Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Foreword
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- PART I Setting the stage
- 1 Antarctica and the National Science Foundation
- 2 How the project began
- 3 The first three years
- 4 The beat goes on: later years of the ANSMET program
- 5 Alone (or in small groups)
- PART II ANSMET pays off: field results and their consequences
- PART III Has it been worthwhile?
- Appendices
- Index of people
- Index of Antarctic geographic names
- Subject index
4 - The beat goes on: later years of the ANSMET program
from PART I - Setting the stage
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 06 August 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Foreword
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- PART I Setting the stage
- 1 Antarctica and the National Science Foundation
- 2 How the project began
- 3 The first three years
- 4 The beat goes on: later years of the ANSMET program
- 5 Alone (or in small groups)
- PART II ANSMET pays off: field results and their consequences
- PART III Has it been worthwhile?
- Appendices
- Index of people
- Index of Antarctic geographic names
- Subject index
Summary
FIELD LOGISTICS
If field work is to be carried out within 100 nautical miles (=185 km) of McMurdo Station the preferred mode of travel is by helicopter, but we had begun prospecting for meteorites at sites that were out of helicopter range. For a while, it was sufficient to be put in at Allan Hills by helicopter and travel from there by snowmobile, towing everything on sledges. Our snowmobiles were geared-down machines made by Bombardier Corp. of Canada and were designed for heavy pulling. We found we could tow three fully loaded nansen sledges about as easily as one, so our cargo transport capacity gave us self-sufficiency for long oversnow traverses and long stays at remote sites (Figure 4.1). In this way, we were able to work effectively at the Reckling Peak, Elephant Moraine and Allan Hills Far Western icefields (see Frontispiece). But existing satellite photos gave us the ability to identify ice patches in all parts of the continent, and there were more-distant places that we aspired to visit. Camps at these sites are often referred to as deep-field camps.
Longer lifts are carried out by LC-130s, which actually can reach any part of the antarctic continent. For extreme distances, there is a trade-off between cargo weight and distance flown, but that limitation has not yet affected our field operations. The LC-130s (Figure 4.2) have been fitted with aluminum skis. These are very large, commensurate with the size of the airplane, and have been coated with Teflon®.
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- Information
- Meteorites, Ice, and AntarcticaA Personal Account, pp. 57 - 83Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2003