I was put on the shake at 0400 hours this morning by Bob, the ice pilot. Was informed that Ross Island lay ahead and that the morning light was spectacular on mountains. I clambered up to the bridge and sure enough the 2,460 km² island of three volcanoes lay directly ahead of us and looked just magnificent. Dawn crept up slowly over the eastern end of the island Cape Crozier, where the eastern edge of the Ross ice Shelf meets the Ross Sea. This point is a specially protected area of black volcanic cliff 61–122m high, home to a major emperor penguin rookery.
As well as being a major backstop to the Ross Ice Shelf, Ross Island is entirely a volcanic island. The four volcanos between Cape Crozier on the left to Cape Bird on the right are Mt Terror (3230 m), still hiding under a thick blanket of morning cloud, then Mount Erebus (3794 m), the world’s southern most active volcano, peeking occasionaly from behind less cloud and giving off what looked like the odd puff of steam, the smaller Mount Terra Nova followed by Mount Bird (1,765 m), and then back down to the sea at Cape Bird. This is also apparently the only New Zealand Island with out sheep (as the joke goes).
The island itself was discovered by Sir James Clark Ross in 1841, and it was later named in honour of him by Robert F. Scott. The two major mountains on the island were named by Ross after his ships HMS Erebus and HMS Terror.
Upon seeing Mt Erebus, my thoughts went back to the evening of 28th November,1979 when news came through of the tradgedy that occurred on this mountain, Air New Zealand Flight 901 had ploughed into the mountain with the loss of all 257 people on board. This thought cast a shadow on the peacefullness of this setting and upon seeing this notorious mountain for the first time and as a small puff came from the summit.
Along the shoreline below Mount Erebus was what looked like a long line of beached, shipping containers. It turns out that they were in fact a line of huge beached tabular icebergs. Mount Erebus (3794m) is the worlds most southern active volcano. Another interesting geological aspect of this volcano is that it puffs out about 80grams of metallic gold crystals each day.
Ross Island is mostly ice and snow and is the southern most island reachable by sea. Lying on the edge of the huge Ross sea ice shelf. It thus proved to be a handy base and jumping off point for many of the early expeditions to Antarctica. The historic huts built by Scott’s and Shackleton’s expeditions are still standing on the island, preserved as Historical Places.
Around the corner of Cape Bird, situated on a finger (Pram Point) that juts out from the back of Ross Island and the islands eastern most point. Out of our sight but I imagine this is where there are the collection of kiwifruit-coloured of wooden buildings called Scott Base. This is New Zealand’s only base in Antarctica and is today operated by
Antarctica New Zealand And not far away from Scott base, at walking distance on a clear day - or otherwise a bus service ride on ‘Ivan The terrible’, or was it Ivan the Terra Bus? Well, anyway, a big red all terrain people mover, is the American base “McMurdo Station”. This area is probably one of the most well known regions of Antarctica, having been the base for many major expeditions and the principal base of USA and operated by the US Antarctic Program. McMurdo Base even has a church and Hotel California.
Scott Base was originally set up in 1957 to support the private Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition (TAE) and also for the
International Geophysical Year (IGY) project of 1957. The New Zealand government took it over in 1958 and decided to turn it into a scientific research station. It was named after Captain Robert Falcon Scott, leader of two British expeditions to the Ross Sea area of Antarctica. The kiwifruit buildings of Scott Base are all linked together with coridors. It accommodates up to 85 people over the summer, with a skeleton staff of about 12 people for the winter stay-over.
I found it interesting to hear that supply ships that arrive in the summer in order to re-supply the bases, tie up to an Ice Pier at the southern tip of Ross Island. Essentially these ice piers are large pieces of pack ice held in a fixed position by steel cables and then get covered with sand. An ice pier typically has a life span of three to five years. When it starts to crack up, it is then towed out to sea and cast adrift and a new one is prepared.
Looking further past Cape Bird, I can see into McMurdo Sound and the magnificent Royal Society Mountain Range – part of the great Sub-Antarctic mountain range, lit up beautifully by the low morning light. The distant edge of the
McMurdo Ice Shelf can just be made out. The airfield for the bases is actually on the ice shelf called
Williams Field which allows accessibility by wheeled and ski equipped aircraft all year round. McMurdo Sound suuposedly has one of the largest populations of Orcas, probably good penguin feeding.The ice begins to freeze over in March and this mainly breaks up again in December when warm currents start to melt from underneath. I take a bundle of photos with a mind to doing paintings of them this evening.
Beaufort Island lies between us and Cape Bird of Ross Island - is approximately 18.4 km² and created by volcanic activity is comprised of basalt. It was named by James Clark Ross in 1841 after Sir Francis Beaufort, hydrographer to the British Royal Navy.
The island is one of the most important breeding grounds for birds; there are several penguin colonies on the island, a small colony of breeding Emperor penguins on some sea ice, and a larger Adeleye penguin colony on a raised beach.
Later this day we sailed past another big tabular iceberg. This one was in the shape of a maimed and badly listing battleship. I have named this one the “Aircraft carrier” – perhaps a new category for icebergs but officially I think it really falls under the wedge category.
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