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E-book
Author Belanger, Dian Olson, 1941-

Title Deep freeze : the United States, the International Geophysical Year, and the origins of Antarctica's age of science / Dian Olson Belanger
Published Boulder, Colo. : University Press of Colorado, ©2006

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Description 1 online resource (xxix, 494 pages) : illustrations, maps
Series Book collections on Project MUSE
Contents Introduction -- Prologue: the call of the ice -- The international geophysical year: idea to reality -- All hands on deck: logistics for the high latitudes -- Gaining a foothold: operations base at McMurdo Sound -- Little America V: science flagship on the ice shelf -- Marie Byrd Land: Crevasse Junction, privation stations -- South Pole: dropped from the sky -- The gap stations: Hallett, Wilkes, m and Ellsworth -- On the eve: people, preparations, policies -- Comprehending the cold: Antarctic weather quest -- Looking up: the physics of the atmosphere -- Under foot: ice by the mile -- Life on the ice: the experience -- Science and peace, continuity and change
Summary In Deep Freeze, Dian Olson Belanger tells the story of the pioneers who built viable communities, made vital scientific discoveries, and established Antarctica as a continent dedicated to peace and the pursuit of science, decades after the first explorers planted flags in the ice. In the tense 1950's, even as the world was locked in the Cold War, U.S. scientists, maintained by the Navy's Operation Deep Freeze, came together in Antarctica with counterparts from eleven other countries to participate in the International Geophysical Year (IGY). On July 1, 1957, they began systematic, simultaneous scientific observations of the south-polar ice and atmosphere. Their collaborative success over eighteen months inspired the Antarctic Treaty of 1959, which formalized their peaceful pursuit of scientific knowledge. Still building on the achievements of the individuals and distrustful nations thrown together by the IGY from mutually wary military, scientific, and political cultures, science prospers today and peace endures. The year 2007 marked the fiftieth anniversary of the IGY and the commencement of a new International Polar Year--a compelling moment to review what a singular enterprise accomplished in a troubled time. Belanger draws from interviews, diaries, memoirs, and official records to weave together the first thorough study of the dawn of Antarctica's scientific age. Deep Freeze offers absorbing reading for those who have ventured onto Antarctic ice and those who dream of it, as well as historians, scientists, and policy makers
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 401-474) and index
Notes English
Print version record
Subject United States. Navy. Task Force 43 -- History
United States. Navy.
SUBJECT United States. Navy fast
United States. Navy. Task Force 43 fast
Subject International Geophysical Year, 1957-1958.
TRAVEL.
HISTORY -- General.
Discoveries in geography
Discoveries in geography -- American
SUBJECT Antarctica -- Discovery and exploration -- American. http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85005494
Antarctica -- Discovery and exploration. http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85005493
Subject Antarctica
Genre/Form History
Form Electronic book
LC no. 2006017263
ISBN 9781607320678
1607320673
1457110652
9781457110658