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 January
8, 2003 - Paul Mayewski has led an expedition of U.S.
scientists across Antarctica to the South Pole in the first overland sled
trek there for 45 years. The team traveled with sleds pulled by two big
Caterpillar tractors in a caravan across the ice for almost a month. Paul
is the chief researcher for the United States component of a 19 nation
program called the International Trans Antarctic Science Expedition, or
ITASE for short.
Sinking ice tractors force make the team
regroup
The team of 13 scientists reached the South Pole on January 2 2003 after
covering 1250 kilometers from the Byrd Surface Camp near the West Atlantic
Coast in only 26 days. The goal of the expedition and the whole ITASE
program is to change Antarctica from being the most poorly understood
continent when it comes to climate and bring it up to date. The journey
was far from easy even though they had tractors to pull them forward. They
made a first attempt to make the journey in early November but were forced
to turn back after 40 kilometers when they found the snow too deep and
soft causing the tractors to sink. Now they set out with wider tractor
treads and sled runners and this time they succeeded.
Conduction all kinds of experiments
They did encounter heavy storms and were forced to halt for some time when
the snow drifts started to build against the side of the train. The
journey was spent conducting experiments, the scientists drilled hundreds
of meters of ice core. Since the continent is very unspoiled the record of
past climates are still recorded in the ice. The team is also looking for
signs of human traces, in the form of the chemistry of the atmosphere.
Satellites and atmospheric balloons have also helped them in their
research.
Collect now, analyze later
This was their first trip to the South Pole but they have been working on
Antarctica for the past three seasons having traveled about 3500
kilometers. On arrival the team was shown around the new South Pole
station under construction right now. Upon returning to the mainland they
will all start analyzing the findings from the trip and start to make
sense of all the data. They are planning to head out on a new expedition
again in about two years starting at the South Pole.
Expedition hompage...
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