PREPARATIONS FOR VUWAE 18

A proposal outlining a programme involving five main scientific projects was submitted to the March meeting of RDRC. The programme originally involved six scientific members to carry out the following objectives and was approved and passed on to Antarctic Division.

1. To continue work on the Late Cenozoic McMurdo Volcanics on Mts. Erebus and Morning, and with the Dry Valley Drilling Project at McMurdo Station.
2. To continue the study of the Jurassic Mawson Volcanobreccia at Shapeless Mountain and to extend the study to Allan Hills.
3. To extend to collecting and mapping of salts in the McMurdo region to determine their origin and mechanisms of migration.
4. To continue work on the Devonian Aztec Siltstone, the fish-bearing 'red-bed' sequence.
5. To resample the Permian coal-measures at Mount Crean and Shapeless Mountain for pollen and coal-rank studies.

The programme was later amended to include a total of eight scientific members, one of whom was to work as an assistant to the site geologists of the Dry Valley Drilling Project. Various changes to the itinerary were made as cuts in the amount of helicopter time known. A change in the schedule of flights to the Antarctic necessitated some reshuffling of trip members and a request for another DSIR field assistant for a short period.