Historic Ukrainian expedition returns from the Antarctic

by Roman Woronowycz
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - The first Ukrainian expedition to the Antarctic returned to the shores of Ukraine on May 15 after 15 months in an outpost near the South Pole.

The group brought with them no horror tales of blinding blizzards or frozen limbs. In fact the leader of the group, Hennadii Mikhinevskyi, said the weather was rather balmy for Antarctica: the thermostat rarely dipped much past -25 degrees Celsius.

But they did bring back a vast amount of data on the ozone hole over the South Pole and information on oil reserves beneath the vast frozen islands of ice.

The expedition was organized by the Antarctic Center of Ukrainian Ministry of Sciences and Technology and began in February 1996. Twelve Ukrainians manned the Ukrainian-owned outpost, named the Academician Volodymyr Vernadskyi Station after the renowned Ukrainian geochemist, mineralogist and crystallographer.

Mr. Mikhinevskyi said the group confronted only technological problems, such as the breakdown of equipment and that most were easily solved. "You must understand that the station has been working for a long time. But the Brits had left us with the latest technology, which allowed us to work at the highest caliber," he explained.

The Vernadskyi station was built and operated by the British Antarctic Survey as Faraday Base from 1948 until 1996, when Britain turned the facilities over to Ukraine as a gift.

Mr. Mikhinevskyi explained that the largest problem the group faced was the need to replace the boiler used to heat water.

The other problem the 12 members of the expedition had to deal with, the "mild" weather notwithstanding, was huge amounts of snowfall that piled snow almost 4 meters high between the various structures of the compound. To solve that problem they burrowed beneath the snow instead of attempting to continuously move it out.

Petro Hozhyk, director of the Antarctic Center, which organized the effort, said that at the top of his list of responsibilities was the need to ensure the safety of the group. "Our main priorities were to ensure the survival of the expedition, to maintain the ecological soundness and purity of the environment, and to learn the natural system of the area and its biological peculiarities. But safety was always at the top," he said.

The expedition's main focus was to discover what's above and below the Earth's bottom axis. They undertook major studies on the huge ozone hole located above the South Pole in the Earth's atmosphere, which many researchers have blamed on the large amounts of chlorofluorocarbons that are emitted by such man-made products as refrigerators and aerosol cans.

Mr. Mikhinevskyi said the group measured ultraviolet levels 30 times higher than found at any other place on earth.

He said the group also found evidence that the hole is expanding even during the summer months, which had not previously been noted. "We did not move about outdoors without protective clothing and dark sunglasses," he explained.

Mr. Mikhinevskyi also pointed out that Antarctica can no longer be called desolate. Along with the penguins and birds that inhabit the shores with the scores of researchers from around the world, and the fish and whales that cruise the waters, there are now tourists at the South Pole. He said that an estimated 350,000 people made excursions to the white continent in 1996 onboard ocean cruises

On May 15 the ice frigate and research vessel Ernst Krenkel docked at the port of Odesa after a two-month return voyage that took them through seven seas. Along with its cargo of 12 exhausted Antarctic expeditioners was much oceanographic, meteorological, hydrobiological, hydrochemical and geophysical data gathered in Antarctica and during the journey home.

That data, according to Mr. Hozhyk, will now be studied at research facilities in Kyiv, Sevastopol and Kerch, and the findings released within four months.

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, June 1, 1997, No. 22, Vol. LXV

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