Location of Site and Setting up Camp (BAS)

Field operation of the MSSTS programme began with the arrival of an advance party of ten, including one from VUW, at Scott Base on 28 August 1979. Vehicles and equipment were prepared and a series of reconnaissances undertaken by Power wagon and Snotrac (Fig. 2). A flagged route closely following the southern and western boundaries of McMurdo Sound was established from Scott Base to New Harbour. Rough ice prevented an initial attempt to establish a route directly out to the MSSTS 1 site from the dump of DVDP drilling gear at Rig Point on the northern shore of New Harbour. During a Subsequent reconnaissance good travel was found on a route bearing 030 true from Butter Point.

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On September 19 a reconnaissance party arrived at a point at 77. 33.3S:164 23.4E. The locality of the site was reached by dead reckoning and the position on the sea ice was fixed by resection using a Kern DkM 1 theodolite. Although 3 km SW of the proposed site (Barrett, 1979) the site was logistically preferable, being nearer land, and scientifically acceptable, being within the region previously surveyed by seismic refraction methods (McGinnis 1979) and known to have at least 500 m of sediment overlying basement.

Sea ice thickness at the adopted site, 1.98 m, was more than sufficient for drilling operations; water depth was 196 m and not varying from this by more than ±10 m at points 50C m north, south, east and west. The site was 80 km by sea ice road from Scott Base and 26 km from Rig Point.

Two huts were established at the site and an attempt was made to flood the area with sea water to strengthen the sea ice platform. The attempt failed as the pumps froze - the air temperature was −35° C. In the following weeks equipment and fuel were brought to the site by D4 sledge trains from Scott Base, McMurdo Station and Rig Point. By October 10 the camp, consisting of two oil-heated Jamesways and six insulated plywood huts, was fully operational and most of the drilling gear was on site. The main party of drillers arrived on October 12 and the erection of the rig began immediately. Casing was lowered to the sea floor on October 20 and drilling began on October 21.

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TABLE 1. Personnel involved in MSSTS 1 Drilling.

Drillsite Crew
Drilling supervisor	Jack Barclay	MOWD
Drilling Supervisor	Jim Gupwell	MOWD
Driller	Guy Holmes	MOWD
Driller	Terry Quigley	MOWD
Driller	Neville Quigley	MOWD
Driller	Richard Stacey	MOWD
Driller	Gerald Haugh	MOWD
Driller	John Marcuson	MOWD
Driller	David Rees	Ant. Div.
Driller	Vaughn Robson	MOWD
Driller	John Star	MOWD
Drillers assistant	Tony McPherson	VUW
Drillers assistant	Paul White	VUW
Drillers assistant	Frank Williams	VUW
Logistics Manager	Garth Varcoe	Ant. Div.
Cook	Warwick Bull	Ant. Div.
Ass. Maintenance Officer	Ray Matheson	Ant. Div.
Field assistant	Roy Arbon	Ant. Div.
Drillsite scientist
Science Manager	Bryan Sissons	VUW
Geophysicist	Paul Froggatt	VUW
Core grabber	Alex pyne	VUW
Core grabber	Ian Wright	VUW
Geophysicist	Dr Heinz Miller	FGR
Core Lab. Scott Base
Site Geologist	MSSTS Pt 1 Dr Peter Barrett	VUW
Site Geologist	MSSTS Pt 2 Dr Barry McKelvey	UNE
Core Manager	David waghorn	VUW
Geological Asst.	Barry walker	VUW
Photographer	Alan Ross	VUW
Geochemist	Dr Tetsuya Torii	JARE
Geochemist	Dr Kazuhisa Komura	JARE
Geochemist	Dr Shyu Nakaya	JARE
Geologist	Dr Yuki Yusa	JARE
Geologist	Dr Don Elston	USGS
Geologist	Steve Bressler	USGS
Paleontologist	Barbara Ward	VUW/NIU
Paleontologist	Mark Leckie	NIU
Paleontologist	Howard Brady	MU
Note
VUW	Victoria University of Wellington
NIU	Northern Illinois University
USGS	United States Geological Survey
UNE	University of New England
FRG	Federal Republic of Germany
JARE	Japanese Antarctic Research Expedition
MU	MacQuarie University
MOWD	Ministry of Works and Development
Ant. Div.	Antarctic Division DSIR, N.Z.