Environment: Trip to the Bottom of the World

"Great God! This is an awful place. " So wrote the English explorer Robert Falcon Scott after he reached the South Pole in 1912. Scott, who was just beaten to the pole by the Norwegian Roald Amundsen, had good reason to complain. Temperatures regularly drop to -100º F. during the polar winter. Sudden storms bring gale-force winds, and visibility frequently drops to zero during a "whiteout," making it impossible to see perilous crevasses ahead. Yet in spite of its hostile environment, Antarctica is becoming the object of increasing worldwide interest. Its shrimplike krill and millions of seals make it a veritable storehouse of protein for the world's growing population. Also, scientists are finding more and more evidence that there may be great mineral wealth under the ice, including oil.

Under the U.S.-inspired 1961 Antarctic Treaty, the great white continent has been declared a conservation area; all national claims have been set aside, and only scientific research with potential benefits for all mankind is encouraged. But scientists fear that as the need for protein and minerals increases, peaceful exploration may be followed by reckless exploitation. Invited by the National Science Foundation, Associate Editor Frederic Golden visited Antarctica and filed this report:

Already, in that bleached wasteland of snow and ice, American technology has made its mark. Last January, after four years of construction and some 300 cargo flights to the South Pole, the U.S. opened a new $6 million base at 90° south latitude. Officially known as the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station, it replaces an older base now completely buried under ice.

Inside a 52-ft.-high aluminum geodesic dome, which acts as a buffer against the drifting snow, are three prefabricated buildings resembling large mobile homes. They contain sleeping facilities for 40 people, a communications center (including a ham radio shack for contacts with home), a dining hall and kitchen, a small gym and library, a photographic darkroom and several computer-equipped scientific laboratories. In Quonset-like buildings adjoining the dome are the base's power plant, biology lab, dispensary and garage. One of the huts also shelters an ingenious freshwater system that uses heat from the diesel generators to melt snow.

Chilly Rite. Located atop nearly two miles of ice, at an elevation of more than 9,000 ft., the base is a unique high-altitude observatory that makes possible a variety of important geophysical measurements. These include soundings of the upper atmosphere, monitoring of auroral displays ("the southern lights"), and other observations that may answer many questions about the earth's day-to-day weather and overall climate. In a new experiment, for instance, scientists from the University of California at Davis are seeking to learn precisely how the polar region—a so-called heat sink—sheds the excess energy it receives from the sun.