Ronne Ice Shelf Oversnow Traverses – Steve Garrett
Header Photo: The Oversnow Party. L to R: Bruce Herrod, Bill Perry, Nigel Young, Ash Morton(Photo: Bruce Herrod)
Ronne Ice Shelf Oversnow Traverses (continued)
Ash Morton – (Photo: Bruce Herrod)
On 1st December 1982 the Chief Pilot Garry Studd decided it was time to go to the Ronne taking the overesnow party out to start distributing depots from the main depot that had been put there near to the Weddell Sea coast by RRS Bransfield in 1980, so the oversnow survey work could finally begin, lasting two summer seasons. It quickly became clear that VP-FBC’s Omega global VLF navigation system was not functioning well in the deep field as attempts to find our depots led to Russian and Argentinian depots instead. Depot duty was duly delegated to VP-FBB with the Doppler TANS onboard navigation system which proved more appropriate during the depot work and subsequent airborne geophysical surveys.
During two summer seasons a total of 3500 km of ice shelf were traversed by the oversnow party, complemented by my bit – over 14000 line-kilometres of airborne data (see following story). You can read all about it in Herrod and Garrett (1986) Geophysical Fieldwork on the Ronne Ice Shelf, Antarctica, First Break vol. 4 no. 1 pp. 9-14.
Nigel Young & Ash Morton(Photo: Bruce Herrod)Nigel Young Brushing Up His Celestial Navigation Skills Just In Case – this was the first BAS traverse using Magnavox marine satellite navigation(Photo: Bruce Herrod)Scientific Equipment Sledges At Ronne Main Depot – close to the shores of the Weddell Sea shown by the darkened marine sky in the background(Photo: Bruce Herrod)Bruce Herrod Pressing The Detonator Button For Another Seismic Shot – the digital seismic recording equipment was in the blue electrically heated box (Photo From The Camera Of Bruce Herrod)Bruce Herrod – Have Explosives Will Travel(Photo From The Camera Of Bruce Herrod)Bruce Herrod Checking The Printout From The Seismic Recording Equipment. Note the depot flag – finding the depots was a key challenge in a featureless flat landscape(Photo From The Camera Of Bruce Herrod)Bill Perry Reading the Worden Gravimeter This was transported in a bungee framework to minimise vibration of the sensitive spring mechanism during skidoo transport(Photo: Bruce Herrod)Bruce Herrod reading the Worden Gravimeter, using the cowling from the skidoo as a wind break to protect the sensitive spring mechanism from wind vibration(Photo From The Camera Of Bruce Herrod) Steve Garrett Reading A Worden Gravimeter At A Ronne Depot – during Airborne Base station network ties and aircraft refuelling(Photo from the Camera of Steve Garrett)Bruce Herrod – A Happy Camper(Photo From The Camera Of Bruce Herrod)
