U.S. Denies Spectacular Ruins in Antarctica Captured on Video

AMP LA 03-18-02 0925GMT ^ | Monday, March 18, 2002 - Web posted at 5:25 a.m. EDT (0925 GMT) | WASHINGTON, D.C. (AMP)

[vannrox]

U.S. Denies “Spectacular Ruins”
in Antarctica Captured on Video

WASHINGTON, D.C. (AMP) – The U.S. government said it will seek to block the airing of a video found by Navy rescuers in Antarctica that purportedly reveals that a massive archeological dig is underway two miles beneath the ice. The @lantisTV production crew that shot the video is still missing.

Attorneys for Beverly Hills-based @lantisTV stressed that the company’s primary concern is for the safety and welfare of its crew. But they stated they will “vigorously oppose” any attempts to “censor material that is clearly in the public interest and public domain.” The ice continent of Antarctica, they point out, belongs to no nation. The U.S. has no jurisdiction there.

“That video is the property of @lantisTV,” said a company spokeswoman. “We shot it. It’s ours. And as soon as it’s rightfully returned to us, we’re going to air it. End of story.”


Two Navy officers who saw the tape described its contents to civilian National Science Foundation (NSF) researchers upon their return to Amundson-Scott Station at the South Pole, according to sources at McMurdo Station, the main American base in Antarctica. “They said it showed spectacular ruins and other things they couldn’t go into,” an NSF scientist reported. “We chalked it up to some sort of subzero-induced delusion until a chopper full Navy SEALS landed and picked them up and took off. Now we’re scratching our heads”


Officials of the U.S. Naval Support Task Force, Antarctica, deny the story or possession of any video shot by the missing @lantisTV crew.


News of the video, which Navy rescuers said they found in an abandoned supply dump one hundred miles west of Vostok Station, comes on the heels of U.S. attempts to strike passages from RAISING ATLANTIS, the upcoming novel by Thomas Greanias that is the basis for @lantisTV's popular online Atlantis Mapping Project channel.


Federal officials agreed to allow an uncensored version of RAISING ATLANTIS to go on sale in April at Amazon.com as an e-book. But they won court approval to “block certain portions that might compromise national security” from the hardcover edition due in bookstores by year’s end.

“The government feels fairly confident that few people are going to read a 400-page novel on their computers,” said a U.S. attorney familiar with the negotiations. “And @lantisTV has agreed to remove the uncensored e-book when the hardcover comes out.”


The problem for the feds, he said, is going to come when people buy the e-book and keep it to compare it with the hardcover. “At that point the disputed passages might as well be lit up in neon.”

The novel focuses on a secret U.S. military expedition that discovers ancient ruins two miles beneath the ice in Antarctica. Recent events in Antarctica have raised questions about whether the story is fiction or a novelization of actual events. But sources say the current federal review is focusing on the novel’s depiction of “Federal Emergency Plan D,” which officially doesn’t exist, although parts of the plan have become public in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on America.

Specifically, Stage One of “Plan D” went into effect on Sept. 11 and calls for the activation of a “shadow government” to operate in secret bunkers outside the nation’s capital to ensure the survival of the United States of America and the continuity of its government in the event of a natural global catastrophe or nuclear Armageddon.


It’s the specifics of Stage Two and Three, detailed in RAISING ATLANTIS, that concern federal officials. “Hell, I didn’t even know about Stage One and the shadow government until 9-11, let alone Stage Two or Stage Three,” said one CIA source on condition of anonymity.


Last week President Bush, in a veiled reference to Stage One of “Plan D,” said his administration has "all options on the table" as the Pentagon reworks its nuclear weapons policy to deter any attack on America — including from non-nuclear states such as Iraq and Iran.


The U.S. nuclear arsenal is "a way to say to people who would harm America: 'Don't do it,'" Bush said. "We've got all options on the table because we want to make it very clear to nations that you will not threaten the United States or use weapons of mass destruction against us or our allies or friends."


AMP LA 03-18-02 0925GMT

[Skooz]

Well then, I expect to be seeing it on a Saturday morning at 9:00 central any time now......

[Jonah Hex]

Yep, sounds like something Dr. Clayton Forrester would come up with .....

[johndpringle]

H.P. Lovecraft warned us about this menace in "At the Mountains of Madness". They were lucky to get out with their lives! The Old Ones are waiting, waiting, waiting and Cthulhu . . . .

[Junior]

Gotta remember, though, that to the delusional mind the importance of the secret is directly proportional to the force used to cover it up. Hell, it might have been Pinkerton rent-a-cops that did the deed, but the paranoid mind transformed a bunch of overweight security guards with ill-fitting uniforms into helicopter-borne Navy SEALS because such a secret REQUIRES such a show of force.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

"...it's all a movie promotion."

Oops. Sucked in again.

[vannrox]

Geomagnetic Reversals and Polar relocations are not science fiction. They are accepted fact.

When there is a magnetic relocation, the magnetic pole thus changes. Our poles have been moving around all over the place. The last such displacement was 9500 BC.


Prior to the pole change in 9500 BC, the pole was in the Hudson Bay at 60 degrees north and 83 degrees west.


Prior to that, by a solid 43,000 years, the north pole was located in the Greenland Sea. It was at 73 degrees North, and 10 degrees East.


The above is well known. Check out any Geology textbook. Or, if you wish, use google and check out "Geomagnetic reversals."


What is not so well known or accepted is the belief that climate interacts with the strengh and location of the magnetic flux. I find this hard to believe, but Uniformalist Thinking is really a holdover from the days of Gradual Darwinism. How anyone can say that the "Northern Lights" are imaginary, or that historical variations in the climate is not tied to geomagnetic changes really have their head in the sand. The evidence is anything but that!


Befor the geomagnetic reversal to the Greenland sea, the pole was located in the Yukon at 63 degrees north and 135 degrees west.


The sudden appearance of civilization that is accepted by historians is only based upon their failure to take the translated writings that they have unearthed literally. How many "myths" of the Bible have turned out to be true? How many discoveries in the deserts and the oceans only validate what was once considered to be fictional accounts?


Historians like to believe that anything not directly verifiable as fiction. IF we believe this then we might as well believe that the entire ancient libraries and stone works were nothing more than "Romance Novels". Pure fiction for a superstious people.


Lets face it, they had technology that in many ways was quite advanced and they utlizied their forms of writing to record technical treatses on the world around them. Anyone who havn't understood this hasn't read the lost book of ENKI, the EPIC of Gilgamesh, the VIMAANIKA, the RAMAYANA, and the MAHABHARATA.


We know that biologically speaking our race as humans are 200,000 years old. If we make the assumption that from day one our ansestors recorded their history orally, then we can state that our human ansestors whitnessed over three geomagnetic reversals.


But, you may argue... they never said this. Oh no? The Egyption priests believed so, as did the Indians, and the Sumerians. How could they even know about this in the first place if they were just savages?


As far as the lower antarctica being in a temperate zone in 9500 BC that is easy to show. Consult any flora and fauna expert current with the historical variations in climate as a function of pollen count in rocks.

[vannrox]

Warm-nosed Robot Breaks the Ice

By Astrobiology News staff writer

The Cryobot method of "drilling" is more effective than conventional augering because it uses less power than mechanical cutting. Melting the ice and moving through the resulting liquid makes it easier for the probe to make its journey
Credit: NASA JPL

An adventurous science team recently returned from the deep Norwegian glacial fields, having tested an instrument which may one day be used to explore areas beneath the frozen surfaces of other worlds. As demonstrated by the Jet Propulsion Lab and Caltech, their robotic ice-pick, dubbed Cryobot, sports a heated nose-cone especially designed to melt frozen ground and drill cryogenically. Their most recent depths broke through the equivalent of an ice sheet the size of an eight-story building, or 23 meters (75 feet) into a glacier.

Glacier cutting combines an extreme operating environment with new technology to navigate and image the ice sheet below. The team hopes a frontier lies beneath the exploration of what previously relied on orbital or surface observation, but now can include sub-surface drilling probes. "If you want to learn about the climate history of Mars, which is important in the search for life, you want to examine the layers of the polar caps, and this is how you can do it," said Scott Anderson, a geophysicist on the Cryobot field-test team.

The Cryobot itself is a hip-high, cylindrical probe about 1 meter (3.3 feet) long and 12 centimeters (5 inches) in diameter. Minimizing power and size in their design, the Cryobot team has shaped a nearly self-propelled drill. Heated water at the downward end melts ice below, and gravity provides the pull to great depths. From the back of the robot, a tether or wired umbilical to the surface keeps its electronic links alive. Even if the drilling hole begins to refreeze on top of the Cryobot, the robotic probe can remain in contact with the surface and continue to send valuable exploration data to the researchers. This design minimizes possible contamination during the exploration of pristine environments.

In addition to exploring ancient glaciers and their buried underground lakes on Earth for signs of ancient life, the success of these early Cryobot tests also extends the possible range of mission options for exploring Mars and Europa. Notes Wayne Zimmerman, lead engineer for the task, "there's never been a probe before that does what this one can."

Race for the Pole

JPL Cryobot Research Team in the Field. Team members from JPL included (from left) Robert Ivlev, Daniel Helmick, Wayne Zimmerman and Lloyd French.
Credit: NASA JPL

Testing the feasibility of such a warm-nosed drill required travel to a glacier on the island of Spitsbergen, far north of the Arctic Circle in the Norwegian-administered international territory of Svalbad. Although not as challenging as remote robotics on another planet or moons, the researchers still faced challenges working in the polar north. "The north pole is home to the polar bear. We were careful to test at a site to not disturb their environment and the Norwegian Polar Institute provided safety from polar bears," said Dr. Lloyd French, Cryobot task manager and team leader for the Jet Propulsion Cryobot researchers. "We did not see any polar bears during our stay. We did experience ‘ice quakes’ or occasional fracturing of the glacier and heavy snowfall. We had to dig to get into our tents, and dig to get out of our tents."

To help with the tests, the team relied on help from the Norwegian Polar Institute and Norwegian Space Center to verify that the ice-penetrating robot could drill 8-stories below the glacier. "In the past, the United States and Norway participated in a global race for the North Pole on Earth," said French. "Now, with the help of the Norwegian Polar Institute and Norwegian Space Center, we're cooperating on a possible way to explore another North Pole, on Mars."

Breaking the Ice: From Europe to Europa

Lake Vostok is believed to contain water millions of years old, which may be the home of ancient organisms. This hidden body of freshwater is the size of Lake Ontario and is the largest of 70 bodies of water first detected under the polar ice-sheet in the 1970s. The plan is to send a Cryobot down through the ice 2.5 miles (4 kilometers) to visit this body of water.
Credit: LDEO Columbia University

"Initially, Europa exploration was a main driver to Cryobot specifications, "says French. Europa, one of Jupiter’s moons, is believed to have a saltwater ocean beneath its icy surface. "Salty environments, like Earth's oceans, have corrosion issues. Oceanography instruments have given us design insights. Radiation is also a factor at the surface of Europa. The effect of radiation is reduced at depth because the ice would shield the hardware from radiation." As if coping with corrosive salt from Europa’s possible ocean and high radiation from Jupiter wasn't challenging enough, the estimated temperature on Europa is likely -190 C, or nearly -400 F.

Deploying the Cryobot may provide just the technology needed as a new way to break up the ice. But if the team deploys such cryobots in other extreme environments both on Earth or elsewhere, even deeper drilling will be required. To drill to the ancient Antarctic fresh-water deposits like Lake Vostok, the fourth largest Lake on Earth, then depths of more than 2.5 miles (4 km) will have to be reached. The salty frozen surface of Europa is estimated to range up to 10 miles in depth.

But in laboratory tests so far, "the depth limitations for the Cryobot have been more dependent on time," says Dr. French. "It took approximately 4 days to melt to a depth of 23m or ~75ft during our engineering test in Svalbard, Norway. This depth is 5 times farther that our lab tests of 5m or ~15ft. The limitations of (the lab) depth is that we can only build a tower of ice 5m tall. So we needed to go out to the field for deeper depths."

Previous probes operating to great glacial depths suffered from a host of engineering shortcomings: high power needs, poor navigation, lack of excavation when holes began to fill in behind, or large probe sizes combined with little room for science payloads. "As applications to Earth and Mars developed, the common environmental elements drove specifications in temperature and pressure," says French. "The specifications for power and communications are dependent upon the three different environments"--terrestrial, Martian and Europan.

In terms of sending a Cryobot-type probe to an extraterrestrial environment, "Size is a big issue," says Dr. French. "This issue drives mission capability and science return. This development is for surface planetary applications, so this instrument platform will need to have a small landed mass. The various instruments need to be small enough to package tightly inside the instrument bay. Increasing the diameter for instruments could result in a 40% jump in heater power."

What's Next

Concept artwork shows the Active Thermal Probe (Mars Cryobot) melting downg through the northern ice cap on Mars.
Credit: NASA JPL

Since taking the Cryobot 8 stories below the Norwegian glacier, next steps likely are to continue to press the envelope of extreme engineering tests. According to French, their tests have already "established a bold foothold for opening up new, below-the-surface environments for scientific study." Further instrumenting of the robot will prepare it for deployment and remote operations to explore the Martian ice cap or the salty oceans on Europa.

Instrumenting a Cryobot with cameras and chemical sensors is a likely next step for the researchers. "Typically a camera system is ideal to image layering and deposits," says French, "and a chemistry sensor for pH and salts."

"We desire to look into augmenting the Cryobot with a subsurface sample return capability," concludes French. "One promising method is to use the tether system as a conduit for conveying samples to the surface."

---

Related Web Pages

Cryobot (JPL)

Caltech Glacialogy

Herman Engelhardt's Glaciology resource page

 

[vannrox]

Hermann Engelhardt
Dr.rer.nat., Technische Universität München;
Senior Research Associate in Geophysics.
Ice physics, glaciology, glacial dynamics, Antarctic ice
sheet stability and global climate.

---

Glacier Mechanics

The participation of the Antarctic Ice Sheet in global change may take the form of a rapid collapse, which would have a drastic effect on world-wide sea level. This possibility is presented most clearly by the West Antarctic part of the ice sheet, which is traversed by a number of large ice streams, internal currents moving at speeds ca. 100 times faster than the normal ice- sheet motion. If these ice streams were to enlarge and speed up enough, they could carry a large enough ice flux outward to bring about ice-sheet collapse.


We are concentrating our research on an effort to find the mechanism of the rapid ice streaming flow and the physical variables that control it and couple it to global change. The mechanism generally favored at this time is lubrication of the ice-stream bed by a ~5 m thick layer of glacial till between the base of the ice and bedrock. By drilling through the ice (ca. 1000 m thick) and taking piston cores we have obtained samples of unmistakable till from a layer at least 3 m thick under the ice. The till is unfrozen and water saturated, with a high porosity (ca. 40%), which indicates that it is probably undergoing or has recently undergone substantial deformation. We have measured its shear strength, both in the recovered core material and in situ, under the ice, and find that it is extremely weak, with shear strength in the range 1.5-8 kPa.


This strength is much lower than the gravitationally-driven basal shear stress of 20 kPa, so the lubrication of basal motion by till deformation seems an inescapable conclusion. Our measurements show that the ice temperature reaches the pressure melting point at the base, and the basal water pressure is within 10 to 200 kPa of the ice overburden pressure, which are conditions that favor till deformation. The till-lubrication mechanism has been dubbed in some quarters "the new paradigm of glacier motion." It makes the motion of the ice streams mechanically more like that of huge landslides (50 km wide and 500 km long) than the flow of normal glaciers.

---

However, there are complications in this simple picture of a till-lubrication mechanism for ice stream movement. The weakness of the till should be controlled by the basal water pressure, but so far we have not detected any variations of ice stream motion in correlation with marked time- variations in basal water pressure that we do observe. The basal water pressure should be controlled by the water source (basal melting) and a basal water conduit system, but different borehole experiments give seemingly conflicting indications as to the nature of this conduit system. Although theories of the "new paradigm" like to model the till as a viscous fluid deforming uniformly throughout its thickness, the observed mechanical properties correspond to extremely nonlinear viscosity and there are observational indications that the till deformation is concentrated in a thin shear zone at the top, or that some of the motion actually occurs by basal sliding. A till-deformation mechanism with highly nonlinear till rheology can be shown theoretically to be mechanically unstable. Also, the observed weakness of the till makes it incapable of supporting the gravitationally driven, down-slope basal shear stress. These facts point to the necessity for operation of other flow mechanisms in ice stream motion.


The above complications are being addressed by currently ongoing research. In particular we have initiated an effort to find out if the ice stream motion can be controlled by ice deformation in the marginal shear zones instead of by basal shear of weak till: to do this we sample at depth in the marginal shear zone the ice whose deformation is involved, and test it mechanically at the observed marginal shear strain rate so as to measure the marginal shear stress (work of graduate student Miriam Jackson). We have developed and successfully used a new ice coring drill to obtain the needed samples. The marginal ice is found to have a strong preferred orientation of ice crystal c axes, which results from the rapid marginal shear deformation and probably enhances the ice fluidity.

---

Of particular interest to us is the possibility of a relationship between ice streaming and the mechanism of glacier surging, which we have studied in Alaska. Variegated Glacier, near Yakutat, surged in 1982-83, at speeds up to 65 m/day. We found that the surging condition was marked by abnormally high basal water pressure and abnormally low transport rate in the basal water system. On the basis of the observations a new hydromechanical model of the surge mechanism has been developed. Further insight was obtained in 1987 from Columbia Glacier, a large Alaskan tidewater glacier that is in a state of continuous surging at speeds up to 20 m/day. The basal water pressure was continuously high, but measured variations in the pressure did not have a simple relation to glacier motion, as they did in Variegated Glacier during the surge and in "mini-surge" events that occurred before and after the surge. However, Columbia Glacier showed a good correlation between flow velocity fluctuations and the storage of input water (rainwater, meltwater) in or under the glacier. From this evidence the control of rapid glacier motions in continuous and episodic surging is seen to be a matter comparably complicated to that in Antarctic ice streaming. It remains to be seen how closely related these two phenomena are.

---

SRI interferogram of a part of the Rutford Ice Stream, Antarctica.

---

To provide a new means of monitoring the flow velocities and grounding-line positions of ice streams, which are indicators of involvement of the Antarctic ice sheet in global change, we have undertaken a collaboration with Richard Goldstein of JPL in the application of his method of satellite radar interferometry (SRI) to the Rutford Ice Stream, Antarctica. The method uses phase comparison of the radar signal obtained for a pair of SAR images taken a few days apart to plot an interferogram which directly displays relative ground motions that have occurred in the time interval between images. The detection limit is about 1.5 mm for vertical motions and about 4 mm for horizontal motions in the radar beam direction.


Comparison of SRI velocities with earlier ground-truth data in the Rutford Ice Stream suggests a secular decrease in velocity of about 2% from 1978-80 to 1992. Ungrounded ice is revealed by large (~2 m) vertical motions due to tidal uplift, and the grounding line can be mapped at a resolution of ca. 0.5 km from the SRI interferogram. The mapped configuration implies grounding line retreat of 1 to several km since 1980. Application of the method to other ice streams and to glaciers is planned.


Selected Publications
Kamb, B., 1987. Glacier surge mechanism based on linked cavity configuration of the basal water conduit system, J. Geophys. Res., 92, 9083-9100.


Engelhardt, H., N. Humphrey, B. Kamb, and M. Fahnestock, 1990. Physical conditions at the base of a fast moving Antarctic ice stream, Science, 248, 57-59.


Kamb, B., 1990. Rheological nonlinearity and flow instability in the deforming-bed mechanism of ice-stream motion, J. Geophys. Res., 96, 16585-16595.


Humphrey, N., B. Kamb, M. Fahnestock, and H. Engelhardt, 1993. Characteristics of the bed of lower Columbia Glacier, Alaska, J. Geophys. Res., 98, 837-846.


Kamb, B., M. F. Meier, H. Engelhardt, M. A. Fahnestock, N. Humphrey, et al., 1993. Mechanical and hydrologic basis for the rapid motion of a large tidewater glacier. 2. Interpretation, J. Geophys. Res., 99, 15231-15229.


Goldstein, R. M., H. Engelhardt, B. Kamb, and R. M. Frolich, 1993. Satellite radar interferometry for monitoring ice-sheet motion: application to an Antarctic ice stream, Science, 262, 1525-1530.


Engelhardt, H., B. Kamb, 1993. Vertical temperature profile of Ice Stream B, Antarctic Journal of the US, 28, 63-66.

---

Send messages to engel@caltech.edu

[vannrox]

Plane fetches 11 Americans from Antarctic base

While a flight crew and a doctor were waiting for the weather to allow them to fly to the South Pole on Monday, a Royal New Zealand Air Forece C-130 flew the 2,500 miles from Christchurch to the U.S. McMurdo Station to bring out four ill Americans in a separate rescue operation..


The New Zealand C130 landed on an ice runway at McMurdo on the opposite side of the continent from Rothera, where the crew and doctor were waiting to fly to the Pole, picked up the four ill Americans plus seven others and returned safely to Christchurch early Tuesday.Early Tuesday.


The round trip too 15 hours, including an hour on the ground at McMurdo. The plane carried two flight crews plus medical personnel.


Two of the evacuees were suffering from "critical conditions," Antarctica New Zealand, a government research institution, said in a statement. They were transferred to a hospital in Christchurch, where their conditions were stable, the statement said. It gave no further details.


Officials involved in the McMurdo rescue said the mission got a lucky break, leaving an hour earlier than scheduled and avoiding deteriorating weather in Antarctica.


"It was very fortunate ... that we got in there on time, and out," mission commander John Cummings said.


The plane's engines were kept running throughout the stopover to prevent them freezing in the air, which was 22 degrees below zero Fahrenheit.


"The weather was a little bit iffy ... but we managed a quick change down on the ice," pilot Nathan McDonald. "It was a very successful day."


All 11 evacuated staffers are employees of Raytheon Polar Services, which provides support services to U.S. Antarctic bases.


John Sherve, New Zealand manager for U.S.-based Raytheon, described the mass evacuation as "unprecedented." He said the seven evacuees who weren't ill had "family emergencies."


There are 211 Americans left at the base following the evacuation, where they will winter until the next flights, scheduled in late August as Antarctica's spring begins. The evacuation flight carried fresh fruit and vegetables and personal mail to the ice-and-snow-bound base staff.

[vannrox]

Antarctic evacuation planned for Oct. 15

SCHENECTADY, N.Y. (AFPN) -- More than 30 members of the New York Air National Guard hoped for more favorable weather in Antarctica later this week so they could fly a woman physician out from the South Pole.


The woman discovered a lump in one of her breasts earlier this year, the National Science Foundation has reported.


"The physician, Dr. Jerri Nielsen, has been carrying out her normal responsibilities since the Air Force airdrop of medical supplies in July," Dr. Karl Erb, director of the NSF's Office of Polar Programs, stated Oct. 5. "Her stateside physicians are now recommending to us that she be returned to the United States at the earliest safe opportunity."


Flight crews from the Air National Guard's 109th Airlift Wing, based here, are prepared to do just that, because that wing flies the ski-equipped LC-130 cargo planes that carry people and cargo to the U.S. Antarctic Program's research base run by the science foundation.


Two of those planes have flown from Christchurch, New Zealand, to McMurdo Station on the Antarctic coast, the Associated Press reported Oct. 13. One of the planes will make the 874-mile flight to pick up the woman at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station and fly her to New Zealand when weather permits.


A flight planned for Oct. 14, 17 hours ahead of Eastern Daylight Time, was delayed for 24 hours because of cold temperatures, said Air Force Capt. Victor Hines, public affairs officer for Pacific Air Forces.


The mission has captured the attention of people around the world who have been aware of the American woman's situation on the world's coldest and most forbidding continent since last July.


"She, like the other 40 support staff personnel, are unable to leave the South Pole outpost until the austral winter ends and weather conditions permit an aircraft to land and take off," Dr. Rita Colwell, the National Science Foundation's director, explained July 13.


"The onset of summer in Antarctica, with its gradual increase in sunlight and temperature makes it feasible to evacuate Dr. Nielsen and to replace her with another physician," Erb stated.


An Air Force C-141 cargo plane airdropped six bundles of medical supplies and equipment at the station early on the morning of July 11, the NSF reported, so the doctor could begin to help herself until the Air National Guard could help to bring her home.


"We are working hard to execute this around-the-world mission, and also prepare for an arduous season in Antarctica," Col. Edward Fleming, the 109th's vice commander, reported earlier this week.


The two planes arrived in New Zealand Oct. 10 and then flew the 2,488 miles to McMurdo. The next phase of the operation involves picking up the doctor and leaving the other physician in her place when the Antarctic temperatures climb higher than 58 degrees below zero.


Aircraft do not operate well in extremely low temperatures, Hines told the Associated Press in New Zealand.


"The hydraulics tend to get very sluggish ... and hydraulics are critical to operate flaps, landing gear; all the things you need to land the aircraft."


Temperatures are reportedly rising at the South Pole, where the sunlight is now lasting for up to 20 hours each day.


Flying time for the 6,724-mile round-trip adventure will take at least 22 hours, estimated Maj. Bob Bullock, the 109th wing's public affairs officer.


"Safety is our paramount consideration for planning and executing this mission," said Bullock.


The New York Air National Guard wing, now commanded by Col. Graham Pritchard Jr., has been routinely flying cargo and personnel to Arctic and Antarctic military and scientific research installations since 1975.


The 109th began assisting the Navy's specialized flying unit with flights to Antarctic research bases in 1988 and took over that mission from the Navy in the fall of 1998.

[vannrox]

April 11, 2001
NSF PR 01-28

Media contact:
Peter West
(703) 292-8070/pwest@nsf.gov

NSF WEIGHS OPTIONS FOR TREATING SOUTH POLE PATIENT

The National Science Foundation (NSF) is considering a range of options for providing medical assistance to an ailing doctor at Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station, Antarctica.

Dr. Ronald S. Shemenski, 59, the station physician, recently passed a gall stone and suffered associated pancreatitis. Although he appears to be recovering and is undergoing a prophylactic course of antibiotic treatment, a relapse cannot be ruled out.

Through the use of telemedicine and ultrasound equipment at the Pole, a medical team in the United States was able to view images of the affected area and have concurred with the initial diagnosis. Although Dr. Shemenski appears to be recovering, medical experts from around the country are being consulted to determine the probability that complications might arise and to devise an optimal follow-up treatment. There is a possibility that the condition could develop into a life-threatening one.

In the United States, a typical treatment of the condition would involve surgery to remove the gall bladder. Under the relatively Spartan conditions at the South Pole station, medical experts consider surgery to be ill advised.

Dr. Shemenski is an employee of Raytheon Polar Services Corp. (RPSC), of Englewood, Colo. RPSC provides the logistics support to the U.S. science facilities in Antarctica under an NSF contract. Dr. Shemenski, was awarded a medical degree by the University of Tennessee. He specializes in family practice. He also holds a doctorate in materials science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

"NSF is deeply concerned about Dr. Shemenski's condition," said Rita Colwell, NSF director. "We are in the process of examining a range of options to determine the very best means of ensuring his health and safety."

Senior NSF officials, including the senior staff of NSF's Office of Polar Programs, are weighing several responses, including the use of ski-equipped civilian or military aircraft, to evacuate Dr. Shemenski and fly in another physician to replace him.

As a result, NSF has made a formal request to the U.S. Air Force to plan for a possible medical evacuation mission, if that option is chosen. Temperatures at this stage of the austral winter are near the point at which aircraft cannot operate safely. The combination of cold and darkness make air operations extremely hazardous.

The 109th Airlift Wing of the N.Y. Air National Guard , based in Scotia, N.Y., flies the world's only fleet of ski equipped C-130 "Hercules" transport aircraft and would perform a military evacuation.

Approximately 35 aircrew and maintenance personnel from the 109th will leave Stratton Air National Guard base by LC-130 for Washington's Dulles International Airport on the morning of Thursday, April 11 to board commercial aircraft for Christchurch, N.Z., the U.S. Antarctic Program's operational hub in New Zealand. Three ski-equipped LC-130s will also leave Stratton for Christchurch on Thursday. They will await further instructions in Christchurch.

Options other than a medical evacuation flight also being considered are continuing the treatment available at the station or airdropping additional supplies.

Fifty people are spending the austral winter at the pole. Raytheon employs 39 of them and eleven are scientists from various universities. All were required to pass a physical examination before deployment. Winter in Antarctica begins in late February and lasts through October. The "overwinter" staff at the station are variously employed in maintaining the cutting--edge science facilities at the Pole, including some of the world's most sophisticated radio telescopes; building a new station; and the maintenance of the existing station.

Normally, flights to the Pole begin in early November and end in mid- to late February. In October of 1999, the Air Guard successfully evacuated Dr. Jerri Nielsen, who was then the station physician, in one of the earliest recorded flights to the South Pole. Dr. Nielsen was suffering from breast cancer.

The National Science Foundation (NSF), through the United States Antarctic Program (USAP), coordinates almost all U.S. scientific research in the Antarctic. NSF is an independent federal agency -- the only one that covers research in almost all fields of science and engineering.

For more information about science in Antarctica, see: http://www.nsf.gov/od/lpa/news/media/99/fs_usap.htm

For more information about the logistics of conducting science in the polar regions, see: http://www.nsf.gov/od/lpa/news/media/01/fslogistics.htm

For background on the Nielsen evacuation, see: http://www.nsf.gov/od/lpa/news/media/99/fs_southpoledrop.htm

For information on the C-130 "Hercules" aircraft, see: http://www.af.mil/news/factsheets/C_130_Hercules.html

For information about the U.S. Air Force's Air Mobility Command, see: http://public.scott.af.mil/hqamc/

-NSF-

Editors: B-roll of Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station, an animated locator map, and LC-130 aircraft in Antarctica are available. Contact Dena Headlee,(703) 292-8070/dheadlee@nsf.gov.

[vannrox]

No question that there are alot of people getting sick there and having to be evacuated. A woman doctor with a lump in her breast, a doctor with a gall stone. An entire team ...

[vannrox]

References...

The Edfu Texts refer to "...the wisdom of the Sages..."

Also, the Followers of Horus . Use these to trap the necessary quotations... OK?

[debg]

not to worry, islam has proclaimed that this is occupied territory and they want it back.

[vannrox]

Yea. Lots of bogus hype. But an interesting premise based on some facts. Honestly, and personally I don't believe that anything is going on down there.

[bonesmccoy]

ROTFL...LOL >>>>

Raising Atlantis and Atlantis Mapping Project are trademarks of @lantis Interactive, Inc., a Los Angeles-based entertainment corporation. ALL DEPICTIONS OF NEWS EVENTS ARE FICTIONAL AND INTENDED FOR ENTERTAINMENT ONLY

[vannrox]

BUMP for your interest.

[varon]

(I don't care if she's an enviroweenie, I'd paint mine green for her!) (my emphasis)

I'll share some information to save you money, time & effort. Don't wash it for a while and it will turn green on its own ;-)

[StriperSniper]

LOL! - In this case I'll stick to 'better living through chemicals'. :-)

[advocate10]

HUMANOID UNDER THE ICE!