Penguin secret
Media
Part of Panorama
- Title
- Penguin secret
- Identifier
- Ahoy!
- Language
- English
- Source
- Panorama Volume XII (No. 2) February 1960
- Year
- 1960
- Rights
-
- Fulltext
- Ahoy! Penguin Secret O OViet explorer told Unit in ed States scientists of a new Russian doctrine for aircraft in the Antarctic: fly high over brooding penguins. Dr. Mikhail M. Somov, who led the first of the current series of Soviet expeditions to Antarc tica, described a disaster in the penguin world that occurred re cently near the Soviet base at Mirny. Emperor penguins, he ex plained, lav their eggs on ice and then brood them, embedded in folds of flesh in the abdomen. He observed that they had no fear of anything approacning on the sur face-even the most fearsome trac tor. But this nonchalance did not *pply to something in the air. The Russians found a rookery whose population Dr. Somov esti mated at about 20,000 of the great, eighty-pound birds, all brooding. To make an accurate count, the Russians sought to obtain an aer ial photo, but when the plane came over, “thousands of the birds panicked,” Dr. Somov said. As a result, the ice was cov ered with scrambled eggs and fur ther attempts at aerial photogra phy were abandoned. The empe ror penguin lays only one egg a year, and mortality among the re sultant chicks is heavy in the harsh polar climate. Hence the species holds precarious grip on existence. D Somov spoke to those who are to man the various Am erican scientific stations in Antarc tica during the coming year. They have been assembled in Washing ton for outfitting and for final briefings by scientists and polar specialists. February 1960 91 He outlined a more conservative program for the projected Soviet transcontinental crossings than had been indicated in Soviet press reports. The initial crossing is not to begin until a year from now. This would enable the Russians to establish Station Lazarev on the Queen Maud Land coast—the destination of the crossing—and scout out a tractor route to that point through the costal moun tains. Subsequently a second crossing would be made to the planned Bellinghausen Station on Thurs ton Peninsula. This would also await the green light from those at the station who would first have to insure that the base could be reached from the inland plateau. Bellinghausen and Lazarev Sta tions are both to be established this year. Perhaps the most important geo graphical revelation bv. Dr. Somov was the discovery that the area that has been described as the Pole of Inaccessibility is heavily crevassed. The area is near the crest of a dome-shaped plateau of ice that blankets the Antarctic hin terland. J t had been found to be utterlv featureless by both Soviet and American aerial explorers, rising tc almost 14,000 feet at its highest point about 9,000 miles from the sea. No peak is known to break the surface anywhere in this vast region, but multiple cleavage of the ice near its summit suggess that a great mountain range lies buried there. Dr. Somov said aerial survey had indicated that the actual sum mit of the ice was midway bet ween this area and the presen location of Station Sovietskayt the most remote of the outposts Hence it is proposed? in the com ing weeks, to shift Sovietskaya about 220 miles to that summi', rather than the 440 miles to rhe Pole of Inaccessibility as orig 1ly planned. This u'ould somewhat re e the transcontinental tractor ro which is due to run from Sta n Vostok, to the South Pole, to new site of Sovietskaya, and t. a to Queen Maud Land. Dr. Sor ■ ;v emphasized that feasibility of he traverse was still "uncertain” r id might not be completed for th vears. ¥ ¥ ¥ Get wise, girls, the best way to get around a man is to hug him. 92 Panorama
- pages
- 91+