India to send 8-member team to South Pole
NEW DELHI: A 100 years after Roald Amundsen led the first successful expedition to the South Pole, India will commemorate the event by despatching an eight-member team of scientists capable of multi-tasking as skilled navigators on a 2,000 km journey over Antarctica's ice cap.
The challenging effort, even with the aid of navigational equipment and modern ice-traversing vehicles, is part of India's bid to enhance its presence on the South Pole and conduct experiments, gather data and samples from the frozen continent's atmosphere and crust up to a depth of 100 metres.
Specially equipped, SUV-type vehicles will be used by the expedition which are a far cry from the dog-drawn sleds used by Amundsen or even the ice tractors in vogue in the mid 1950s when Arctic stations began to be maintained round the year. Yet, travelling across a treacherous landscape in unpredictable weather requires a high level of physical and mental toughness.
Earth sciences secretary Dr Shailesh Nayak told TOI that the team will be chosen keeping in mind the missions devised which includes extracting under surface ice cores. "The ice is pristine. Samples can give us an insight into CO2 levels some 1,500 years ago by boring some 100 metres down. This is because snowfall in Antarctica's interiors is not heavy," he said.
This means that relatively less layers of ice trap evidence of centuries gone by providing valuable pointers to how the Earth's atmosphere and environment has changed. Even now conditions in the Antarctic are far less modified than is the case in the populated world or even at the North Pole which appears to have been affected by climate change and pollution.
Experiments involving geomorphology, or the study of landforms and geophysics which includes movements of tectonic plates are being planned. They are expected to add to the knowledge of how the ancient landmass, once fused with other continents in a super-continent before being separated 200 million years ago, has evolved.
Some of these answers are particularly relevant to the Indian sub-continent as it was attached to the eastern part of Antarctica and that is where India's second permanent research station is coming up. As has been previously reported, the station -- so far named Bharti -- will be in the Larsemann Hills area of east Antarctica and is close to the ocean waters. Apart from climate change, the station will have major tasks in oceanographic research.
Much of the construction material was transported last summer to the site and work is due to begin once the current winter conditions in Antarctica ease. The station is expected to be functional by 2012. As part of its studies, it will undertake experiments on how life forms like lichens and algae adopt and survive, knowledge of which is of value in developing new drugs.
The existing station, Maitri, is further inland than the proposed Bharti. Accessing Bharti will be easier from the sea. The government, also involved in an expansion of its presence in the Arctic, is busy trying to ensure its requirement for high skilled and qualified personnel is met.
The challenging effort, even with the aid of navigational equipment and modern ice-traversing vehicles, is part of India's bid to enhance its presence on the South Pole and conduct experiments, gather data and samples from the frozen continent's atmosphere and crust up to a depth of 100 metres.
Specially equipped, SUV-type vehicles will be used by the expedition which are a far cry from the dog-drawn sleds used by Amundsen or even the ice tractors in vogue in the mid 1950s when Arctic stations began to be maintained round the year. Yet, travelling across a treacherous landscape in unpredictable weather requires a high level of physical and mental toughness.
Earth sciences secretary Dr Shailesh Nayak told TOI that the team will be chosen keeping in mind the missions devised which includes extracting under surface ice cores. "The ice is pristine. Samples can give us an insight into CO2 levels some 1,500 years ago by boring some 100 metres down. This is because snowfall in Antarctica's interiors is not heavy," he said.
This means that relatively less layers of ice trap evidence of centuries gone by providing valuable pointers to how the Earth's atmosphere and environment has changed. Even now conditions in the Antarctic are far less modified than is the case in the populated world or even at the North Pole which appears to have been affected by climate change and pollution.
Experiments involving geomorphology, or the study of landforms and geophysics which includes movements of tectonic plates are being planned. They are expected to add to the knowledge of how the ancient landmass, once fused with other continents in a super-continent before being separated 200 million years ago, has evolved.
Some of these answers are particularly relevant to the Indian sub-continent as it was attached to the eastern part of Antarctica and that is where India's second permanent research station is coming up. As has been previously reported, the station -- so far named Bharti -- will be in the Larsemann Hills area of east Antarctica and is close to the ocean waters. Apart from climate change, the station will have major tasks in oceanographic research.
Much of the construction material was transported last summer to the site and work is due to begin once the current winter conditions in Antarctica ease. The station is expected to be functional by 2012. As part of its studies, it will undertake experiments on how life forms like lichens and algae adopt and survive, knowledge of which is of value in developing new drugs.
The existing station, Maitri, is further inland than the proposed Bharti. Accessing Bharti will be easier from the sea. The government, also involved in an expansion of its presence in the Arctic, is busy trying to ensure its requirement for high skilled and qualified personnel is met.
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