy sediments in West McMurdo Sound. With helicopter support from ENEA we then moved our camp to Adelie Cove where we found marine-fossil fragments in the moraines adjacent to the Boulder Clay glacier. With the generous support of ENEA, we also used SCUBA to survey and collect modern marine faunal assemblages; the Italian research vessel, Malippo, to conduct benthic grabs in Evans Cove; and helicopters to transport us across the crevasses onto the Hells Gate Ice Shelf so that we could collect exposed Holocene marine fossils. In late January, after several unsuccessful attempts to be picked up by the United States Coast Guard ice-breakers, we were transported back to McMurdo Station by helicopters from ENEA. The expedition was very successful in the variety and extent of the fossil collections; detailed stratigraphic and glacial geomorphology surveys; and ancillary data that was obtained to interpret Holocene environmental variability associated with the retreat of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet in the Ross Sea. Most of all, I feel fortunate to have worked with a group of talented scientists, from different countries and backgrounds, who collaborated in the field and are continuing to work together to enhance our understanding of Antarctic environmental variability. On a personal note, and with a view to my friends in Japan, I would like to share a poem that was written in Antarctica about the expedition. Victoria Land Coast Expedition By: Paul Arthur Berkman Across the Sound we went in our Twin Otter orange and white Flying over the sea ice to a Jamesway we will call home. Around the Dry Valleys briefly we circled and then onward up the Victoria Land Coast. First past Marble Point a site with beaches long and stranded Past Spike cape with marine terraces extending To Dunlop Island small and low surrounded by historical margins of the sea. Granite Harbor up the coast yet further to our final destination by traverse with previous marine features throughout waiting to be studied. Northward bound along the coast Cape Ross and Depot Island below new features perhaps stretching ice snow-covered coastlines of the Oates Piedmont Glacier into the Nordenskjold Ice Tongue flowing from the East Antarctic Ice Sheet pointing into the Ross Sea. Capes and coves continue new ice tongues until the Drygalski with its own weather and crevasses large enough to fly planes through huge and beautiful frightening and monstrous. Soaring as we approach Terra Nova Bay through Backstairs Passage to Evans Cove our final sites of the expedition where the icebreaker will rendezvous to bring us home. Turning around we must low pressure regions storming toward McMurdo straight across the open water the retreating ice edge with flows of huge pancake ice dashed ice flows frozen and floating free into furious head winds flying 50 meters above the raging sea Mt. Erebus in the distance towering over Ross Island. Nestled in the valley below Observation Hill with Scott's cross prominent McMurdo Station rests. Landing our Twin Otter solid on the thick sea ice the journey a success all souls on board safe and sound.