Ross Ice Shelf

It is an unfortunate fact that relatively obscure men like myself and my associates, connected only with a small university, have little chance of making an impression where matters of a wildly bizarre or highly controversial nature are concerned.

it is further against us that we are not in the strictest sense specialists in the fields which came primarily to be concerned as a geologist my object in leading the miscatonic university expedition was wholly that of securing deep level specimens of rock and soil from various parts of the antarctic continent aided by the remarkable drill devised by professor frank h pobody of our engineering department i had no wish to be a pioneer in any other field than this but i did hope that the use of this new mechanical appliance at different points along previously explored paths would bring to light materials of a sort hitherto unreached by the ordinary methods of collection peabody's drilling apparatus as the public already knows from our reports was unique and radical in its lightness portability and capacity to combine the ordinary artesian drill principle with the principle of the small circular rock drill in such a way as to cope quickly with strata of varying hardness steel head jointed rods gasoline motor collapsible wooden derrick dynamiting paraphernalia cording rubbish removal auger and sectional piping for bores five inches wide and up to one thousand feet deep all formed with needed accessories no greater load than three seven dogs sledges could carry this being made possible by the clever aluminum alloy of which most of the metal objects were fashioned Four large Dornier aeroplanes, designed especially for the tremendous altitude flying necessary on the Antarctic plateau, and with added fuel-warming and quick-starting devices worked out by Pobody, could transport our entire expedition from a base at the edge of the Great Ice Barrier to various suitable inland points, and from these points a sufficient quota of dogs would serve us.

we planned to cover as great an area as one antarctic season or longer if absolutely necessary would permit operating mostly in the mountain ranges and on the plateau south of ross sea regions explored in varying degree by shackleton amundsen scott and bird with frequent changes of camp made by aeroplane and involving distances great enough to be of geological significance we expected to unearth a quite unprecedented amount of material especially in the pre cambrian strata of which so narrow a range of antarctic specimens had previously been secured we wished also to obtain as great as possible a variety of the upper fossiliferous rocks since the primal life history of this bleak realm of ice and death is of the highest importance to our knowledge of the earth's past that the Antarctic continent was once temperate and even tropical, with a teeming vegetable and animal life of which the lichens, marine fauna, arachnida, and penguins of the northern edge are the only survivals, is a matter of common information, and we hope to expand that information in variety, accuracy, and detail.

When a simple boring revealed fossiliferous signs, we would enlarge the aperture by blasting in order to get specimens of suitable size and condition.

Something about the scene reminded me of the strange and disturbing Asian paintings of Nicholas Rorick, and of the still stranger and more disturbing descriptions of the evilly fabled plateau of Ling, which occur in the dreaded Necronomicon, of the mad Arab Abdul Al-Harsered.

I was rather sorry later on that I had ever looked into that monstrous book at the college library.

on the seventh of november sight of the western range having been temporarily lost we passed franklin island and the next day descried the cones of mounts erebus and terror on ross island ahead and the long line of the parry mountains beyond there now stretched off to the east the low wide line of the great ice barrier rising perpendicularly to a height of two hundred feet like the rocky cliffs of quebec and marking the end of southward navigation in the afternoon we entered mcmurdo sound and stood off the coast in the lee of smoking mount erebus the scoriac peak towered up some twelve thousand seven hundred feet against the eastern sky like a japanese print of the sacred while beyond it rose the white ghost-like height of mount terror ten thousand nine hundred feet in altitude and now extinct as a volcano puffs of smoke from erebus came intermittently and one of the graduate assistants a brilliant young fellow named danforth pointed out what looked like lava on the snowy slope remarking that this mountain discovered in eighteen forty had undoubtedly been the source of poe's image when he wrote seven years later of the lavas that restlessly roll their sulphurous currents down yannick and the ultimate climes of the pole that groan as they roll down mount yannick in the realms of the boreal pole danforth was a great reader of bizarre material and had talked a good deal of poe i was interested myself because of the antarctic scene of poe's only long story the disturbing and enigmatical arthur gordon pym on the barren shore and on the lofty ice barrier in the background myriads of grotesque penguins squawked and flapped their fins while many fat seals were visible on the water swimming or sprawling across large cakes of slowly drifting ice Using small boats, we effected a difficult landing on Ross Island shortly after midnight on the morning of the 9th, carrying a line of cable from each of the ships and preparing to unload supplies by means of a breeches buoy arrangement.

Our sensations on first treading Antarctic soil were poignant and complex, even though at this particular point the Scott and Shackleton expeditions had preceded us.

So the fact that they did manage to do such amazing kind of discovery is really important.

They discovered the Ross Ice Shelf, which I'm sure we have heard of.

And they also named two mountains.

They named one Mount Erebus and named one Mount Terror.

i had no wish to be a pioneer in any other field than this but i did hope that the use of this new mechanical appliance at different points along previously explored paths would bring to light materials of a sort hitherto unreached by the ordinary methods of collection bobodi's drilling apparatus as the public already knows from our reports was unique and radical in its lightness portability and capacity to combine the ordinary artesian drill principle with the principle of the small circular rock drill in such a way as to cope quickly with strata of varying hardness Steel head, jointed rods, gasoline motor, collapsible wooden derrick, dynamiting paraphernalia, cording, rubbish removal auger, and sectional piping for bores five inches wide and up to one thousand feet deep, all formed with needed accessories no greater load than three seven-dog sledges could carry, this being made possible by the clever aluminum alloy of which most of the metal objects were fashioned.

Four large Dornier aeroplanes, designed especially for the tremendous altitude flying necessary on the Antarctic plateau, and with added fuel-warming and quick-starting devices worked out by Pobody, could transport our entire expedition from a base at the edge of the Great Ice Barrier to various suitable inland points, and from these points a sufficient quota of dogs would serve us.

we planned to cover as great an area as one antarctic season or longer if absolutely necessary would permit operating mostly in the mountain ranges and on the plateau south of ross sea regions explored in varying degree by shackleton amundsen scott and bird with frequent changes of camp made by aeroplane and involving distances great enough to be of geological significance we expected to unearth a quite unprecedented amount of material especially in the pre cambrian strata of which so narrow a range of antarctic specimens had previously been secured We wished also to obtain as great as possible a variety of the upper fossiliferous rocks, since the primal life history of this bleak realm of ice and death is of the highest importance to our knowledge of the earth's past.

that the Antarctic continent was once temperate and even tropical, with a teeming vegetable and animal life of which the lichens, marine fauna, arachnida, and penguins of the northern edge are the only survivals, is a matter of common information, and we hope to expand that information in variety, accuracy, and detail.

Something about the scene reminded me of the strange and disturbing Asian paintings of Nicholas Rorick, and of the still stranger and more disturbing descriptions of the evilly fabled plateau of Ling, which occur in the dreaded Necronomicon, of the mad Arab Abdul al-Hursred.

I was rather sorry later on that I had ever looked into that monstrous book at the college library.

on the seventh of november sight of the western range having been temporarily lost we passed franklin island and the next day descried the cones of mounts erebus and terror on ross island ahead and the long line of the parry mountains beyond there now stretched off to the east the low wide line of the great ice barrier rising perpendicularly to a height of two hundred feet like the rocky cliffs of quebec and marking the end of southward navigation in the afternoon we entered mcmurdo sound and stood off the coast in the lee of smoking mount the scoriac peak towered up some twelve thousand seven hundred feet against the eastern sky like a japanese print of the sacred fujiyama while beyond it rose the white ghost-like height of mount terror ten thousand nine hundred feet in altitude and now extinct as a volcano puffs of smoke from erebus came intermittently and one of the graduate assistants a brilliant young fellow named danforth pointed out what looked like lava on the snowy slope remarking that this mountain discovered in eighteen forty had undoubtedly been the source of poe's image when he wrote seven years later of the lavas that restlessly roll their sulphurous currents down yannick and the ultimate climes of the pole that groan as they roll down mount yannick in the realms of the boreal pole danforth was a great reader of bizarre material and had talked a good deal of poe i was interested myself because of the antarctic scene of poe's only long story the disturbing and enigmatical arthur gordon On the barren shore and on the lofty ice barrier in the background, myriads of grotesque penguins squawked and flapped their fins, while many fat seals were visible on the water, swimming or sprawling across large cakes of slowly drifting ice.

Using small boats, we effected a difficult landing on Ross Island shortly after midnight on the morning of the 9th, carrying a line of cable from each of the ships and preparing to unload supplies by means of a breeches buoy arrangement.

As a geologist, my object in leading the Miskatonic University expedition was wholly that of securing deep-level specimens of rock and soil from various parts of the Antarctic continent, aided by the remarkable drill devised by Professor Frank H. Pabody of our engineering department.

i had no wish to be a pioneer in any other field than this but i did hope that the use of this new mechanical appliance at different points along previously explored paths would bring to light materials of a sort hitherto unreached by the ordinary methods of collection bobodi's drilling apparatus as the public already knows from our reports was unique and radical in its lightness portability and capacity to combine the ordinary artesian drill principle with the principle of the small circular rock drill in such a way as to cope quickly with strata of varying hardness steel head jointed rods gasoline motor collapsible wooden derrick dynamiting paraphernalia cording rubbish removal auger and sectional piping for bores five inches wide and up to one thousand feet deep all formed with needed accessories no greater load than three seven dogs sledges could carry this being made possible by the clever aluminum alloy of which most of the metal objects were fashioned Four large Dornier aeroplanes, designed especially for the tremendous altitude flying necessary on the Antarctic plateau, and with added fuel-warming and quick-starting devices worked out by Pobody, could transport our entire expedition from a base at the edge of the Great Ice Barrier to various suitable inland points, and from these points a sufficient quota of dogs would serve us.

we planned to cover as great an area as one antarctic season or longer if absolutely necessary would permit operating mostly in the mountain ranges and on the plateau south of ross sea regions explored in varying degree by shackleton amundsen scott and bird with frequent changes of camp made by aeroplane and involving distances great enough to be of geological significance we expected to unearth a quite unprecedented amount of material especially in the pre cambrian strata of which so narrow a range of antarctic specimens had previously been secured We wished also to obtain as great as possible a variety of the upper fossiliferous rocks, since the primal life history of this bleak realm of ice and death is of the highest importance to our knowledge of the earth's past.

that the Antarctic continent was once temperate and even tropical, with a teeming vegetable and animal life of which the lichens, marine fauna, arachnida, and penguins of the northern edge are the only survivals, is a matter of common information, and we hope to expand that information in variety, accuracy, and detail.

Pushing through the ice, which was fortunately neither extensive nor thickly packed, we regained open water at south latitude 67 degrees, east longitude 175 degrees.

On the morning of October 26th, a strong land blink appeared on the south, and before noon we all felt a thrill of excitement at beholding a vast, lofty, and snow-clad mountain chain, which opened out and covered the whole vista ahead.

At last we had encountered an outpost of the great unknown continent, and its cryptic world of frozen death these peaks were obviously the admiralty range discovered by ross and it would now be our task to round cape adare and sail down the east coast of victoria land to our contemplated base on the shore of mcmurdo sound at the foot of the volcano erebus in south latitude seventy seven degrees nine minutes the last lap of the voyage was vivid and fancy stirring great barren peaks of mystery looming up constantly against the west as the low northern sun of noon or the still lower horizon grazing southern sun of midnight poured its hazy reddish rays over the white snow bluish ice and water lanes and black bits of exposed granite slope through the desolate summits swept raging intermittent gusts of the terrible antarctic wind whose cadences sometimes held vague suggestions of a wild and half-sentient musical piping with notes extending over a wide range and which for some subconscious mnemonic reason seemed to me disquieting and even dimly terrible something about the scene reminded me of the strange and disturbing asian paintings of nicholas and of the still stranger and more disturbing descriptions of the evilly fabled plateau of ling which occur in the dreaded necronomicon of the mad arab abdul al hirsred i was rather sorry later on that i had ever looked into that monstrous book at the college library on the seventh of november sight of the western range having been temporarily lost we passed franklin island and the next day descried the cones of mounts erebus and terror on ross island ahead and the long line of the parry mountains beyond there now stretched off to the east the low wide line of the great ice barrier rising perpendicularly to a height of two hundred feet like the rocky cliffs of quebec and marking the end of southward navigation In the afternoon we entered McMurdo Sound and stood off the coast in the lee of smoking Mount Erebus.

The scoriac peak towered up some 12,700 feet against the eastern sky like a Japanese print of the sacred Fujiyama, while beyond it rose the white, ghost-like height of Mount Terror, 10,900 feet in altitude, and now extinct as a volcano.

So Antarctica, in the year 2000, my team and I were planning to go to Antarctica to follow in the footsteps of Sir Ernest Shackleton and his early explorations.

And the night before our pitch to National Geographic, the largest iceberg in recorded history calved off of the Antarctic ice shelf, the Ross Ice Shelf.

Right.

Hold it right there.

under the water, and it's completely beyond my understanding to go up and dive in caves under the water in the Antarctic.

Well, yeah, it was an interesting project, probably the most interesting and perhaps the most dangerous of my life.

the largest iceberg in recorded history calved away from the Ross Ice Shelf and started floating into the Ross Sea.

And it was the size of Jamaica.

I bet, I bet you guys have all heard this before.

It is the Ross Ice Shelf.

Oh, man.

Oh.

[laughs]

And Pottery Barn.

Um, I always think about the fact that that shelf at the time was on a break, and that's how I remember it's the Ross Ice Shelf.

[laughs]

So they can be absolutely colossal.

The Ross Ice Shelf and the Ronne-Filchner Ice Shelf are, are thousands and thousands of, uh, square miles.

They're colossal.

Um, and they're floating.