Innocents on the Ice: A Memoir of Antarctic Exploration, 1957

Innocents on the Ice: A Memoir of Antarctic Exploration, 1957

by John C. Behrendt
Innocents on the Ice: A Memoir of Antarctic Exploration, 1957
Innocents on the Ice: A Memoir of Antarctic Exploration, 1957

Innocents on the Ice: A Memoir of Antarctic Exploration, 1957

by John C. Behrendt

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Overview

"Adventures in the Antarctic only happen when someone makes a mistake.”
—From the Preface

In 1956, John C. Behrendt had just earned his master’s degree in geophysics and obtained a position as an assistant seismologist in the International Geophysical Year glaciological program. He sailed from Davisville, Rhode Island to spend eighteen months in Antarctica with the IGY expedition as part of a U.S. Navy-supported scientific expedition to establish Ellsworth Station on the Filchner Ice Shelf. Innocents on the Ice is a memoir based on Behrendt’s handwritten journals, looking back on his daily entries describing his life and activities on the most isolated of the seven U.S. Antarctic stations.
  Nine civilians and thirty Navy men lived beneath the snow together, and intense personal conflicts arose during the dark Antarctic winter of 1957. Little outside contact was available to ease the tension, with no mail delivery and only occasional radio contact with families back home. The author describes the emotional stress of the living situation, along with details of his parties’ explorations of the Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf system during the summers of 1957 and 1958. Along the hazardous 1,300-mile traverse in two Sno-Cats, the field party measured ice thickness and snow accumulation as part of an international effort to determine the balance of the Antarctic ice sheet, and made the first geological observations of the spectacular Dufek Massif in the then-unexplored Pensacola Mountains. Behrendt also draws upon his forty years of continual participation in Antarctic research to explain the changes in scientific activities and environmental awareness in Antarctica today.
  Including photos, maps, and a glossary identifying various forms of ice, Innocents on the Ice is a fascinating combination of the diary of a young graduate student and the reflections of the accomplished scientist he became. 

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781607323235
Publisher: University Press of Colorado
Publication date: 12/01/2013
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
Pages: 454
File size: 7 MB

About the Author

John C. Behrendt is an internationally known scientist who has made 12 trips to Antarctica and traveled there in every decade since the 1956-58 International Geophysical Year expedition described in Innocencts on the Ice. He returned to the Weddell Sea and the Filchner Ice Shelf in 1958-59, and made pioneering aerogeophysical surveys over the Transantarctic Mountains and the West Antarctic Ice Sheet from 1960-64. In 1960-61 he led an oversnow traverse party to the southern Antarctic Peninsula and the Behrendt Mountains, which were named for him as a result of his work. He also led geophysical research programs for 31 years at the U.S. Geological Survey. Behrendt is currently a FellowEmeritus and Senior Research Associate at the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research at the University of Colorado.

Table of Contents

Cover Contents Preface Acknowledgments Editorial Note Roster of Men at Ellsworth Station 1957 1. Introduction 2. Voyage to the Weddell Sea 3. Fall 4. Winter Begins 5. The Long Night Goes On and On and On . . . 6. The Sun Returns 7. Final Traverse Preparations 8. Ellsworth Station to Berkner Island 9. Dufek Massif to Korff Island 10. Heading for Home Epilogue Glossary Index

What People are Saying About This

J. McKim Malville

Behrendt skillfully describes the tension between the scientist's passion for research and their leader's paranoia, which at times threatened to bring the isolated base to the brink of instability and mutiny. . . . [A] welcome and long-overdue addition to the literature of the continent.
— J. McKim Malville, author of Prehistoric Astronomy of the Southwest

Charles Swithinbank

A gripping tale of young scientists pursuing their calling while under the command of a vindictive, paranoid naval officer. Denied radio contact with their stateside mentors, some were threatened with Court Martial for insisting on doing what they were sent to do. Fortunately, it is the scientists who triumph after a rough winter.
— Charles Swithinbank, author of Forty Years on Ice

Michael Parfit

A richly detailed insider's look at the realities of the last real exploration of the Earth. It shows all the complex glory and trouble of high-tech exploration in the 20th-Century: Personality conflicts, tensions, pratfalls and the transcendent experience of setting foot on unknown lands. A fine mix of science, adventure, and human drama.
— Michael Parfit, author of South Light: A Journey to the Last Continent and scriptwriter for the IMAX film Antarctica

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