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Early Discoverers IX: Dr. E. A. Wilson’s Record of a Pit Section Dug in the Ross Ice Shelf in 1903

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 January 2017

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Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Glaciology , Volume 3 , Issue 23 , 1958 , pp. 176
Copyright
Copyright © International Glaciological Society 1958

Dr. C. W. M. Swithinbank writes as follows:—

Among the records preserved at the Scott Polar Research Institute is a description by Dr. E. A. Wilson of a pit dug in the surface of the Ross Ice Shelf on November 21, 1903 (Fig. 1). His observations are of interest in that they may represent the earliest attempt to studysnow structure in Antarctica. “Fair Weather Bay” is on the south side of Ross Island in long. 168° E. Captain R. F. Scott describes it as a “curious windless area” (The Voyage of the “Discovery”, Vol. 2, p. 304). The “hard crust” at 1 ft.

in. and the “crust” at 3 ft.
in. may be due to midsummer air temperatures near 0° C. If so the pit indicates that the year 1902 gave 24 inches (61 cm.) of snow.