Victoria land traverse

An other type of expeditions for glaciologists: move from detailed data in a limited area to large unknown spaces. It will be the purpose of this raid which will unveil big geological structures, including a mountain range, until then not mapped.

As for ices, core drillings and samplings such as the ones performed at Charcot will be systematically carried out every 100 km.

And here we set out again, for one day, in an unforeseen adventure at the foot of a mountain range that we discover and which blocks our way back home...

<< Jack, Arnold and me, in two roped parties, spend the day climbing the easiest of the three pikes, that we name "the Sisters". Loaded with rock samples, sinking in the fresh snow at each step, we return exhausted in the evening; but what an euphoria for the body ! And what's more, although a poor mountain-climber, I would have gained to see appear in the american atlasses, lost among many others, Mount Lorius. >>

After the analysis carried out back in France  a discovey will result from this campaign in Victoria Land: in the explored area, the ice isotopic signature is a thermal indicator. A simple and quantitative gauge that will enable a world premiere: reconstitute the past climates by analysing the ice sampled in depth. I never thought it would be as successful when I left for adventure.

Throughout this raid we measure also the ice thickness between the surface and the bedrock. All data necessary to describe, explain and model. These data from the past about the inlandsis glaciers flow are a necessary basis to estimate these ices future impact on our planet in a warming climate... But then, where in Antarctica was it necessary to drill in order to test our discoveries by dating back further in the past ?