 He returned to university in 1908, studying geology under Sir Edgeworth David.In 1910 he was one of a group of three geologists on Robert Falcon Scott's Antarctic Terra Nova Expedition (1910–1913).From January to March 1911 Debenham, along with three other expedition members (Thomas Griffith Taylor, Charles Wright (physicist) and Edgar Evans), explored and mapped the western mountains of Victoria Land (the western journey) performing scientific studies and geological observations.