Joint Canada-U.S.
Party Seek Source
j
Floating Icelslands
WASHINGTON, UPi — A joint
Canadian-U.S. expedition is seek
ing on bleak and desolate Elles
mere Island, the source of the
great floating ice islands like the
one used during the last two
years as an Arctic weather base
observatory.
The Air Force said Sunday one
of its transport planes recently set
down o'n the Ellesmere ice shelf
the first party of a joint expedi
tion—two Canadian scientists, an
Eskimo sled driver and ten dogs.
Next year the study will be re
sumed in a full-scale operation by
five men, whose food and other
supplies will be replenished by
air support.
Although big ice islands—some
of them several miles across —
now appear to have been drifting
in their polar seas for ages, it
was not until the last few years
that their existence was confirm
ed. First discoveries of the giant
ice cubes, large enough for planes
to land on, were made by USAF
weather planes flying reconnais
sance to the North Pole.
A weather observation station
was set up two season ago on the
biggest of the known islands, de
signated as Fletcher's Island, and
since then personnel assigned to
the lonely job have been rotated
on the weather assignments.
Studies already made by men
on Fletcher's Jsland from visits to
at least one other ice island in
dicate they probably originate
along a coast. Small boulders and
occasional deposits o'f soil frozen
in the ice suggest this. The thick
ness of the ice islands makes it
apparent that they are centuries
old.
Several land areas exist in the
high latitudes around 80 degrees
north, from which the islands
could originate, including north
ern Greenland, Spitzbergen and
other rock island clusters, but
Ellesmere, which lies to the west
of Greenland and is one of the
northernmost land masses in the
Arctic, has seemed the probable
primary source.
The scientists now on Elles
mere Island are Geoffrey Hatter
sley^Smith, a glaciologist in the
r— ■■ —
Economy Drive
Closes Galena
Weather Station
By HELEN GILLETTE
ANCHORAGE — The govern
ment’s economy drive extended
last week to Alaska weather sta
tions, with two of the “most state
gic” slated for closure.
The two, Cordova and Galena,
furnish vital information for avia
tion forecasts regularily prepared
for the heavily-traveled Anchor
age-Seattle and Fairbanks-Nome
routes.
Burt Lindley, chief forecaster
at the Merrill Field bureau, said
that Cordova is the only station
between Anchorage and Yakutat
which supplies “upper air” obser
vations, without which wind dir
ection and speed cannot be cal
culated.
The station of Galena, located
about halfway between Nome and
Fairbanks on the desolate 500
mile run, occupies about the same
importance to pilots in that area.
It was believed that these two
stations may have been eliminated
because they are the only ones
taking upper air observations who
do not also take temperature,
pressure and humidity. While im
portant to a general forecast, these
conditions are not as vital to the
aviation forecast.
The weather bureau maintains
only 17 stations in Alaska. How
ever, there are seven military sta
tions which furnish reports,, as
well as a number of “second or
der” stations where the personnel
are not paid by that department.
Most of these are CAA stations,
where personnel take and report
observations as an extra duty.
Arctic section of- the Canadian
Defense Research Board, and
Robert A. Blackadar, staff mem
ber of Canada’s Geological Sur
vey. Working with the Canadians
are the Air Research and Devel
opment Command of the USAF
and an agency of the U.S. Army,
the Snow, Ice and Permafrost Es
tablishment.
The three men and dogs were
flown to Ellesmere Island from
Thule, new U.S. air base in north
west Greenland. The expedition
probably will remain until June,
when weather conditions will
force their return.
i i
WEATHER FORECAST
Compiled by the
U.S. Dept, of Commerce Weather Bureau
Generally clear tonight and to
morrow. Winds light and variable.
Low temperature expected to
night 28, high Thursday 45.
Nome data last 24 hours as of
7 a.m. today: High temperature
43, low 26. Max. wind 11 mph
from the WSW. Sunrise at 2:49
a.m., sunset at 9:09 p.m.
Temperatures a year ago today:
high 33, low 16. Extremes this
date since 1907: high 55 in 1943,
low 4 in 1937.
A cubic mile of sea water con
tains about six million tons of
magnesium.
APRIL WEATHER SUMMARY
Temperatures fell below nor
mal the first week of April but
the remainder of the month was
warm and dry. Precipitation av
eraged just one-half of the normal
amount.
Only isolated snow drifts re
mained at the end of April. This
is the earliest disappearance of
snow cover since 1941, when a
trace of snow remained on the
ground on April 30.
The ice in Norton Sound showed
little change throughout the
month, but it was developing soft
spots as the month ended.
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