An East Antarctic Odyssey

East Antarctica is home to the Earth’s oldest ice and harbors some of the most important information about past and future climate change, yet it is the least explored part of the Antarctic continent. The Norwegian-U.S. Scientific Traverse of Antarctica involves two overland traverses of East Antarctica: one in 2007-2008, and a return traverse via a different route in 2008-2009. The project will revisit sites that were first explored in the 1960s to look for signs of change since then and to set benchmarks for future research in the area.

During the 2007-2008 season, the team set out from Troll, a Norwegian research station in Queen Maud Land, and headed for the South Pole. On the last day of 2007, they reached the most remote place on the Antarctic continent—the Pole of Inaccessibility, where they celebrated the New Year with a champagne toast. But in mid-January, mechanical problems with the vehicles stopped the expedition about 350 kilometers (217 miles) short of the South Pole. After considering all options, the team decided to fly on to the Pole with their research samples, while the vehicles and sleds remained behind at the site they christened “Camp Winter.”

Eight months after the end of the first season, the second team gathered in Christchurch, New Zealand, to prepare for the second season traverse. This time, the team traveled in two groups, with one heading to Camp Winter in early November (2008) to repair the vehicles and then driving in to the South Pole in early December, and the second group testing equipment at McMurdo Station before meeting up with group one at the South Pole. The entire team will then head to Troll, stopping along the way to conduct projects such as unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) flights and ice core collection.

A major part of the Season 2 traverse will be exploring a series of 150 subglacial lakes that are located near the traverse return route. The lakes are second in size only to Lake Vostok—the largest in Antarctica—and hold clues about ice streams, which play a role in the stability of ice shelves and ice sheets.

Watch PopSci.com in March 2009 for highlights of the Season 2 traverse, and follow the “Expedition Diary” on the web.