A wondrous story of scientific endeavor―probing the great ice sheets of Antarctica
From the moment explorers set foot on the ice of Antarctica in the early nineteenth century, they desired to learn what lay beneath. David J. Drewry provides an insider’s account of the ambitious and often hazardous radar mapping expeditions that he and fellow glaciologists undertook during the height of the Cold War, when concerns about global climate change were first emerging and scientists were finally able to peer into the Antarctic ice and take its measure.
In this panoramic book, Drewry charts the history and breakthrough science of radio-echo sounding, a revolutionary technique that has enabled researchers to measure the thickness and properties of ice continuously from the air―transforming our understanding of the world’s great ice sheets. To those involved in this epic fieldwork, it was evident that our planet is rapidly changing, and its future depends on the stability and behavior of these colossal ice masses. Drewry describes how bad weather, downed aircraft, and human frailty disrupt the most meticulously laid plans, and how success, built on remarkable international cooperation, can spawn institutional rivalries.
The Land Beneath the Ice captures the excitement and innovative spirit of a pioneering era in Antarctic geophysical exploration, recounting its perils and scientific challenges, and showing how its discoveries are helping us to tackle environmental challenges of global significance.
Author(s): David J. Drewry
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Year: 2023
Language: English
Pages: 459
City: Princeton
Cover
Contents
List of Illustrations
Preface
Acknowledgements
1. The Antarctic Ice Sheet Puzzle
1.1. Prelude
1.2. Some History
2. Sounding through the Ice
2.1. Seismic Measurements of Ice Thickness
2.2. Gravity Measurements
2.3. Early Tests
2.4. The International Geophysical Year and Its Aftermath
3. The Advent of Radio-Echo Sounding
3.1. Experiments and Happenstance
3.2. Developments in Cambridge and Antarctic Tests
3.3. Trials in Greenland
3.4. Field Activities Elsewhere
3.5. Radio-Echo Sounding Goes Airborne
4. Flight into the Unknown: Long-Range Antarctic Campaigns Commence
4.1. International Cooperation
4.2. Plans for Antarctic Season 1967
4.3. Antarctic Operations
4.4. Review of the Season
5. The Second Antarctic Season 1969–70: A Task for Hercules
5.1. Cambridge Preparations
5.2. The Team Assembles
5.3. Washington, DC
5.4. New Zealand Activities
5.5. Antarctic Sounding Commences
5.6. Personal Experiences
5.7. Western Marie Byrd Land and the Ross Ice Shelf
5.8. Halley Bay—Visit to the Brits!
5.9. Inland Flank of the Transantarctic Mountains
5.10. To the Interior of East Antarctica and Vostok, the Coldest Place on Earth
5.11. The Filchner Ice Shelf
5.12. Meanwhile in the Antarctic Peninsula
5.13. The 1969–70 Season in Perspective
6. Review and New Plans
6.1. International Antarctic Glaciological Project
6.2. Aircraft
6.3. Navigation
6.4. Radio-Echo System—Collaboration with the Technical University of Denmark
6.5. Deconvolution and Migration
6.6. RES Recording
6.7. The Team
6.8. New Plans and Preparations
7. The Continental Survey Begins: A Land Emerges
7.1. To Washington and New Zealand
7.2. Antarctica—Delays and Frustration
7.3. The Science Begins—Eventually!
7.4. A Land Emerges
7.5. Mapping of East Antarctica
7.6. The Ice Sheet Surface
7.7. The Sub-Ice Morphology
7.8. Lakes beneath the Ice
7.9. Quo Vadis?
8. New Impetus
8.1. A Tripartite Agreement
8.2. Cambridge Activities
8.3. Devon Island—An Arctic Foray
Color Plates
8.4. The ‘Keystone’ of Gondwana
8.5. A New Aircraft and New Instrumentation
8.6. A Planning Dilemma
8.7. Remote Sensing in Glaciology
8.8. Preparations for the New Season
8.8.1. Dome C and East Antarctica
8.8.2. Marie Byrd Land
8.8.3. Ross Ice Shelf
8.8.4. Other Projects
9. 1974–75: Radio-Echo Sounding Comes of Age
9.1. Initial Deployment
9.2. Operations Commence
9.3. Siple Coast—Domes and Ice Streams
9.4. ‘Lake’ Vostok
9.5. Inland of Dry Valleys
9.6. Disaster at Dome C!
9.7. The Season Concludes
10. Data, Research, and Politics
10.1. Ice Streams of Marie Byrd Land
10.2. The Ross Ice Shelf Revisited
10.3. Some Geological Investigations
10.4. Politics Intervene
10.5. Research Accelerates
10.6. Automated Data Reduction
10.7. Royal Society Discusses Antarctic Science
11. Changing Planes
11.1. The NSF Sets Out Its Plans
11.2. IAGP, September 1976
11.3. Antarctica 1977–78—A Change of Planes
11.4. Christchurch, New Zealand—The Programme Hangs in the Balance
11.5. Antarctica at Last!
11.6. An ‘Operational Day’
11.7. 1977–78 Operations
11.8. Dry Valleys
11.9. Retrospective
12. The Final Season, 1978–79
12.1. Magnetic Moves
12.2. Dynamics of Large Ice Masses
12.3. The Final Season Advances
12.4. Taylor Glacier Project
13. The Axe Falls
13.1. A Telegram
Arrives
13.1.1. Data, Access, and Political Myopia
13.2. NSF Magnetics Meeting
13.3. New Initiatives, New Opportunities
13.3.1. Satellite Studies of Polar Ice
13.3.2. Svalbard
13.3.3. Short-Pulse
Radar
13.4. North American Engagements
14. The Antarctic Folio
14.1. Developing the Portfolio
14.2. Funding
14.3. Folio Gains Momentum
14.4. Scales and Map Projections
14.5. Coastline and Other Details
14.6. Place Names
14.7. Enter the Cartographers
14.8. The Maps Unfold
14.8.1. Ice Sheet Surface
14.8.2. Flowlines
14.8.3. Compiling Statistics, Writing Papers
14.8.4. Third International Symposium on Antarctic Glaciology
14.8.5. Bedrock Surface
14.8.6. Ice Thickness
14.8.7. Isostatic Bedrock
14.8.8. Magnetics Sheets
14.8.9. Internal Layering
15. The Last Push
15.1. The Folio Completed
15.2. The Folio Reviewed
16. The Aftermath
16.1. Svalbard
16.2. Satellite Altimeter Group
17. Reflections
17.1. Some New Brooms
17.2. The Surface Configuration of the Ice Sheet
17.3. The Subglacial Bedrock Landscape
17.4. Water beneath the Ice
17.5. Epilogue
Appendix 1: Display and Recording of RES Data
Appendix 2: SPRI Research Students in the Radio-Echo Sounding Programme
Abbreviations
Glossary
Index
