Wright Valley

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article or section includes a list of references or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks in-text citations. You can improve this article by introducing more precise citations.

This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. Please improve this article if you can. (February 2008)

The Wright Valley is one of several Dry Valleys in the Transantarctic Mountains, located west of McMurdo Sound at approximately 77°10′S, 161°50′E. Wright Valley contains the Onyx River, the largest river in Antarctica, and Lake Vanda.

Although portions of the interconnected valley system were discovered in 1903 by the Discovery expedition led by Captain Scott, the Wright Valley located near the center of the system was not seen until aerial photographs of the region were made in 1947 (Harrowfiled, 2005).

By the mid 1960's scientists were becoming increasingly intrigued by the paradoxical fact that the valley lay immediately adjacent to the permanent East Antarctic Ice Sheet, yet had remained ice-free for at least thousands of years (Mc Kelvey and Webb, 1962). Furthermore, Lake Vanda, fed by summer melt water from the Onyx River, maintained impossibly warm water at its deepest point.^{[citation needed]} Although covered by roughly 3 meters of ice year-round, lake temperatures of 25 C had been reliably measured at a depth of 65 meters (Ragotzkie and Likens, 1964). The lack of snow, warm lake temperatures, unusual rock features, desiccated seal carcasses, and an almost complete lack of plant life invited closer investigation.^{[citation needed]}

Increasing summer field activity and a clear need to establish a winter record led New Zealand's Antarctic Division and the National Science Foundation of the United States to plan a more permanent base in the Valley. In 1968 New Zealand established Vanda Station (77 31.4' S, 161 40.4' E) near the eastern end of Lake Vanda.

References

Harrowfield, David L., 2005: Vanda Station, History of an Antarctic Outpost, 52 pp., New Zealand Antarctic Society, ISBN 0-473-06467-7.

Please add ISBNs for the books listed in this article or section. Listing ISBNs makes it easier to conduct research. Improve the article or discuss this issue on the talk page.This article has been tagged since February 2008.

McKelvey, B. C., and P. N. Webb, 1962: Geological investigations in southern Victoria Land, Antarctica, 3, Geology of the Wright Valley. New Zealand Journal of Geology and Geophys., 5, 143-162.

Ragotzkie, R. A., and G. Likens, 1964: The heat balance of two Antarctic lakes. Limnology and Oceanography, 9, 412-425.