131 458
ALSO BY
JL TUZO WILSON
ONE CHINESE MOON
With J. A. Jacobs and R. D. Russell:
PHYSICS AND GEOLOGY
(i959)
G*Y
THE YEAR OF
THE NEW MOONS
THE YEAR OF
THE NEW MOONS
3. TUZO WILSON
FOREWORD BY LLOYD V. BERKNER
6 i
ALFRED-A-KNOPF
NEW YORK
L. C. catalog card number: 61-14195
THIS IS A BORZOI BOOK,
PUBLISHED BY ALFRED A. KNOPF, INC.
Copyright 1961 by J, Tuzo Wilson.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be repro-
duced in any form without permission in writing from
the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief
passages and reproduce not more than three illustrations
in a review to "be printed in a magazine
or newspaper. Manufactured in the
United States of America.
FIRST EDITION
T O
Pat and Sue
FOREWORD
The International Geophysical Year (IGY) was perhaps the
most ambitious and at the same time the most successful co-
operative enterprise ever undertaken by man. The IGY was a
scientific year. It was a year when men of sixty-seven nations
agreed to observe the earth over its whole surface, simulta-
neously, and with precise instruments designed to the same
standards so that the changing phenomena enveloping the
earth could be caught and described in their full global sense.
In IGY; The Year of the New Moons, Professor J. Tuzo
Wilson describes the characteristics of the earth that were
observed during the IGY the elements of our surroundings
that give us our ever-changing environment. But more than
that, he tells at first hand of the people in distant and varied
lands who worked together to make the IGY the great scien-
tific success that it was. Sitting together with me nearly two
years ago on an antarctic plane jammed with men and gear,
Professor Wilson outlined his plans to fuse the scientific and
the human aspects of the IGY in the present volume.
Professor Wilson was president of the International Union
of Geodesy and Geophysics (IUGG) during the IGY. This
FOREWORD
important union of scientists carried a major responsibility
for the adequate functioning of the complex system of obser-
vations of the "y ear -" The IUGG had joined with TUnion
Radio Scientifique Internationale (URSI), the International
Astronomical Union (IAU), and the International Geo-
graphical Union (IGU) to organize the IGY through the
Comite Special de TAnn<6e Geophysique Internationale
(CSAGI) under the parent body of all international unions,
the International Council of Scientific Unions (ICSU).
Acting outside the usual political and diplomatic framework
of nations, the IGY was planned and executed by scientists
working in close collaboration, with immense assistance from
their countries. The job took eight years to accomplish, and
our comprehension of our environment is still undergoing
major changes as a consequence.
During the planning and execution of the IGY, Jock Wil-
son travelled to every corner of the earth. With great wisdom,
the Government of Canada and the University of Toronto
provided the time and support that enabled him to oversee
the IGY on behalf of the IUGG. As a leading world scientist,
Jock Wilson brings the perspective of the impartial, keen
observer of events around him, acting without reference to
his personal comfort or safety when there is a job to be done
or a significant observation to be made. As a Canadian, he is
naturally an authority on the polar regions. And as a geo-
physicist, he counts the whole world as his realm. Those who
have read One Chinese Moon, in which he tells of his travels
in the People's Republic of China, will have seen the pene-
trating insight, broad perspective, and dry humour with
which he deals with one of the world's most troubled areas.
In 1958 during scientific meetings at the National Academy
of Sciences I conferred briefly with Wilson and invited him
to join an IGY party of scientists going to the Antarctic for
several weeks late that year. Obviously, Wilson could make a
FOREWORD ix
definite contribution to the assessment of the difficult scien-
tific work being carried on in that remote "seventh conti-
nent/' His response was unhesitating; at the expense of other
plans, he joined us in our studies, crisscrossing the continent
for many thousands of miles between isolated bases and field
parties. When an observer was needed for a hazardous recon-
naissance with a single-engined plane into little-explored
areas, Jock was in the party. When a heated scientific discus-
sion went on in some antarctic hut during a blizzard, he was
in the thick of it, tapping a deep store of scientific knowledge.
Jock Wilson was always present on a steep climb or a long
hike that might continue right through the night; and always
he was a delightful companion, with an apt anecdote for any
situation. Wilson's cold scientific judgment is agreeably
tempered by a spontaneous and exciting love of adventure.
It has been said that rule of law among nations will not be
achieved until men are bound together by common threads
of cultural understanding. Certainly science is one of those
threads perhaps a major line that permits men to speak to
one another with comprehension, confidence, and common
purpose. Coming in times of international tension, the IGY
was a clear demonstration of the power of such cultural
bonds. In this book Professor Wilson has captured the sense
of desire of all peoples, within the universal scientific culture,
to labor for the benefit of all.
LLOYT> V. BERKNER
Retiring President,
International Council
of Scientific Unions
PREFACE
To most people the IGY was little more than a set of initials
vaguely associated with a branch of scientific activity that
finally was made manifest in the Sputnik. Although it ab-
sorbed the imagination and energies of thousands of the
world's scientists for eighteen months, to the general public
the purpose of the International Geophysical Year was not
nearly as clear as the delighted realization that scientists either
could not count or did not know how many months there are
in a year.
In these days when advances in scientific knowledge affect
every facet of our lives, it is important that we all know as
much about science as we can. It was my good fortune, during
the IGY, to have unrivalled opportunities to travel the world
and to meet the men working on IGY projects. This book
combines a record of these journeys with an account of the
scientific programs. This strange mixture is deliberate. I hope
that the parts devoted to travel will bring home to the reader
how truly international is science, and show that scientists
are as much interested in other aspects of human affairs as
anyone else. I also hope that my observations as a scientist
Xll
PREFACE
abroad will provide a series of park benches on which the
reader may rest and draw breath before resuming his way
along the unfamiliar paths of science. Such alternations of
work and interruptions are the normal pattern of life of sci-
entists.
For providing opportunities to undertake these travels and
for making them possible, I am particularly indebted to the
University of Colorado; The Romanian Institute of Cultural
Relations with Foreign Countries; the Association of Cana-
dian Clubs; the International Union of Geodesy and Geo-
physics; the Society of Sigma Xi; the Defense Research Board
of Canada; the National Research Council of Canada; the
Academy of Sciences and the Ministry of Geology of the
USSR; the Academia Sinica, Peking; the Academia Sinica,
Taipeh; the University of Tokyo; the Japanese Broadcasting
Corporation; the National Academy of Sciences of the United
States; the New Zealand Department of Scientific and In-
dustrial Research; and the University of Toronto. I should
like to thank the many people who received me so hospitably
during these trips and who answered so many of my questions.
To Dr. Lloyd V. Berkner I am doubly indebted both for
being my host and mentor on a trip to Antarctica, which he
has studied for thirty years, and for his generous Foreword.
For supplementary information I wrote to the secretaries of
national committees for the IGY and many other individuals
in the sixty-seven participating countries, and received valu-
able replies and photographs. I only regret that I have not been
able to use all the material so liberally provided. The files of
popular and scientific journals also made available important
information. I should like to express my thanks to all these
generous collaborators. I am particularly grateful to Mr. Hugh
Odishaw and Mr. Pembroke J. Hart of World Data Centre
A, to Professor V. V. Beloussov and Mme V. A. Troitskaya
of World Data Centre B, and to members of the Canadian
PREFACE xiii
committee on the IGY for help in assembling information
and photographs. I should also like to pay tribute to Ing. Gen.
Georges Laclav&re of Paris, secretary of the IUGG, for the
enormous load of work he has carried (in addition to his nor-
mal job) and for the sound advice, inspiration, and assistance
he has so often given me.
When a draft of the book had been completed, I sent one
or more chapters to specialists for criticism and comments.
For their help I am grateful to Doctors G. Hattersley-Smith
J. F. Heard, C. O. Hines, P. M. Millman, D. A. MacRae, J. A.
O'Keefe, F. Press, D. C. Rose, A. H. Shapley, P. H. Serson,
J. P. Tully, and H. Wexler. Needless to say, they are not to
be held responsible for what is here said.
I am particularly indebted to Miss Helen O'Reilly and Mr.
Henry Robbins for editorial comment, and to Professor
W. H. Watson, Doctors M. G. Rochester and T. O. Jones,
and Mr. R. Roden for technical comments on drafts of the
whole book.
Mrs. Sylvia Derenyi, Miss Sylvia Lummis, and Mrs. Nancy
Thoman typed the manuscript, and Mrs. Thoman also pre-
pared the index. Mr. Alex Aiken is the artist responsible for
all the drawings.
To all these people I extend my most grateful thanks.
Without their help the book would not have covered as large
a range or been as accurate.
Above all, I am indebted to my wife, Isabel, for editing the
text and for ameliorating much that was difficult or dull.
J. T. W.
CONTENTS
1 The International Geophysical Year 3
2 Colorado, July 1957 14
3 - The Sun 19
4 Geophysical Jamboree, AugustSeptember 1957 34
5 * Romania, October 1957 40
6 T7i0 New Moons 54
7 What the Satellites Revealed 77
8 Cosmic Rays 88
9 TTze North Magnetic Pole, June 1958 103
10 - The Earth's Magnetic Field no
11 - The Upper Atmosphere 119
12 Aurora 131
13 - Landfalls in a Frozen Sea, June 1958 145
xvi CONTENTS
14 - Greenland and the 'World's Ice, June 1958 154
15 Brussels to Moscow, July 1958 170
16 - Gravity and the Earth's 'Wobble 179
17 The Soviet Union, August 1958 191
18 Earthquakes 214
19 China, Taiwan, and Japan, September 1958 227
20 The Oceans 244
21 Hawaii and New Zealand, November 1958 265
22 Fall-out 276
23 Antarctica, November 1958 288
24 The Weather 310
25 - The Year's Harvest 320
TABLES 333
REFERENCES FOR FURTHER READING 347
INDEX follows page 3 50
ILLUSTRATIONS
The world of the International Geophysical Year 11
Spectrum of sound waves 22
Electro-magnetic spectrum 24.
Major solar activity 28
Temperature variation and sun-spot activity 30
The far side of the moon 74
The earth and the inner and outer Van Allen belts 78
High-speed electrons in the Van Allen and Argus belts 79
Fundamental particles and simple atoms 90
Collision of cosmic-ray particle with a nucleus 93
Shower of secondary cosmic rays 95
The earth 9 s magnetic field 98
Cross-section of our galaxy 99
Map of part of the Canadian Arctic 106
Cross-section of the earth's interior 1 1 1
The sun's toroidal fields 115
Variation in the earth's magnetic field 117
Phenomena in nearby space 120
The ionospheric sounder 122
Reflection of radio signals by layers of the atmosphere 124
Distribution of aurora borealis 132
XV111
ILLUSTRATIONS
Distribution of aurora australis 134
A corpuscular stream 136
A corpuscular stream passing the earth 138
Distribution and frequency of auroral displays 141
Map of Arctic Sea 148
The ice surface of Greenland 156
The ice surface of Antarctica 163
Bedrock of Antarctica below the ice sheet 165
Variations in the strength of gravity in the Baltic Sea 182
The continental fracture system 221
Cross-section of the earth 9 s crust and the upper part of
the mantle 223
Profile across the mid-ocean ridge 247
Vertical section through the Atlantic Ocean from pole
to pole 256
Diagram of deep circulation in the ocean basins 259
Position of the Antarctic Convergence 262
Cross-section of part of the Pacific Ocean 269
Changes in carbon-i4 in New Zealand 279
Strontium-go in the atmosphere 282
Strontium-go activity in rainfall 284
Structure of upper atmosphere as revealed by fall-out 285
IGY stations in Antarctica 294
Storms on the Antarctic continent in 1958 308
Atmospheric circulation ^ X r
Jet-streams in the northern hemisphere ^6
Cross-section through a front and a jet-stream 317
PLATES
FOLLOWING PAGE
Sun-spots (Mount "Wilson and Mount Palomar Ob-
servatories} 40
Sun-spots (detail) (Princeton University Observatory) 40
Solar telescope in Moscow (U.S.S.R. IGY) 40
Coronagraph and spectrograph (National Academy of
Sciences IGY) 40
Solar flare 40
Balloon, parachute, and mounted instrument package
(U.S. Navy) 40
Rocket firing during eclipse (U. S. Navy) 40
Test firing of Vanguard II (U. S. Navy) 40
Vanguard satellite being installed (U. S. Navy) 40
Explorer VII before launching (U. S. Army) 40
Lunar Probe III ( U. S. Air Force ) 40
Soviet research rocket (U.S.S.R. IGY) 40
Sputnik III ( U.S.S.R. IG Y ) 40
Aerobee rocket (U. S. Army) 40
Far side of the moon (U.S.S.R. Information Service) 136
Crab nebula (Mount Wilson and Mount Palomar Ob-
servatories) 136
xx PLATES
Greek Moonwatch (Greek IGY) 136
Indiana Moonwatch team (Smithsonian Astrophysical
Observatory) 136
Solar radio telescope, Australia (W. N. Christiansen,
Radiophysics Laboratory C.S.R.I.O., Sidney,
Australia) 136
Baker-Nunn-Schmidt Camera, Australia (Australian
Weapons Research Establishment) 136
Jodrell Bank telescope (United Kingdom Information
Service) 136
The all-sky camera (National Research Council of
Canada) 136
Aurora photo with all-sky camera (National Research
Council of Canada) 136
Auroral forms in Alaska (/. W. Wright) 136
lonization counter for cosmic rays (U.S.S.R. IGY) 136
Cosmic-ray star caused by collision with nucleus (Na-
tional Research Council of Canada) 136
Weather balloon (U. S. IGY) 136
Spectrophotometer measuring ozone (U. S. IGY) 136
Czech earth-tides equipment (Csav Geofysikalniustav) 232
Royal Thai observer in field (Thai IGY) 232
Soviet seismograph (U.S.S.R. IGY) 232
Mount Vesuvius (American Museum of Natural His-
tory) 232
Lloyd V. Berkner 232
Young Soviet scientist (U.S.S.R. IGY) 232
Chapman and Bardin ( U.S.S.R. IG Y ) 232
Author and Soviet scientists (Photograph by Chief
Engineer Nicolas Fonfaev ) 232
Soviet drifting station (University of Washington) 232
Ice-coring on Blue Glacier, Olympic Mountains (Uni-
versity of Washington) 232
Henrietta glacier (Royal Canadian Air Force) 232
Valley glaciers on Ellesmere Island (Royal Canadian
Air Force) 232
PLATES
xxi
Ship in spring ice ( Canadian 'Department of Transport ) 232
Under-ice living quarters (U. S. Army) 232
Stratigraphy of crevasse walls (U, S. National Academy
of Science) 232
Drilling in Antarctic ice (U. S. Navy) 328
Ice cave in Antarctic (U. S. Navy) 328
Hummocky sea ice ( U. S. National Academy of Sciences
IGY) 328
Little America V ( U. S. Navy) 328
Snow-covered facilities at "Little America (17. S. Navy) 328
Annual layers in ice cliffs (Australian National Antarc-
tic Research Expedition) 328
Sno-Gats at Ellsworth Station (17. S. National Acad-
emy of Sciences IGY) 328
Soviet tractor train ( U.S.S.R. IGY) 328
Lowering coring apparatus from the Vema (Lamont
Geological Observatory, Columbia University) 328
Lowering Nansen bottle to collect water samples (U. S.
IGY) 328
Recovering Soviet double coring tube (U.S.S.R.
IGY)
Soviet oceanographic research ship, Vityaz (U.S.S.R.
IGY)
TABLES
1 Countries which participated in the IGY 333
2 Bureau of the Comite Special de VAnnee
Geophysique Internationale 334
3 IGY subjects and their reporters 334
4 Members of GSAGI 335
5 Record of artificial satellites and space probes
launched in 1957-1958 335
6 Record of artificial satellites and planets
launched in 1959 336
7 Record of artificial satellites placed in orbit
January i, 1960, to April 12, 1961 337
8 Features of Sputnik satellites 338
9 - Features of Vanguard satellites 339
10 - Features of Explorer and Score satellites 340
11 Features of Pioneer space probes and planet 341
12 Features of Discoverer satellites 342
13 Features of Lunik space probes and satellites 343
14 Times and places of Argus experiments 343
15 Radioactive isotopes created by cosmic-ray
bombardment of the atmosphere 344
16 True direction of magnetic compass at London 344
17 Changes in the strength of the earth's magnetic
field 345
18 IGY stations in the Antarctic 345
19 Some of the world's record cold temperatures 346
G^V"
1
THE YEAR OF
THE NEW MOONS
CHAPTER I
THE INTERNATIONAL
GEOPHYSICAL YEAR
JUNE 1957
On the evening of June 30, 1957, I sat on the darkening
veranda of our summer cottage on the Georgian Bay of Lake
Huron, waiting for midnight and the opening of the Interna-
tional Geophysical Year. There in the wilds I had no measure-
ments to make, and I knew that nothing would mark the
event; but it was exciting to contemplate what the next eight-
een months would bring.
A night breeze stirred through the pines; ripples lapped
against the bare rock shore and bumped a boat against the
dock. Mosquitoes shrilled on the screening. From far on the
other side of the bay came the drone of an outboard motor and
from the rocks behind the kitchen the clang and scrape of a
metal plate as the children's pet racoon deliberated over her
dinner.
Above the low rocky coast; the Milky Way foamed down the
seas of heaven like scud marking the set moon's wake, and a
thousand stars twinkled as buoys to chart its passage. Their
4 IGY : The Year of the New Moons
brilliance against the blackness of the night is a light to com-
fort us in darkness, and marks the shores of man's vision of
paradise. In all religions and mythologies the seat of the Al-
mighty and the homes of the blessed have been placed in the
unfathomed depths of space.
The mysteries of the heavens were enough to achieve this
veneration when the firmament was considered to be just an
illuminated back-drop to the solar system; by how much
should our wonder and awe have grown now that we appre-
ciate how vastly more immense and grand the universe is!
Until the time of Kepler, man believed that the sun rose and
set for him; he regarded the heavens as a spectacle mounted for
his delectation; and he considered any startling event a mira-
cle. Today we see ourselves as dust in a galaxy of greater size
and intricacy than anyone could have dared imagine had it not
been revealed by careful observation and precise logic. No
longer is our admiration for the beauty of night limited to the
few thousand stars that the best eye can see. In our imagina-
tion we can now visualize the Milky Way as a hundred billion
suns, each like our own, and all of them forming but a single
galaxy, just one spiral nebula, among uncounted and un-
countable clusters of other similar galaxies stretching in or-
dered myriads beyond the farthest reach of telescopes.
By any material measure, we are of far less consequence
than a speck of dust in a house. From a small room with an
earth and a sun and a thousand stars painted on the walls, our
universe has expanded into a city of indescribable elegance,
vastness, and regularity in which our galaxy, our sun, our
earth, and ourselves occupy a humble place.
Our progress in science has not succeeded in giving us a
complete understanding of this universe, nor is it likely ever to
do so, but by disclosing to us so much more than was at first
obvious it has served to put our ignorance and insignificance
into perspective. If our discoveries have shown us how small
INTERNATIONAL GEOPHYSICAL YEAR 5
is our understanding and how limited our comprehension, they
have also, by revealing the regularity and pattern of the uni-
verse, made us aware that through systematic study we can
follow most closely the path of creation and see the steps by
which the unseen Creator trod.
Just as study has demonstrated that in addition to being
larger the universe is also more regular than had been thought,
so do other investigations uncover hidden meaning in the
nature of all matter, energy, and life. Everywhere in science
modern tools and ideas bring to light the elegant and orderly
skeins by which nature builds the glory that we see about us,
knit in regular patterns from simple stitches. Her apparently
infinite materials are made of only a few million chemicals.
These are not unrelated substances, but the compounds of
one hundred and three elements. Even the elements are not
distinct; each consists of electrons, protons, neutrons, and
energy arranged in a special pattern. The colours that we see in
such a myriad of shades are but electro-magnetic vibrations of
varying wave-lengths. Indeed, we may think of all nature in
terms of music, as infinitely ingenious and elaborate variations
on a few simple themes.
It is plain that creation was not haphazard, but orderly. The
way to understand creation better is, therefore, to follow the
pattern it has set, which clearly is the road of intellect. It might
seem presumptuous to suggest that in science man has found
the way to map the path of the Creator, and conceited to claim
that man by mathematical logic has solved a few riddles of the
universe, thereby achieving a modicum of control over its
functions. The scientist, however, is saved from the sin of
Lucifer by an ever-increasing awe which holds his self-conceit
in check. If science has given unexpected power to man, it has
to an even greater extent revealed the unimagined glory of God.
Man was endowed with intellect as well as feeling, and it
behoves him to use his intellect to govern himself and his
6 IGY : The Year of the New Moons
environment. The International Geophysical Year was con-
ceived as the greatest attempt men have yet made to band
together to examine, without passion or undue rivalry, their
environment, their home and ultimate resource, the earth.
Men, it is true, have studied the earth for thousands of years
and have discovered much more about it than about the un-
seen universe around us, but these studies have been local
efforts, each limited to a particular ocean, mountain peak, or
storm, or to a single aspect of the earth its rocks, its magnet-
ism, or its atmosphere. The International Geophysical Year
was to be different, not because it would be bigger, though it
had to be, but because it would be an attempt to be all-
embracing, to fit the earth into the pattern of the universe, to
relate its parts together, to discover hidden order, and to
interpret the whole in relation to space, and especially, to that
greatest influence in nearby space, the sun.
This far-flung and happy enterprise had not sprung into
being unannounced; it was the child of two sets of parents.
On the one hand it was a direct descendant of the First and
Second International Polar Years of 1882-3 an d 1 93 2 ~3; ai *d
on the other hand it was an offspring of the international
scientific unions, the dozen bodies through which world scien-
tists have been meeting regularly since 1919. So great and
successful an operation could not have been conceived, let
alone smoothly executed, without the experience thus be-
queathed to it.
The First International Polar Year (IPY i ) was proposed by
Lieutenant Carl Weyprecht of Austria and organized in 1879
at a meeting of the International Meteorological Congress. A
committee under the chairmanship of G. Newmayer of Ham-
burg and later H. Wild of St. Petersburg laid plans, established
rules for taking observations, fixed the duration of IPY i to be
from August i, 1882, to September i, 1883, and later published
the results. Eleven nations sent expeditions to twelve bases
INTERNATIONAL GEOPHYSICAL YEAR 7
around the Arctic and to two others in the Southern Ocean.
The conditions prevailing then were less than ideal. So little
was known of the polar regions that not all the bases were
well sited; for instance, the two antarctic stations in South
Georgia and Cape Horn were far removed from the south
magnetic pole, which they had been particularly established to
investigate. Arrangements for pairs of stations to photograph
the aurora were made under the supposition that it appears at
a height of 5 miles, but the results were poor because the
aurora was discovered always to form above a height of 60
miles. Some parties were ill-equipped for the rigors they had to
face. There was no radio by which to communicate or provide
time signals. Only the French party used cameras to photo-
graph automatically the readings on their instruments.
In spite of these handicaps, the achievements were great.
The first clear ideas of the distribution of the aurora borealis
and of polar weather were obtained. Fortunately, the consider-
able sun-spot activity during this period was accompanied by
the two greatest magnetic storms ever recorded in high lati-
tudes. The observations of these storms proved their value
forty years later in 1926 when Sydney Chapman, in developing
his hypothesis that currents flow in the upper atmosphere,
used these records to calculate the strength and location of the
currents. In 1882 the southern stations observed a transit of
Venus across the face of the sun, and many stations recorded
the effects of the volcanic eruption of Krakatoa in 1883 large
tidal waves and atmospheric disturbances that travelled twice
around the earth. The results were published in a shelf-full of
quarto volumes.
Interest in international co-operation in polar exploration
then subsided for forty-five years, but revived in time for
scientists to plan a Second Polar Year (IPY 2) to celebrate the
golden jubilee of the first. The International Union of
Geodesy and Geophysics, which had been formed in 1919,
8 IGY : The Year of the New Moons
played a major role in organizing and financing IPY 2. In
particular, it arranged for the publication of a Photographic
Atlas of Auroral Forms to guide observers, provided many
instruments, and financed to a large extent the publication of
results.
The IPY 2 was conducted in the same way as the IPY i.
Again the greatest efforts were devoted to the study of meteor-
ology, magnetism, and aurora in the Arctic, but more countries
and more branches of science were included. The original
resolutions were distributed in eight languages, and eventually
forty-four countries agreed to participate, although only half
of them organized expeditions.
The IPY 2 was handicapped by being held during a period
of minimum sun-spot activity and in the midst of a great
economic depression. It is doubtful whether it could have been
successful without the great efforts of its president, D. la Cour
of Denmark, and the financial support which he persuaded the
Rockefeller Foundation to provide.
Unlike its predecessor, however, the IPY 2 generated an
interest that continued over the years, and many of the
younger men who took part in it played important roles in the
IGY. One of them, J, Bartels, has said: 'IPY 2 was like
chamber music compared to the symphony of the present
IGY." To extend the metaphor, IPY i might be likened to
several soloists, each playing the same tune independently.
Nevertheless, each attempt provided both tangible results and
the experience upon which the next effort could be built.
The second parents of the IGY were the dozen scientific
unions which had been formally organized in 1919. Each
union deals with one branch of science and enables scientists
from all over the world to meet together regularly. The unions
particularly concerned with the IGY were the International
Union of Geodesy and Geophysics (IUGG); the Interna-
tional Astronomical Union (IAU); TUnion Radio Scientifi-
INTERNATIONAL GEOPHYSICAL YEAR 9
que Internationale (URSI); the International Geographical
Union (IGU); and the International Union of Pure and Ap-
plied Physics (I UP AP) .
These unions provided the forums at which the initial plans
were discussed, and the International Council of Scientific
Unions (an administrative body comprising the chief officers
of the unions) co-ordinated their efforts and established the
Comit6 Special de TAnn6e G6ophysique Internationale
( CSAGI ) to run the project.
The infant protege was conceived at a dinner party on the
evening of April 5, 1950. J. A. Van Allen, after whom the Van
Allen belts in space have since been named, had invited half a
dozen friends to his home in a suburb of Washington to meet
Sydney Chapman, the well-known English geophysicist, who
was in the process of moving the chief scene of his activities
from the University of Oxford to the United States. This re-
markable man, who was to become the president of the
CSAGI, is an indefatigable traveller and a firm believer in
strenuous physical exercise. His hosts have often been hard
put to find a convenient swimming pool for his accustomed
swim at 7 o'clock each morning. A typical story told of him
concerns two consecutive meetings held in 1939. He had at-
tended the first in Chicago, and when he did not immediately
turn up at the second in Washington, someone inquired:
"Where's Sydney Chapman?" Those who knew him replied:
"Just give him time, and he'll be along; you know, it takes three
or four days to bicycle from Chicago to Washington!"
All the men who met that evening to do him honour had
taken part in the IPY 2 and were destined to be leaders of the
IGY. During the evening Lloyd V. Berkner proposed that
instead of waiting for the traditional fifty years, they hold the
third Polar Year on the silver anniversary of the second. He
pointed out that the exigencies of war had developed over-
snow vehicles and air-support techniques which would enable
10 I G Y : The Year of the New Moons
scientists to study the Antarctic, that electronic instruments
had been infinitely improved during the past twenty-five years,
that 1957-8 would be a year of sun-spot maximum, and the
most persuasive argument of all that if they were to wait a
full fifty years for the International Polar Year 3, very few of
those present would be in fit shape to enjoy it.
By October 1951, CSAGI had been established and the
planning for this momentous scientific endeavour begun. Be-
cause its scope was to be so much greater than that of its
predecessors, it was christened the International Geophysical
Year rather than the International Polar Year 3.
Altogether no less than sixty-seven countries had agreed to
participate, and their national committees were represented
on CSAGI, but the main burden was carried by a small bureau
and by the reporters who were appointed to co-ordinate the
efforts of each of the fourteen scientific programs. Their names
and those of the participating countries are given at the end of
this book.
In a series of meetings, both of CSAGI as a whole and of
smaller groups, suggestions were thrashed out. The reporters
for the programs indicated what observations they felt were
required; representatives of the various countries tried to ob-
tain support for these programs and in many cases made
counter-proposals. After a number of exchanges, unified plans
were formulated to make the best use of available resources.
It was soon realized that even with the considerable support
which was forthcoming the whole world could not be covered
with equal intensity. Efforts were concentrated, therefore, in
the polar regions, in the equatorial zone, and along several
belts joining pole to pole, one through Europe and Africa, an-
other through the Americas, and a third through east Asia and
Australia. To concentrate activities further, certain days were
appointed for special efforts that could not be carried on all the
time. On such days rockets would be fired simultaneously and
The World of the International Geophysical Year. Countries in black
did not participate in the IGY. Heavy lines show the paths of totality
of solar eclipses during the IGY (1957-8) and IGC (1959)- Broken
lines show the author's travels during that time.
12 IGY : The Year of the New Moons
additional upper-air balloons would be sent aloft. Some of
these "world days" were fixed in advance, but plans were
sufficiently flexible so that all resources could be focused at
short notice on the study of an unexpected scientific event
for instance, a large outburst on the sun.
To facilitate the reduction of results, uniform instructions
were prepared, and a whole series of annals published to pro-
mulgate them.
Finally, it was agreed that all data obtained in the program
were to be freely circulated. Three World Data Centres were
established: A in Washington, B in Moscow, and C divided
among several European cities. Every country sent observa-
tions to at least one World Data Centre, which then was
charged with distributing them to the others.
The first year of the planned eighteen-month period was so
successful that the Soviet Union proposed in August 1958 that
the work be continued through 1959. A reduced effort was
agreed upon and called the International Geophysical Co-
operation (IGC, 1959).
When the projects were ended, CSAGI was dissolved and
the members thanked for their invaluable efforts on behalf of
science and of mankind. Those activities which could be han-
dled by the unions were once more entrusted to them. The
Comit6 Internationale Geophysique (GIG) was formed, with
the same indefatigable secretary as the IUGG, Georges La
clav^re, to wind up the IGY and get its results published, and
to continue reduced programs of international co-operation.
In three regions nearby space, the oceans, and Antarctica
research had been initiated on so broad a scale that special
committees were organized to continue administrative ar-
rangements.
It is my hope that in this book the reader may learn some-
thing of the important discoveries made during the IGY and
INTERNATIONAL GEOPHYSICAL YEAR 13
IGC and that he will be able to share the excitement of the
scientists who were fortunate enough to have engaged in this
exploration of the earth. Perhaps with them he will feel mo-
mentarily lifted above the earth and see the whole world in
perspective. By launching satellites into outer space, the IGY
has disclosed the immensity of the vast and hostile space that
surrounds our world; perhaps in the face of this immensity he
may discover the essential unity of all mankind.
CHAPTER 2
COLORADO
JULY 195?
On July i I had to leave the tranquillity of Georgian Bay to
fly to the University of Colorado to hold a series of seminars in
physics and geology for summer-school students, and give a
public lecture. In July 1957 public lectures on the International
Geophysical Year were very fashionable.
I flew over the great American plains to Denver. The im-
mensity and fertility of that checkerboard of fields which con-
stitutes the North American prairies always amazes me. Flying
west, whether to Edmonton or to Texas, one passes for hours
over plains laid out in one-mile squares that seem to stretch
endlessly in every direction.
Watching, I soon grew tired of the monotony and turned to
read or eat or doze; when I looked again, subtle changes had
interposed. The green had faded to yellow, brown, even
orange. A great river twisted its brown flood across the map.
Occasionally, a speckled town broke the pattern with a finer
mesh of streets. Roads and railways converged and parted,
each as fine and as smoothly curved as a fishing-line across the
floor.
C OLO R ADO 15
It was at once a familiar and unknown land to me: familiar
from frequent flights across it, and four trips by automobile as
a student; yet strange because I had never stayed there, but
like a migrant goose had chiefly seen it from above.
Over Nebraska I saw again the flowing dust I remembered
so well. At first it was no more than a haze, a shimmer, an
almost imperceptible mist over the land. I thought it was but
a trick that the vibration of the plane was playing on my eyes.
Slowly it grew clearer and more dense until it formed into soft,
grey-yellow clouds flowing in gentle puffs across the fields. In
1934 and 1935 I had choked in clouds such as these, seen the
dried leaves of the unripened corn blown across the highway,
and the dust piled in the lee of sheds and f enceposts.
From 18,000 feet above, one is not part of the land, but one
can see how the sun beats down and how its vagaries distribute
drought or flood, life or disaster, wealth or ruin, prosperity or
despair to the world below. Here, on the border-zone between
the green fields of the east and the buff deserts of the west, the
power and intransigence of the sun are very real.
In Denver, Professor Charles Morris met me, and we drove
to the red-brick campus at Boulder, at the foot of the brick-red
mountain slabs which fence the main Rockies.
A few days of lecturing quickly passed, and after them came
my reward. Two of the professors of geology drove me back
into the mountains to meet their graduate students and to see
their field work. Behind Boulder we plunged into the wall of
mountains, up a canyon cut by a bucking, white-crested
stream, and drove smoothly up along it in a manner that would
have amazed the hardy fur-traders and prospectors who first
entered these fastnesses. Where once a mule-trail skirted the
torrent's wall there is now a four-lane highway; where men
ached and sweated under packs and headstraps towards the
peaks diesel trucks now pant over Loveland's i2,ooo-foot pass;
where once were gold mines there are now $10 uranium cures
16 IGY : The Year of the New Moons
for bursitis. In the bar of the Leadville Hotel where miners
once toasted Baby Doe Tabor one can airmail a picture post-
card home, or order fresh sea-food specials. Even the Indians,
hunted no longer, sell moccasins and foot-long hot dogs. At
gasoline stations tame bears drink pop by the bottlef ul.
We left the highway and by dusty back roads entered the
heart of the mountains where the hillsides are still lush green
and the gentians bottle-blue in the clear, cool mountain air.
We passed the ghosts of the old mining camps Aspen, Ely,
Park City, Leadville, Tintic but saw only one active mine. It
is strange that so great a mining state as Colorado should so
quickly have yielded up its riches, treasure which went to build
Denver and New York. This presages the day when the
world's stock of easily accessible minerals will be exhausted,
and its remaining store will be more difficult and more ex-
pensive to acquire,
My companions, Professors Larry Walker and Warren
Longley, showed me the magnificent Colorado scenery and to
its beauty added interest by pointing out great folds in the
rocks, necks of former volcanoes, and scars of ancient earth-
quakes. Weathering had laid bare the bones and tissue of the
earth, and erosion had exposed sections of the crust to view.
The core of one range of mountains was a great block of
granite and gneiss uplifted to 14,000 feet and denuded of its
cover. On the lower slopes multicoloured shales and sand-
stones lay in twisted layers where they had slipped off this
great protrusion. These sights fascinated me, for the study of
the causes of mountain-building and the nature of continental
structure is my own particular scientific specialty.
Because the solid part of the earth changes so slowly, its
study was only marginally included in the program of the IGY,
which dealt particularly with the mobile aspects of the earth
that would show significant changes within an eighteen-month
period. Therefore, I was not as preoccupied during the IGY
COLORADO X y
with my own special research programs, as many geophysicists
were, and when the chance came I was free to travel widely.
At the same time, because I knew that the key to the physics
of mountain-building lies in a consideration of the earth as a
whole and in a comparison of the features of all mountains, I
welcomed the opportunity to further my own work by going to
see as many mountains as possible.
We drove on to the high-altitude solar observatory which the
National Bureau of Standards and the University of Colorado
maintain on one of the highest ridges of the Rocky Mountains
near Climax. The place, with its clear skies and its elevation of
13,000 feet, high above much of the atmosphere, provides
particularly good conditions for observing the sun. This solar
observatory is a fine example of the 120 throughout the world
which maintained a continuous watch upon the sun during the
ICY.
The instruments that we saw were of three types. There
were radio telescopes equipped with a great dish of wire net-
ting to catch the radio noise emitted by the sun. There was an
ordinary telescope fitted with a dark-red filter specially de-
signed to reduce the glare and to make visible the great out-
bursts of hydrogen gas, called solar flares, which occur ir-
regularly on the sun. The flames of erupting hydrogen are red
and can best be seen through these filters, which eliminate
almost all other light. Every minute a camera took a photo-
graph of the sun through this telescope. Since much of the
equipment was automatic, most of the scientists were not at
the observatory but in their offices in Boulder, seeking to
interpret the results. A young Austrian astronomer was on
duty, and he led us along a foot-path through the mountain
glade to see the third and most interesting telescope of all. This
telescope was of the type invented by the great French as-
tronomer, Lyot, for studying solar prominences. At one time
these jets of incandescent gas which constantly play about the
i8 IGY : The Year of the New Moons
surface of the sun could only be seen at its edges during total
solar eclipses, but Lyot devised a means of placing a metal disc
far up the tube of telescopes in such a manner that an artificial
eclipse would be created.
Our guide allowed us to look at these prominences. The
black shadow of the disc exactly covered the bright face of the
sun. In the sun's atmosphere we could see great bursts of flame
darting out and curving in graceful paths before falling back
again. Seeing the motion of these vast flames and knowing
that many were larger than the whole earth, we realized vividly
with what colossal speed and energy they were travelling
and how violent is the activity of the sun.
Afterwards, as we turned to walk the mountain paths in
sunshine, the beauty of the morning was enhanced by our
awareness, dim though it might be, of the wonders of the uni-
verse which the efforts of generations of scientists have re-
vealed. I have endeavoured, in recounting my travels during
the IGY, to communicate to the reader the sense of fascination
that accompanied me. To this end, I have interwoven the ac-
counts of my stop-overs with chapters explaining the main
programs of the IGY. We can do no better than start by
considering the sun itself.
CHAPTER 3
THE SUN
The sun is master of our material life. From its light and heat
we derive all our vital powers; without it there would be neither
daylight nor seasons, wind nor weather. All would be dark and
still and unimaginably cold, for the earth is but the sun's tiny
child and creature. Because the sun's influence upon the sur-
face of the earth is so great, a careful study of the sun played
an essential and indeed dominant part in the International
Geophysical Year.
Our first impression that the sun is a huge furnace is correct
enough. True, its fires are not burning in air; their immense
heat is generated by hydrogen atoms combining with one an-
other to form helium atoms, with the resultant emission of the
vast energy of nuclear fusion. The sun is, in fact, an enormous
nuclear reactor, not fissioning uranium as man-made reactors
do, but fusing hydrogen as men hope the reactors of the future
will. The temperature at the centre of the sun has been es-
timated to be thirty million degrees Fahrenheit and the pres-
sure three hundred billion pounds per square inch.
The sun, like other furnaces, emits radiation and jets of gas.
Some radiation, in the form of light, heat, and weak ultra-
20 IGY : The Year of the New Moons
violet rays, reaches us every day. It was suspected, however,
that other rays of the sun are prevented from reaching us by
the earth's atmosphere acting as a shield, for the aurora gives
us evidence that the top of the atmosphere is at times violently
agitated by blasts of gases or radiation which cannot break
through to the earth. The light, heat, and radio waves which
we receive from the sun penetrate the shield of the earth's
atmosphere through two so-called "windows," and these rays
are the only ones directly observable from the earth's surface.
This shielding effect of the atmosphere has made it difficult for
us to observe the sun, for even on a cloudless day the atmos-
phere distorts our view and makes the details in photographs
fuzzy. Like a gardener in a greenhouse in winter, we look out
through misty windows, not knowing how cold it is outside nor
from which direction the wind is blowing.
As Sir Isaac Newton said, "the only remedy is a most serene
and quiet air such as may perhaps be found on the tops of the
highest mountains above the grosser clouds." This ideal was
attained just before the IGY when astronomers from the Paris
Observatory and Princeton University sent balloons carrying
12-inch telescopes into the stratosphere, the rarefied outermost
layer of the earth's atmosphere. This is the limit that a balloon
can reach, since it must be lighter than the air surrounding it
and so can never rise above the whole atmosphere. One of the
most important achievements of the IGY was to send artificial
satellites and rockets above the atmosphere to heights from
which a clear, unfiltered view of the sun could be obtained.
The gardener had at last been able to put his head right out of
the window.
Rocket astronomy involves immense problems and great
expense. A rocket is near the top of its trajectory only for a very
few minutes, and travels rapidly, rotating and tumbling as it
goes. If, in spite of these unstable conditions, the instruments
are able to obtain records, there is the further problem of re-
THE SUN 21
covering the records intact. The instruments themselves are
generally destroyed. The Ws that were first used after the
war could carry a load of 'up to a ton, but most of the other
rockets available for research can take useful loads of less than
200 pounds each* Satellites were even more severely limited
when the IGY began, but within three and a half years of the
first launching, sophisticated instruments and the comments
of the first cosmonaut have enabled mankind at last to en-
compass the true appearance of the naked universe. The rec-
ords transmitted back to earth, combined with those made
continuously at many ground observatories (like the one at
Climax) , have given us a new and clearer understanding of the
sun.
It now appears that space, at any rate around the earth and
sun, has a "climate" as changeable as that on the earth's sur-
face. It is not, as was formerly supposed, an inert near-vacuum,
still and cold. In their thin but violent way, the regions of
nearer space are continually shaken and buffeted by a bom-
bardment from the sun of electro-magnetic waves of many
frequencies, called radiation, and of high-speed atoms and
fragments of atoms which strike the earth's atmosphere in
tenuous blasts of "solar wind." To understand electro-magnetic
radiation better, we shall compare it to another kind of radia-
tion, sound waves, with which we are more familiar.
Everyone knows that the beating of a drumhead, the bowing
of a violin, or the blowing of a horn create vibrations that
travel outwards in all directions through the air to strike our
ears. Each note has a characteristic number of vibrations per
second, called frequency. Thus middle C has a frequency of
512 vibrations each second, and high C 1,024. Notes that we
recognize as musical have frequencies ranging between 20,000
vibrations a second for high notes and 20 a second for the
lowest. Above these frequencies are ultra-sonic vibrations,
inaudible to us but just as real. Below these frequencies we
I
^v
S-
^
(O
O
<o
2
1
0> ,
P-
n
a
S
I
s
4-J
5
s
0)
CxO
I
I
S
THE SUN 23
distinguish individual beats and cease to regard the effect as
music. This is an idiosyncrasy of ours, for the ticking of a clock
or the beating of a heart is just as regular, although less fre-
quent, than the vibration of musical notes. There is, in effect,
a great spectrum of mechanical vibrations, and our ears only
hear or recognize as music the part within what we may call
the "audible window/'
A flash of lightning and the accompanying clap of thunder
enable us to time the speed of sound. If a flash occurs 1,000
feet away and we hear the clap a second later, we know that
the sound has travelled at the rate of 1,000 feet a second. All
sounds travel in air at the same speed. When middle C is
played, the instrument vibrates 512 times a second, and each
vibration will have travelled about 2 feet before the next starts
out. This distance is called the wave-length, and wave-length
multiplied by frequency gives velocity. Thus, the higher the
frequency of a note, the shorter its wave-length. Either of these
numbers, frequency or wave-length, defines one particular
note and tells us two things about it: which note on the scale
is being played, and its pitch, whether high or low, treble or
bass.
Just as mechanical vibrations include heart beats, earth-
quake waves, sound waves, music and inaudible ultra-sonic
vibrations which seem so diverse to us but which only differ
in frequency and wave-length, so are radio waves, heat, light,
ultra-violet, and X-rays all related. They are all electro-
magnetic waves of different frequencies, distinguished from
one another as the music of a piccolo is distinguished from that
of a double bass. These electro-magnetic waves travel at the
astonishing velocity of 186,000 miles, or 300,000,000 metres,
each second. As in the case of sound waves, frequency mul-
tiplied by wave-length gives velocity. Thus, radio waves broad-
cast at a frequency of 1,000,000 vibrations a second (called
one megacycle) each have a wave-length of 300 metres. The
3
<a
53
-o
<o /
: *- O /
s
V
%s
fl
O oo
S v
cO
CO
5^.2
^
\
\
a \
\
\
\
\
\
.% <o
n >x
% o
cu
DC
-s iS
a b M
^ I P
\J
8 -a
J
O
c
THE SUN 2 ~
two multiplied together give the velocity. Either number de-
fines a particular wave.
Radio wave-lengths in the broadcast range are measured in
metres, short radio waves in inches, heat waves in hundredths
of an inch, and visible light in hundred thousandths of an
inch; ultra-violet and X-rays have shorter wave-lengths still.
All vibrate an enormous number of times a second. Radio
waves are defined in terms either of wave-length or of fre-
quency, but short waves are usually specified in terms of
wave-length measured in Angstrom units, each of which is one
hundred millionth of a centimetre.
We enjoy light and colour in our lives, just as we enjoy
symphonic music, without thinking what constitutes either;
but physicists and composers find it useful to analyse what
they see or hear. Sunlight, like a symphony, is a great melange,
but it can be broken into its parts by a prism. We see examples
of this in the coloured flashes of pure light from diamonds,
dewdrops, and rainbows. Each individual colour in a rainbow
represents light of a particular frequency and wave-length and
may be likened to a note on the piano. When a musician hears
a note, whether it is played alone or as part of a symphony, he
can tell two things about it: what note it is, and whether it is
treble or bass. A physicist, too, can tell two things about an
individual colour or "line" of light. He can say what element
was excited to create it and how hot that element was at the
time. The lines due to a single element may be compared, for
example, to all the "C's" or all the "D's" on the scale; and the
temperature of the element is comparable to the pitch of
sound.
C notes have characteristic frequencies, such as 32, 64, 128,
256, 512, 1024 vibrations a second; similarly the element
hydrogen, if suitably excited, gives rise to lines of light of
characteristic wave-lengths, including those of 1216, 4340,
4861, and 6563 Angstrom units. It was the strong red line of
26 I G Y : The Year of the New Moons
6563 Angstrom units, created by fast-moving hydrogen gas on
the sun, which astronomers saw through the telescope at
Climax as they watched for solar flares. Other light could not
penetrate the filters in the telescope.
By analysing light, spectroscopists can determine the ele-
ments present in the source. The gas helium, indeed, takes its
name from the Greek word for sun because its spectral lines
were discovered in sunlight before anyone had found the ele-
ment on earth. The temperature of the source can be estimated
by noting which are the dominant lines among those peculiar
to each element. If the source is only warm, it emits heat but
no light. We all know this, for we recognize that a red-hot
poker is not as hot as a poker at white heat. As an object is
heated, the dominant radiation changes to shorter and shorter
wave-lengths with higher and higher frequencies until at a
temperature of about 100,000 degrees, the object emits ultra-
violet light, and at about 1,000,000 degrees it emits X-rays.
Below the opposite end of the spectrum lie waves of increas-
ingly longer wave-length and lower frequency called infra-red
and radio waves.
Careful examination and analysis of the light of the sun to
determine which lines are represented enable the spectrosco-
pist to identify not only the elements but also the temperature
of different parts. Until rockets and satellites broke through
the roof of the atmosphere, much of the evidence for this was
indirect, for humans do not notice any but light and heat
waves and are cut off from most of the other waves by the
benign umbrella of the earth's atmosphere. Even the waves
that can penetrate the atmosphere are often partly absorbed,
as the disgruntled sun-bather can attest when clouds come
between him and the sun.
It is well that the earth's atmosphere protects us from the
electro-magnetic energy that floods the universe, for X-rays
and ultra-violet light would produce severe burns which might
THE SUN 27
kill us now and which would certainly have prohibited the
development of living creatures by preventing the formation
of the necessary large molecules.
Through spectroscopy and the satellites and rockets, we
have gained a better idea of the shape and nature of the sun.
It looks a little like the end of a jelly roll. In the middle is the
round yellow photosphere, the part we see every day. This is
separated by the red rim of the chromosphere from the paler
yellow-green corona. And all three are linked by a variety of
eruptions and imperfections, such as sun-spots, solar flares,
and prominences which burst through the outer layers from
the hot interior.
The photosphere has a temperature of about 10,000 degrees
Fahrenheit and radiates most strongly the heat and light waves
and those ultra-violet rays which conveniently enough pene-
trate the atmosphere and reach us through the visible window.
The layer immediately above the photosphere was first seen
in total eclipses as a red rim and was called the chromosphere.
Because the chromosphere is much hotter than the sun's sur-
face, it radiates light of higher frequency. But this ultra-violet
light does not penetrate our atmosphere and so could not be
photographed until rockets carried cameras above the atmos-
phere.
One of the brightest "colours" in the chromosphere is the
invisible ultra-violet light of precisely 1216 Angstrom units.
This wave-length, called the Lyman alpha line, is radiated by
hydrogen at a temperature of tens of thousands of degrees and
so tells astronomers both the composition and the temperature
of the chromosphere.
Above the chromosphere lies the faint but vast corona seen
only during total eclipses. Its strange and awesome brilliance
casts a faint greenish light of unforgettable beauty which
terrified early man. The corona was suspected to be even
hotter than the chromosphere and to emit X-rays of short
28 IGY : The Year of the New Moons
wave-lengths. To prove this supposition, measurements of the
X-ray flux had to be taken above the atmosphere during a
total eclipse, when the rest of the sun would be hidden. On
October 12, 1958, in the only total eclipse during the IGY ? the
necessary data were obtained. The U.S.S. Point Defiance had
been sent to the Danger Islands, in the mid-Pacific, which lay
in the path of totality. As the moon passed in front of the face
F - Flare
S - Sunspot
P - Prominence
FS Flare Surge
Diagrammatic representation of major solar activity.
of the sun, six instrumented rockets were fired in sequence
from the deck of the ship. The information which they tele-
metered back showed that at totality (when both the photo-
sphere and the chromosphere were hidden) the visible and
ultra-violet radiation dropped to a low value, but the X-rays
coming from the still-visible corona continued strong. The
thin corona, more tenuous than most laboratory vacuums,
emits X-rays of wave-lengths of 10 to 100 Angstrom units,
indicating a normal temperature of about 1,000,000 degrees
Centigrade.
The path of totality of an eclipse is usually so narrow that it
T H E S U N 29
rarely lies over important places, but interestingly enough the
same 1958 eclipse at sunset was total over the large telescopes
of the observatory at Santiago, Chile.
Thus far we have been considering the sun in a quiet state.
It is evident to us all that the total heat radiated by the sun
does not vary greatly from year to year. This average state,
however, is interrupted by cyclical and irregular disturbances;
for superimposed on the tremendous background radiation are
many small and irregular variations which, although they do
not greatly influence the sun's heat, produce other terrestrial
effects quite out of proportion to their energy. Among the
varying features are small rising and falling jets of hot gases
called spicules and prominences; much larger, brief outbursts
called solar flares; longer-lived complexes of sun-spots; and
bright patches accompanying them known as faculae and
plages. These erupt from the photosphere through the outer
layers of the sun, knitting them together, and presenting fasci-
nating problems for observation and interpretation. Chief of
these variations are sun-spots, which were first recorded two
thousand years ago by the Chinese. When the sun's brilliance
was partially filtered by mist, they noticed some particularly
large spots and called them "flying birds." Others were ob-
served through the first telescopes, between 1608 and 1615;
Galileo's insistence that they were blemishes on the most per-
fect of heavenly bodies placed him in disfavour with the
Church.
The nature of sun-spots has long intrigued astronomers, and
one of the objectives of the Polar Years and of the IGY was to
try to discover what causes them. The problem has not yet
been fully resolved, but much is now known. Sun-spots grow
and disperse intermittently; they rotate with the sun once every
twenty-seven days and may last for several revolutions. Al-
though they look small on the face of the sun, they are really
vast, a minor one being larger than the earth. Associated with
IGY : The Year of the New Moons
sun-spots are strong magnetic fields; the spots always occur in
pairs, one of north and the other of south magnetic polarity.
They are known to be giant vortices, or funnels, which appear
dark because the gas in them is cooler than the rest of the
surface. It has been recently suggested that these vortices are
parts of belts of rotating gas within the sun which protrude
from its surface to form sun-spots.
36
35
34
33
to
CO
Q
31 -
30-
Average January
Temperature
29
1880 T890 1900
7910 1920
Year
1930 1940 t950 1960
Chart shows temperature in New York vary-
ing with cycles of greatest sun-spot activity.
The number and the position of sun-spots is not constant.
In 1843, a ft er sun-spots had been under observation for more
than two centuries, Heinrich Schwabe reported that they
fluctuate in number and size by periodic cycles averaging a
little more than eleven years. Associated with the sun-spot
cycle are many other interesting effects, such as solar flares,
which tend to increase in number and intensity at sun-spot
THE SUN 31
maxima. By good fortune the IGY coincided with the most
intense maximum yet recorded. These effects were pronounced,
and numerous large solar flares were observed.
A solar flare had first been spotted on September i, 1859, by
Richard Carrington. He had projected an image of the sun on
a screen so that he could sketch a group of giant sun-spots,
when, as he says, he noticed that "within the area of the great
north group, two patches of intensely bright white light broke
out. Seeing the outburst to be very rapidly on the increase and
being somewhat flurried by the surprise, I hastily ran to call
someone to witness the exhibition with me and, on returning
within sixty seconds, was mortified to find that it was already
much changed and enfeebled/' This astonishing event, which
was noticed by at least one other observer, was exceptional.
No solar flare of equal brilliance has been noted in the century
since, and indeed no more were seen until 1892 when
G. E. Hale invented a spectrograph capable of photographing
the sun in the light of a single line.
Flares were found to be great outbursts of hot hydrogen. Be-
cause in temperature and composition they are different from
the rest of the sun's surface, they can be seen, as at Climax,
through a filter which only transmits the particular wave-
length by which they shine most brightly.
Thirty hours after the solar flare, Carrington noticed a size-
able magnetic storm and brilliant displays of aurora, which, he
suggested, had been caused by the flare. There is no doubt now
that he was correct, that solar flares do cause striking effects in
the earth's magnetic field, in aurora, and in radio transmission.
The violence of these outbursts was demonstrated in an experi-
ment performed in California in August 1957. Within a few
minutes of the first observation of a large solar flare, rockets
carrying instruments were fired above the atmosphere. They
recorded X-rays of wave-lengths as short as i or 2 Angstrom
units. Such unusually short wave-lengths indicate that above
32 IGY : The Year of the New Moons
the solar flare temperatures as high as 10,000,000 degrees
Centigrade were being generated in the sun's corona.
Flares vary widely in size and frequency. With few sun-
spots, only one or two small flares, each lasting only a few
minutes, may occur in a month, but during years of peak solar
activity there may be several each day, some of enormous
power, often visible for over an hour. The cause of flares and
their exact nature is not known, but their size, their cata-
strophic nature, and the powerful effects that they have upon
the earth are unmistakable. They are violent explosions which
in a few minutes may grow as large as vast sun-spots and cover
ten billion square miles. By means of these flares the sun
ejects jets of tenuous gas which, moving at hundreds of miles
a second through space, slam into the earth's atmosphere as
gigantic shock waves. The most powerful of them squash the
earth's magnetic field, play havoc with communications, and
induce auroral displays that light up half the earth. These
violent bursts of radiation and atomic particles have been
called solar shock waves, or magnetic typhoons. They con-
stitute one of the major factors disturbing the "climate" of
nearby space and may well prove hazardous for space travel.
Below are listed the effects which flares can produce, but be-
cause the jets of gas are directional and often miss the earth,
not all these phenomena are observed every time.
1. A burst of reddish light, visible through filters, which
reaches the earth in eight minutes. These waves travel 186,000
miles a second.
2. A flash of ultra-violet light which reaches the earth in
eight minutes and produces sudden ionospheric and magnetic
disturbances.
3. A burst of short-wave radio "noise," which also takes
eight minutes to reach the earth.
4. A flux of low-energy cosmic rays, high-speed atoms, and
electrons, which takes half an hour to reach the earth and
THE SUN 33
which has been observed on less than a dozen occasions, most
strongly on February 23, 1956. These particles travel about
50,000 miles a second.
5. A stream of slower atoms and electrons which takes
about twenty-four hours to reach the earth and gives rise to
auroral displays and magnetic and ionospheric effects. These
travel about i ,000 miles a second.
Better understood than solar flares are solar prominences
such as I saw at Climax, These are great clouds and jets of gas,
forever playing over the surface of the sun, rising to heights of
50,000 miles and more, but lacking the strong terrestrial effects
of flares. Presumably this is because they are less violent and
do not escape to bombard the earth's upper atmosphere.
Another interesting point about the sun which was clarified
during the IGY was the nature of the green flash often seen at
sunset and less frequently at sunrise. It had been maintained
by some that this was a momentary optical illusion, but the
observers of the autumn sunset at the south pole station dis-
proved it. There, over the level snow fields, the sun sank so
slowly for the winter night that the green flash was visible for
half an hour. In addition, both Father D. J. K. O'Connell,
director of the Vatican City Observatory, and Professor M.
Minnaert of Holland took photographs and published papers
proving that the green flash is due to diffraction of the sun's
light by the atmosphere. The green flash is as real as the flash
of colour in a diamond or a rainbow.
CHAPTER 4
GEOPHYSICAL
JAMBOREE
AUGUST-SEPTEMBER 1957
Later in July I returned from Colorado to Toronto to plunge
again into the preparations for the Xlth General Assembly of
the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics, which
was to open in Toronto at the end of August. Whereas the
International Geophysical Year was a great but brief world-
wide project in geophysics, the IUGG had long been the less-
publicized but permanent forum for international geophysics.
The IUGG holds a general meeting every three years, and it
tries to distribute these and its smaller meetings fairly among
the sixty member nations.
International science is organized chiefly in two forms, both
with useful but different functions. On the one hand are the
operational agencies, such as in the United Nations, the World
Health Organization and the World Meteorological Organiza-
tion, which were established with the definite objectives of
improving health and forecasting weather. These bodies have
large budgets and permanent staffs; their meetings are at-
GEOPHYSICAL JAMBOREE 35
tended by civil servants and involve the execution of govern-
mental policies. On the other hand are a dozen unions, some
almost a century old, corresponding to the main branches of
science. Their function is to enable scientists to meet and dis-
cuss science. They have official recognition, and government as
well as private scientists attend, but they are not bound by
government policies and diplomatic usages. The fees paid by
the member countries are small and the unions have no per-
manent staffs. They do not carry out broad routine tasks, for
their function is to promote science, not to utilize it. The In-
ternational Union of Geodesy and Geophysics is one of these
unions.
The unions function in three ways. First of all, they main-
tain permanent services and commissions, often located at a
university, where all the records for a particular subject are sent
from all over the world for collation and publication. In the
case of the IUGG there are several such centres for different
subjects. The headquarters for geodetic data is in Paris, and
all observations that might further the task of measuring the
size and shape of the earth are collected there. All records of
earthquakes obtained by six hundred seismological observa-
tories are sent to Strasbourg and Cambridge; a few selected
stations send reports of large earthquakes by cable to Washing-
ton, whence preliminary information is immediately made
available to the press and to relief organizations. Standards for
the analysis of variations in sea water are prepared and main-
tained at Copenhagen; the wobble of the earth's axis is studied
at Naples; geomagnetic data of different kinds are collected at
Gottingen, de Bilt, and Tortosa. Anyone wishing informa-
tion on the world's earthquakes or on geomagnetism may
obtain published summaries, instead of having to write to six
hundred seismological stations or two hundred geomagnetic
observatories.
Because most of this work is done by men and women who
36 I G Y : The Year of the New Moons
love to do it, by professors in their spare time and by their
dedicated assistants, astonishingly little cost is involved. It says
a great deal for the devotion and very little for the advertising
acumen of scientists that such extensive work should have
gone on for years with so little support and no public acknowl-
edgement. The budget for the IUGG for 1958 was $80,000,
most of which went for research, publications, and travel ex-
penses. Most of the unions have no paid staff and their head-
quarters is in the office of whichever scientist has been elected
secretary. This frugality may be startling, but it has its re-
wards. The unions, having no large benefactors, are almost
wholly free from interference and can pursue without fear or
favour whatever course a majority of the delegates and mem-
bers decide upon.
The second function of the international unions is to spon-
sor world-embracing ventures in science, such as the Interna-
tional Geophysical Year. The third function is to hold regular
meetings, such as the one in Toronto, which constitute the
chief forums for international exchange by leading scientists.
The Xlth General Assembly was to have met in one of the
American republics. Unfortunately, eighteen months before
the meetings were to take place, its government suffered a
rather violent upheaval, and the scientists there asked to be
relieved of the responsibility. Five or six bales of cablegrams
and letters, and three months later, the bemused geophysicists
of Toronto awoke to the realization that they would be playing
host to the largest meeting of the world's geophysicists to be
held during the IGY. They had but a few months in which to
transform themselves from scientists into convention man-
agers.
Anyone who has ever taken part in one of these affairs
knows the basic requirements for a successful meeting. The
first is a town sufficiently large to absorb the influx of 1,500
people without complete dislocation of its civic housekeeping.
GEOPHYSICAL JAMBOREE 37
Ideally the town should contain a place where the 1,500 people
can be housed and fed within easy reach of the lecture halls in
which they are to meet, give their papers, and hold their
discussions. Unnecessary complications arise when the scien-
tists have to stay in hotels at one side of the city and hold their
meetings five miles away, with heavy traffic in between. The
lecture rooms themselves must provide certain amenities; noth-
ing is more distressing than to attempt to show slides with a
defective lantern in an ill-ventilated room that cannot be
darkened. For the peace of mind and well-being of the dele-
gates there must also be good post offices, an adequate num-
ber of telephones, maps, signs, and information bureaus
staffed by linguists. Facilities must be provided for the press,
since scientists have at last realized that the public has an
interest in what they are doing. Most important of all is the
creation of an easy, friendly atmosphere to dispel the wariness
natural among members of diverse groups. The scientific
papers given during the day are most thoroughly discussed
over drinks or dinner, and the resolutions that must be passed
at formal assemblies are often most easily hammered out at
lunch.
The University of Toronto, with its residences and lecture
halls, was admirably suited to house both delegates and meet-
ings. The committee members could devote themselves, there-
fore, to overcoming mechanical difficulties and to promoting
amity.
Typical of the many mechanical difficulties were the bank-
ing arrangements. On the first day of registration we collected
$20,000 in cash, in every known currency, I think, except gold
bars and wampum.
Ensuring a desirable atmosphere entailed just as much
effort. The three general assemblies preceding this one had
been held in Oslo, in Brussels, and in Rome. Even Toronto's
most ardent admirers would not suggest that as a city it holds
38 I G Y : The Year of the New Moons
the historic interest of these three capitals, but we knew we
could rely on the hospitality of its citizens and the beauty of its
surrounding countryside. Lacking a Roman forum to display
to visitors, we would make do with Niagara Falls. The hos-
pitality, too, was unusual. The opening party was an official
reception given by the Province of Ontario, on the face of it a
solemn and ceremonious occasion. It was held in the Royal
Ontario Museum, just around the corner from the university
an admirable location providing both propinquity and
spaciousness. It did not, however, provide the amenities con-
sidered by the caterers as essential to the serving of food and
drink. But these ingenious men were equal to the task. They
took over an ancient Chinese tomb for their kitchen. After the
delegates had made their way past the official reception line,
the first sight that greeted them was a neat maid efficiently
concocting hot hors d'oeuvres in the lee of a stone camel.
To the bewildered eye of the onlooker these large meetings
appear to be a cross between a scientific forum and a circus,
and for the unfortunate scientist involved in their organization
the circus aspect seems to predominate. He may echo the query
of the public: "Why hold these troublesome and expensive
meetings merely to allow scientists to listen to a lot of papers
that they could equally well read in any of a number of schol-
arly publications in the peace and quiet of their own libraries?"
The answer is simple. These gatherings further the interna-
tionalism of science since they provide continuing opportuni-
ties for scientists to meet each other, to learn of each other's
work, and to cross national boundaries and see how others live
and work. The question I am most frequently asked in connec-
tion with the IGY is whether there was a genuine exchange of
information between nations and especially between East and
West, There was a genuine exchange, and it was possible be-
cause the men and women concerned had been accustomed
for years to meet in a friendly atmosphere to discuss new in-
GEOPHYSICAL JAMBOREE 39
formation, ideas, and discoveries. The International Geophysi-
cal Year was but a vaster, more comprehensive version of these
regular sessions, conducted in the same atmosphere of scien-
tific enquiry.
As I write, I have just returned from a small meeting in
Paris. My colleagues included a Spanish Jesuit, a Hungarian
Jew who had immigrated to the United States as a boy, a
Japanese professor, an ardent member of the Soviet Com-
munist party, and a scion of an ancient and aristocratic Italian
family of astronomers. All was harmony because, however
different our view on other matters might be, we had a com-
mon bond in science and geophysics hence the simplicity and
ease of scientific meetings as opposed to political or business
ones. This is not due to the sound reason and sweet temper of
the scientists involved, which are no greater and no less than
in any other group of well-educated, sophisticated men and
women, but rather it is due to the nature of the subject dis-
cussed. It is a great deal simpler to work out a plan for chart-
ing the world's oceans than it is to discuss freedom, wealth,
politics, or religion.
CHAPTER 5
ROMANIA
OCTOBER 1957
The Toronto meetings were scarcely over when with a
feeling of rising excitement I left my cluttered office, the lec-
ture rooms, the stacks of unused documents, the bills and
thank-you letters and set out to visit the Communist half of
the world for the first time. I had been invited by the Roma-
nian Government to visit and lecture on geophysics at various
universities and institutes.
The invitation had both surprised and intrigued me, for I
had no connection with Romania and I knew that very few
Westerners went there. But I could see no reason for not ac-
cepting. I was not engaged in secret work; no one could object
to my lecturing on mountain-building, and I might learn a
great deal about the geology and geophysics of eastern Eu-
rope. As a rather conservative, retired colonel, I was not greatly
disturbed by the thought that I might be accused of being a
Communist sympathizer. Romanian scientists had attended
the meetings in Toronto, and if the president of an interna-
tional union could not pay a return visit to discuss geophysics,
Sun-spots as seen through a telescope.
.,' , "I '''." T- : v, * : ' v "
Detail of sun-spots and granulation on the sun's surface as photo-
graphed from a high-altitude balloon.
Mirrors of a coelostat are adjusted to reflect the sun's image into
a solar telescope at the Shternberg Astronomical Institute, Mos-
The five-inch coronagraph and spectrograph at the high-altitude
observatory at Climax, Colorado. Observer at right is inspecting
the solar-flare patrol instrument.
A large solar prominence, 140,000 miles high. The small white
disc indicates the relative size of the earth.
Balloon parachute, and mounted instrument package for high-
altitude solar research are readied for launching in Minnesota.
The fourth of six rockets is fired from U.S.S. Point Defiance dur-
ing the total solar eclipse of October 12, 1958, at the Danger
Islands, Central Pacific Ocean.
The firing of the first successful Vanguard rocket on March 17,
1958. A small test sphere entered into orbit and became the
second U. S.-IGY satellite.
A highly polished twenty-inch Navy Vanguard satellite is in-
stalled in a rocket at Cape Canaveral, Florida.
Explorer VII, last and largest of the satellites
in the U. S. IGY program, is inspected be-
fore its launching on October 13, 1959.
Launching of the U. S. Air Force's Lunar
Probe III on November 8, 1958, which
failed to reach the moon when its third
stage did not fire.
The instrument container and part of the
parachute of a Soviet research rocket recov-
ered after carrying 4,840 pounds of experi-
mental equipment to an altitude of 132
miles in May 1957.
Replica of Sputnik III, which was launched on May 15, 1958.
It carried 2,130 pounds of instruments and power-supply source.
The firing of a United States Aerobee rocket at the research
launching site at Churchill, Manitoba, Canada. The antennae
are used to track the rocket. Instruments on different rockets
measure different properties of the upper atmosphere, aurora,
and cosmic rays.
ROMANIA 41
then there is neither much use in having international organi-
zations nor much hope for world understanding.
Nevertheless, it was with some misgiving that I left To-
ronto. It was that gay northern season, gayer than southern
springtime, when the maples light the woods like flame a
brilliant presage to the dark, cold poignancy of winter.
The chill and apprehension vanished overnight; I was in
Europe again, caught up in its fascination and busy with the
problems of my journey. They were not trivial. During one
short day in Paris, I twice had to visit the Canadian Embassy,,
the Hungarian and Romanian Consulates, and the Hungarian
Embassy. They seemed to be located in out-of-the-way places.
With the greatest rush and difficulty I got all my visas from
the uncomprehending and secretive officials in their untidy
little offices, and finally I was at the platform to catch the
Arlberg-Orient Express. The Romanians had suggested that I
fly, but perhaps under the influence of spy movies I chose this
famous train. My feeling of triumphant satisfaction as I
climbed onto the sleeper marked Paris-Bucuresti turned to
disappointment when I saw that the corridor was deserted; the
beautiful blonde spy, the two Englishmen discussing cricket,
the German agent, and the other dramatis personae must have
already gone to bed. I did the same.
Next morning the sun glistened on the first autumn snow on
the Alps. The big wet flakes had reached the tracks at the
Arlberg tunnel, but in Austria the snow had turned to rain.
The churches reached up from empty fields to point to heaven
with slim spires or with the stubby thumbs of Byzantine
domes.
As the train rattled out of the defiles and entered the broad
and smiling valleys of Austria, the clouds cleared and the sun
shone on the brown forests and the white peaks above. The
face of Austria was coloured like that of a weather-beaten old
42 I G Y : The Year of the New Moons
man, and in the evening as we approached Vienna and the
border I felt the old world dying.
The Vienna station epitomized the West. It was new, bril-
liantly lighted, and gay with people; its kiosks were full of good
things. As the crowd swarmed off the train, I lingered in the
door of my compartment, and an American said to me:
"Aren't you getting off? This is the end of the line!" Unwit-
tingly, he had expressed my worst fears; so I got off to take a
last look at the West and to buy an emergency supply of
chocolate, cheese, and fruit.
When I returned, the modern express had vanished and a
porter told me that I would find my car on another track. It
was in a dark corner at the farthest end of the station, linked
together with one other through-coach and several dishevelled
freight cars into a mean little train of some of the oldest roll-
ing stock in Europe. The porter said that the cars came back
from the east stripped and filthy but that he, fortunately,
would be leaving it at the border.
More ominous even than the train were the people on the
platform. Several thick, squat men in long leather trench coats
and caps stood and stared at each passenger in turn. Several
policemen, and an Austrian soldier in a dark green uniform
and a Tyrolean hat, stood watching them, silent and armed.
The half-dozen other passengers slipped down the platform,
climbed on board, and locked themselves in their compart-
ments. So did I.
I did not go to bed, but waited to see the border. It took us a
long time to reach it, and even longer to get across. There were
long waits and much shouting. Outside were flood-lights and
soldiers with rifles and fixed bayonets. Two sets of officials
came to my compartment. One talked for a while, but seeing
that I could not understand him, repeated, "Geld?" several
times. I said, "Nein!" and he went away. Another scrutinized
my passport and took it. The train picked up speed and ran
ROMANIA 43
steadily on. It had crossed the border and there was nothing to
see outside and nothing to do inside except go to bed.
When I wakened, the train had stopped. I roused myself to
look out and saw that we were in a big station. It was Buda-
pest. I quickly got dressed and left my compartment intending
to explore. I poked my head out of the window, but the view
was not encouraging. The station was nearly empty, and ex-
cept for several policemen and two or three groups of security
guards, the few people looked incredibly poor and dejected.
The special police, dressed in peaked caps and long overcoats
of light blue cloth, were impressive in their armament: a re-
volver, a three-foot night-stick hanging from a wide black belt,
and a Sten gun carried at the ready. An old woman with a
pinched face tried to sell thin newspapers printed in Hun-
garian, and four youths, balanced on little ladders, scrubbed
the car windows as though their lives depended on it. No doubt
they were glad to have any kind of job, but their vigorous ef-
forts had little effect. They had no water!
Soon the train pulled out. The city, as we passed through
it, appeared to be completely dead. There was no traffic, few
people moved, no smoke came from the factory chimneys. On
the outskirts we passed a low hill, its sides marked by zig-zag
trenches. On the top, a solitary tank with a big gun manoeu-
vred slowly and aimlessly about. No one was in sight. If the
city was a lifeless head, the country resembled the corpse.
I suppose that any countryside is generally empty of peo-
ple, but that day, a year after the revolt, the Hungarian plain
seemed to me oppressively, ominously deserted and still. In
general appearance it was much like the Po River valley in
Italy, but it lacked any gaiety whatsoever. No children played.
No one waved at the train. Scarcely a wagon ever passed on
the dirt roads. There were no tractors in the fields, no cars in
the towns, and few people on the village streets. I had never
been in Hungary before so I could make no comparisons,
44 I G Y : The Year of the New Moons
but the impression I got was of a land poverty-stricken and
apathetic to a degree I had never seen elsewhere and did not
want ever to see again.
Although I had been warned that there would be no diner,
and was fully prepared to breakfast on chocolate and cheese,
I ventured down through the train in search of one. It was
there, an old car, empty save for two wistfully cheerful Hun-
garian waiters in faded blue uniforms threadbare and ragged
at the cuffs. After some difficulty with language I got them to
bring me an egg and a roll and some poor plum jam. I asked
for coffee but they brought tea, a miserable approximation
to the genuine article which seemed to be an infusion of local
herbs doctored with lemon and sugar. They charged me at
least ten times too much for this simple meal. When I pointed
out that they had put the decimal point in the wrong place
in calculating the conversion, they were not abashed as they
made the correction, but smiled so sadly that I tipped them
twice too much into the bargain.
At lunch I was again their sole support except for a Ger-
man, who had a bottle of beer. The one main course was an
incredibly bad stew or goulash, mostly of potatoes, with a
little tomato and a few pieces of very tough meat of some un-
identifiable animal. The only dessert was chocolate biscuits
wrapped in tinfoil, which I was soon to recognize as the high-
est luxury available in eastern Europe.
Late in the afternoon we came to the Romanian border,
which was just as complicated to cross as that separating
eastern and western Europe. Between the two border stations
there was much shunting and stopping, and the engine, the
diner, and all the crew, including the porter, were changed.
Soldiers with fixed bayonets or tommy guns stood about, and
the whole train was thoroughly searched.
Just as we reached the foothills of the Carpathians, it got
dark. The train puffed up dark valleys, between mountains
ROMANIA 45
that I could scarcely see. I was too discouraged even to look
to see if there was a Romanian diner on the train. In any case
I did not want to waste the food I had bought, so I sat sadly
in my compartment and ate it.
Next morning I awoke as we approached Bucharest. I was
beginning to think that the countryside and railways of one
European plain look much like those of another, when I was
surprised to notice a large army camp full of soldiers. A little
farther along, a train-load of artillery under canvas was partly
hidden behind some cars on a siding.
We entered the city and stopped at a station which was
noticeably more active and in better trim than those in Hun-
gary. A dozen Romanian scientists and officials were waiting
on the platform to greet me. I was warmly welcomed by Dr.
A. Demetrescu, the courtly senior astronomer and geophysicist
of Romania, and his colleagues: Drs. Constantinescu, Popo-
vici, Sabba Stanescu, and two interpreters; Domnisoara
(Miss) Carin Pavelescu; and Mr. Pamfil Diplan. Drs. Deme-
trescu and Constantinescu had been the Romanian representa-
tives to the meetings in Toronto, but the other members of
the welcoming committee I had not met before. The four
doctors comprised the Romanian National Committee on
Geodesy and Geophysics.
Russian Pobeda taxis took us all to the Athen6e Palace
Hotel on one side of the main square in front of the former
Royal Palace. My room was large, clean, and comfortable, and
it was well looked after by diligent German-speaking Schwa-
bian maids. After some breakfast, the two interpreters pro-
posed a short walk through the centre of the town.
Bucharest was much larger and more attractive than I had
expected. It is a city of a million people and its handsome ave-
nues, parks, and buildings justify its nickname of the "Paris
of eastern Europe." But the automobiles for which the fine
roads were built had vanished. There were very few vehicles
46 I G Y : The Year of the New Moons
but a great number of people walking, among them many
Russian soldiers.
We walked on, crossed a market, and climbed a hill to the
National Assembly building and the Patriarchie, the princi-
pal cathedral of the Romanian Greek Orthodox Church. It
was open but not very crowded. I gathered that churches
were allowed to remain open if they at least half-heartedly
followed the party line, because in this way propaganda could
be brought effectively to those who would not otherwise listen.
This church was, of course, a show-place, and I was not sur-
prised to find a priest and a few old women praying and light-
ing candles which would demonstrate to groups of visitors
that there was religious freedom.
My guides next took me to the headquarters of the Office
for Cultural and Scientific Relations with Foreign Countries.
It was in a fine old mansion that no doubt formerly belonged
to some wealthy family. The senior official who received me
had a dry, hard manner, and the hollowness of his pleasantries
were greatly heightened by his extraordinary glasses. They
were large and the outside surface was mirrored. Presumably
he could see me, but I could only see two great gold discs in
a blank face as expressionless as that of a bullfrog. Over Turk-
ish coffee and Tuica (plum brandy) we discussed my tour.
I had long ago decided that the only sensible behaviour for
a guest in a Communist country was to be polite and reason-
ably agreeable. Rudeness would show the West in a poor light
and keep me from seeing the scientific work I wanted to see.
I had no intention of compromising myself or of pretending
that I favoured Communism in the least, but I surmised
that they wished to impress me with their scientific work and
that, knowing I was not in sympathy with their politics, they
would not raise matters which would be embarrassing. My
host, for such I suppose he might be called, said nothing to
which I had to take exception, and our conversation, like
ROMANIA 47
a bat, flittered aimlessly back and forth, chased by the
interpreters.
We returned to the hotel and at 3 p.m. were served a lengthy
lunch in the marble and plush main dining-room of what
had once been a fine hotel. Unlike the upstairs, which was
still efficiently run, the dining-rooms and meals were atrocious.
Service took a very long time, and weiners, sauerkraut, and
corn porridge did not seem suitable fare for such ornate sur-
roundings.
After lunch I dutifully followed my guides through two art
galleries, one of them a former royal palace. King Carol's
royal cipher was still discernible in the plaster mouldings in
some of the rooms. There were two magnificent El Greco's
and a group of older paintings vaguely labelled Flemish school
or XVII-century Italian, but the place of honour was given to
a large display of the works of two Romanians, Grigorescu
and Luchian, the latter a rather unimpressive Impressionist,
the former an enthusiast for peasants, gypsies, and very large
oxen. I noticed with some pleasure that the paintings were
titled in English. This, I assumed, perhaps falsely, was for
the enlightenment of the large delegations from the underde-
veloped countries which travel through all Iron Curtain coun-
tries and for whom English is the lingua franca.
At eight o'clock, without pausing to dine, we went, in pur-
suit of more culture, to the main concert hall to hear the Sec-
ond State Orchestra (the First was touring Jugoslavia) and a
large chorus in Berlioz's "Damnation of Faust." We returned
to the hotel, at 11:30 p.m. and, like the other guests, settled
down to the main meal of the day. These extraordinary eating
hours were the norm in Romania and quickly produced a feel-
ing of dyspepsia and lethargy. As far as I could judge, the re-
gime had exaggerated the normally late hours of southern Eu-
rope for the deliberate purpose of stupefying the people. Noth-
ing saps the energy faster than to work from seven to three
48 IGY : The Year of the New Moons
without a break, to have an excessively late lunch, and to go
to bed after midnight full of a large and soggy meal.
The next day work started, and on that and succeeding days
I was taken to the laboratories and offices of the Bucharest
Observatory, the University of Bucharest, the School of Mines,
the Geological Survey, and a newly organized school for
petroleum technology. Most of the senior staff and the older
technicians had held the same positions under King Carol,
under Prince Michael, during the German occupation, and
through the shifting regimes of the Russian Communist domi-
nation. Some of them probably remember Queen Marie. They
were all the scientists the country had and they were indispen-
sable. In the Communist countries I repeatedly noticed that
scientists are the most durable of officials. This is not because
they are turncoats, but because their work is non-political.
They were all enthusiastic Romanians and that sufficed. Their
Communist masters, needing scientists and having none to
spare, avoided asking questions that might be too embar-
rassing. So did I. It was enough for me to see the skill and
loving care with which they tended their ancient telescopes
("This one is the largest in eastern Europe outside of Russia;
that one was newly installed for the IGY solar program"),
their pride in the books and maps of their country which
they had published, and the devotion of the favoured graduate
students allowed to work in the faded laboratories of an an-
cient professor.
It was not a bright new world. Theirs was a hard struggle
amid desperate poverty upon which they put the bravest faces.
Only by a chance remark did I gain an inkling of what it must
be like to be the intellectuals of a proud people oppressed
for seventeen years by an occupying army. One student said
to me: "I have spent four years learning Russian, but only so
that I can read translations of American text-books since we
cannot get the English originals/' Another professor in a
ROMANIA
49
threadbare suit questioned me about salaries in Canada and
the West. "No/ 7 he said, "not in dollars, but in something I
can understand how many pounds of beefsteak will your
salary buy?" When I had answered him, he turned to his
colleagues who hushed him ("The walls have ears") and
bitterly said: "You see, they lied."
For the most part we avoided such discussions, which were
useless under the circumstances and embarrassing to every-
one, and turned our attention to the astronomical and geo-
physical instruments, the geomagnetic and gravity maps, and
the charts showing the location of the major earthquakes of
the area. They showed me rock specimens, and I was able to
assure them of resemblances, about which they had conjec-
tured from available writings, between some of their peculiar
rocks, asbestos and nepheline syenite in particular, and Cana-
dian counterparts.
On another day I was taken to see the Government print-
ing bureau. It was a vast affair in the best wedding-cake style
of new Moscow twelve stories high in the centre and
covering seven acres. It had taken six years to build. Since I
saw no other new building in Romania, except the cabinet
offices facing a park in which still stood a large statue of Stalin,
I concluded that its erection must have occupied most of
the building industry of the country during that time.
Inside the front door was a large hall decorated with marble
panels and carved doors and furnished with plush side chairs.
Opening out of it was a concert auditorium. Both were said to
be for the benefit of the workers, but since the auditorium
had no seats in it and the hall was reserved for one dance a
year, their use seemed limited. I was told that great emphasis
was placed on the welfare of the workers, but the same official
also admitted that the only parts of the building that had not
yet been completed were the workers* club and workers' can-
teen, although a temporary canteen for two thousand was said
50 IGY : The Year of the New Moons
to be functioning. Perhaps these amenities were not necessary
in view of the eight hours of uninterrupted work which was
the normal shift. The dishevelled and dispirited workers con-
trasted strongly with their palatial surroundings. The table
setting might be fine, but they would have to wait for the jam
until tomorrow.
In any case, the output appeared to be prodigious. The
quality did not seem high, but there was immense activity.
I was told that each day this vast plant produced 100,000
books, 50,000 magazines, and 50,000 pamphlets, as well as
5 daily and 15 weekly newspapers, the newspapers having a
combined circulation of 2,500,000. Some people have ex-
pressed amazement at these figures. Although I cannot vouch
for their accuracy, I think it possible that they are correct.
The Communists are great propagandists; this plant was said
to do 80 per cent of all the printing in Romania, so that even
this output would provide only one or two books a person a
year. Most of the books were school texts or Communist
works, and all were cheaply printed and bound on automatic
machinery in very large editions.
I had been invited to Romania to give four lectures on
geophysics, and these provided my greatest surprise. The first
lecture was to be given at the university in the evening. As
we approached the hall, we saw that the corridor was full of
people trying to get in. The hall was packed with people, who
stood up and clapped as we made our way to the front and
again applauded tumultuously when I had been introduced.
Although I am a fairly experienced speaker, I had never known
anything like it I was astounded. My visit had not been tan-
gibly publicized, and few of them could have heard of me
anyway; and my topic, mountain-building, could not possibly
generate such enthusiasm. I realized that these people were
spontaneously expressing their pleasure at one of their rare
contacts with the untrammelled West. I spoke with sentence-
ROMANIA 51
by-sentence interpretation for nearly an hour and a half, and
received the same enthusiastic ovation when I had finished. It
was very moving.
My visits and lectures in the capital concluded, I set out on
field trips to see the geology. I had asked to see the Iron Gates
where the Danube cuts through the Carpathian Mountains,
and my hosts suggested a drive to Sinaia, Bra|ov-Stalin, and
Cluj in Transylvania. In spite of the fact that the British Em-
bassy had told me that the border was closed and that no one
had been allowed near the Iron Gates for years, I was taken
there by the very capable geologist who had mapped the re-
gion before the war. We spent two pleasant days driving and
walking amid the grand scenery and fascinating geology of this
classic region. We stayed in the spa on the site of Roman
baths at Baile Herculane, and examined the ruins of the Ro-
man fort and bridge across the Danube at Turnu-Severin. A
Roman road 7 cut like a ledge alongside the river, passes through
the most precipitous canyons on the Jugoslav side. From across
the river one can see a great Roman inscription and make out
the emperor's name, Trajanus. The Romanians made no bones
about their pride in their Latin origin, which they claimed
to date from the invasion by Trajan in A.D. 101-105. As they
pointed out, the name of their country means "Roman," and
they resent the efforts to make them forget it by changing the
spelling on new coins to Rominia or Ruminia. Inasmuch as
they have fought (and often been defeated by) Slavs and
Turks for eighteen hundred years, and still retain a lan-
guage which closely resembles Latin, it is probable that Ro-
manians will continue to distrust the Russians and furtively
hold their own views.
At the head of the rapids on the Danube we joined a party
of Jugoslav and Romanian engineers and cruised in a river
steamer back through the chasms by which the Danube
crosses the Carpathians. It was a beautiful trip, and one that
52 IGY : The Year of the New Moons
few Westerners have made for at least seventeen years. Cau-
tiously at first, but more affably as the beer circulated, the
engineers discussed the building of a Danube system to match
the St. Lawrence sea-way. The plan is a century old but has
always been held up for political reasons.
Many powerful tugs and barges of great size snorted up the
river, flying the flags of all the Communist countries. Some
were oil tankers, and one was a new Hungarian pleasure ship
that I supposed was being exported to Russia across the Black
Sea.
On the other trip three geologists and an interpreter drove
me past Ploe^ti, only now recovering from war-time bomb-
ing, to Sinaia, the mountain resort of kings and princes. The
white cliffs of the mountains were glorious in the sun, their
sides bright with golden beech trees and their peaks topped
with dark green firs. We stopped often to examine the rocks.
After crossing the old border into Austria-Hungary at Predeal
in the mountains, we dined in Brasov-Stalin (the first is the
old name, the other is the new official name, for in keeping
with the rather grim situation in Romania, Stalin is still offi-
cially respected) . Then we took the train to Cluj.
In the capital of Transylvania there are two universities and
nearby an observatory where scientists were working on a pro-
gram for the IGY. I was told that I was the first Western scien-
tist to have visited the observatory in the past seventeen
years, but that two Russians had been there. With the aid
of interpreters I delivered two technical lectures on mountain-
building, to the same wild acclaim as in Bucharest, but I was
now used to the idea that it was my scarcity value, not my
oratory, that aroused these displays.
It would be gratifying to think that the October of 1957
would forever be associated in the minds of the Romanian
geophysicists with my paper on orogenesis, but it is certain
that it will not. It will be remembered as the month of the
ROMANIA
53
launching of the first Russian Sputnik. It caused a tremendous
to-do. Newspapers, radio, and loud-speakers carried no other
news. The whole powerful propaganda machine spouted glory
to the Soviets and the Communist party. Newspaper men de-
scended upon me in droves demanding a statement. I consid-
ered my position rather carefully. Had I been in Toronto I
should in all honesty have praised the great achievement
loudly, but in Bucharest to do so seemed to me to smack of
being a "fellow-traveller." I therefore said only that it was "in-
teresting and what had been expected/' Pressed, I said: "Every-
thing has gone according to plan." This last secretly delighted
some of the Romanians, who get a little tired of five-year plans,
increased production programs, and other Communist plans
of which they hear so much. Pressed further, I pointed out
that really I knew nothing about the Sputnik, for I could
neither read nor understand Romanian and in all the excite-
ment everyone had forgotten to explain. This was just as
we were about to begin lunch. Before the meal was over, the
reporters were back with reams of teletyped news from
abroad in French and English. They demanded that I read
them and comment. I read, but I still said: "The Sputnik is
interesting!"
Only after fourteen attempts was I left alone. So far as I
know, two lines in one paper were all that was devoted to my
entire visit to Romania.
CHAPTER 6
THE NEW MOONS
The Sputnik placed in orbit while I was in Romania was the
first of two dozen artificial satellites successfully launched by
the end of 1959. Many people have seen them hurtling across
the sky at twilight, but not everyone has realized that the
plan to make them and to exchange the information which
they gathered was part of the International Geophysical Year. 1
Many scientists had talked about the idea, and a proposal
made in 1953 by S. P. Singer of the United States at a con-
ference at the University of Oxford led to detailed planning.
On July 29, 1955, President Eisenhower announced that the
United States Navy had been assigned the task of launching
Vanguard satellites as part of the IGY program, and soon
afterwards the Soviet Union said that they would do the same.
No other nation has yet joined them.
Looking back, one wonders to what extent American sci-
entists felt that through satellites they could open paths by
which to investigate nearby space, and to what extent they
ir The IGY agreements guaranteed the free exchange of scientific
observations, including those obtained by artificial satellites. But there
was never any plan to exchange information about the prime requisite
for putting satellites into orbit: powerful and accurate rocket motors.
THENEWMOONS 55
wished to jolt their military leaders into taking rocket develop-
ment as seriously as the Soviets were known to be doing. Cer-
tainly great credit is due to the Soviets for the achievements
which enabled them to launch the first satellites, and led the
world to revise its estimate of Russian technical ability.
In scientific results the Americans and the Soviets are closely
matched. The advantage of the better launching vehicles and
larger satellites of the Soviets has been compensated for by
the greater number of satellites launched by the Americans,
their superior instrumentation, and their more efficient meth-
ods of tracking and of recovering data. By skillful design and
use of miniature electronic components, the Americans have
packed as many instruments into their smaller satellites as
have the Soviets into their larger ones. Up to the end of 1959
the Americans attempted six times as many launchings as
the Russians. Although half of them failed, the Americans
still were successful in sixteen cases, against six successful Rus-
sian attempts. The diversity of orbits thus attained gave the
Americans a wider sampling of space from which to draw
conclusions. It was because of this that they were the first
to recognize the Van Allen belts of intense radiation around
the earth. This discovery is perhaps the most surprising yet
made by artificial satellites, though the Russian photographs
of the far side of the moon are the most sensational.
By April 12, 1961, when Yuri Gagarin, the first cosmonaut,
circled the earth, the Russians had launched fourteen arti-
ficial planets and satellites, of which four still remained aloft.
The Americans had successfully fired thirty-nine objects into
space, of which no less than twenty-four were still in orbit
around the earth or the sun.
To me, the most exciting fact about the satellite program
is that the tremendous initial problems of starting the explora-
tion of space were no more complex or diversified than the
problems that continued to present themselves as the projects
56 IGY : The Year of the New Moons
developed. Scientists were faced by results so surprising and so
unexpected that they had to cope with each problem as it pre-
sented itself, adapting their instruments and their techniques
to the unsuspected intricacies of space.
All satellites have been launched by rockets propelled by
the same force that causes recoil in guns. A rocket may be
thought of as a gun which uses the firing of its ammunition
to propel itself; the gases spouting from its rear are its am-
munition. To make the recoil powerful, thereby causing the
rocket to travel far and fast, the weight of the ammunition
or fuel must be large in relation to the rocket, and the fuel
must be ejected with the maximum heat and speed.
Rockets all have the same ancestry. First invented by the
Chinese as fireworks, military rockets up to 24 pounds in
weight were used by European armies as artillery early in the
nineteenth century. Intensive Russian experimentation be-
gan with the work of Nescherskii and Tsiolkovskii near the
end of the nineteenth century. Early in this century Robert
Goddard, an American, greatly improved the design and effi-
ciency of small rockets. In the 1920*5 Hermann Oberth worked
out the theory of rocket flight in greater detail, and during
World War II his ideas were used by the Germans to produce
the first large rocket the V2 capable of carrying a ton about
200 miles horizontally, or 100 miles straight up. During the
fading days of the war both Americans and Russians captured
scientists who had been employed on this program and con-
tinued to utilize them and their ideas. Probably all the rockets
used to launch satellites during the IGY were developments
oftheV2.
The principles of launching satellites can be briefly ex-
plained. As everyone knows, a ball tossed into the air falls
again at the same place or nearby, according to the direction
in which it is thrown. This is what simple rockets do. During
the IGY many were fired to carry instruments up 100 or 200
THENEWMOONS 57
miles. If, however, the ball is attached to a string and vigor-
ously twirled, it does not fall but goes round and round on
the end of the string. To start with, it must be given a rotary
motion, which must exceed a minimum speed if the string
is to be kept taut. A satellite revolves about the earth in ex-
actly this fashion, for the attraction due to gravity takes the
place of the string. To place a satellite in orbit, a rocket must
first propel it above the atmosphere and at the same time im-
part to it a large and precise speed in a horizontal direction
so that it neither falls back to earth nor flies away into space.
The spent rocket-cases, of which there may be several for a
single satellite, either fall to earth or go into orbit themselves.
Friction of the air quickly slows a revolving ball unless it is
continually propelled, but if a satellite is placed in orbit
above the atmosphere during its initial firing, it will coast
around the earth on the end of its gravity-string for a long
time. In outer space, because there is little air to slow the satel-
lite down, it has no need of a motor, but if it fails to get above
the atmosphere, or if it gradually loses speed and re-enters the
air, it will be quickly slowed and fall to earth.
To place a satellite 100 miles above the earth and accelerate
it to the required speed of about 18,000 miles an hour hori-
zontally requires immense effort. The only engines which have
so far been successful are rocket engines blowing themselves
along by a blast of white hot gases emitted at tremendous
speed and pressure from the rear. They resemble airplane jet
engines, except that in outer space they cannot get air with
which to burn their fuel and therefore have to carry with them
liquid oxygen and kerosene. Sometimes other combinations,
such as benzene and nitric acid, or secret mixtures are used.
Once the fuel is consumed, the large empty fuel tank and
the engine become useless encumbrances and are jettisoned.
Another rocket with a smaller engine and less fuel takes over.
As many as four of these stages may be fired, each one attached
58 IGY : The Year of the New Moons
to the nose of its predecessor. The later stages are often little
more than giant sky-rockets, hollow tubes filled with some
relatively slow-burning explosive* In the nose of the last stage
of all is the capsule carrying instruments. In some instances
the capsule is ejected to orbit by itself; in others the last rocket-
case retains the payload and is, itself, the satellite. Because
of these two different techniques, it is difficult to compare
the weights of satellites, but in all instances the weight of the
capsule containing the instruments is a very small fraction,
sometimes only a thousandth part, of the weight of the whole
rocket at launching.
Astronomers, who felt a responsibility for keeping track of
the new moons, suggested a numbering scheme similar to
that used for comets. It was proposed that each satellite be
given a name consisting of the year followed by one of the
letters of the Greek alphabet. Thus the first three satellites
were called 19570, 1957(3, and 19583. Of course the satellites
were also known by their popular names: Sputnik I, Sputnik
II, and Explorer I.
In some cases satellites and protective covers are ejected
from the last rocket stage by springs, so that a flock of as
many as five pieces may spread out surprisingly quickly. These
parts are numbered in order of brightness; for example,
1957 a i and 1957 a 2 -
The design of the rocket vehicles and their satellites is ex-
tremely intricate, for some have over 100,000 parts. The con-
trols of many early vehicles were built to function automati-
cally, but the Explorer and Discoverer series responded to some
instructions sent from the ground, and the Soviets are be-
lieved to have been able to correct the course of their Luniks.
If everything works properly and the launching is successfully
completed, the small satellite must be followed visually or
by radio and interrogated.
In order to track the more important pieces and obtain in-
THE NEW MOONS 59
formation from them, complex and widespread systems had to
be established. Of these, undoubtedly the most extensive is
the American Moonwatch, a system of amateur astronomer
teams operating at about one hundred twenty stations in the
United States and another one hundred twenty throughout the
rest of the world. At each station, teams watch a segment of
the meridian in the sky for the passage of satellites across it.
Since many are too faint to be visible with the naked eye,
small telescopes are used. Several, pointed at different angles,
are required to cover the zone. Because satellites are only visi-
ble at twilight, when the earth and the sky are dark and the
satellites are lit by the sun, watch need only be kept in the
morning and evening. The time and the direction of each
passage are carefully recorded, and the information sent to the
Astronomical Observatory of the Smithsonian Institution at
Cambridge, Massachusetts, which is charged with optical
tracking. This observatory also directs the twelve Baker-Nunn
camera stations throughout the world, at which huge cameras,
especially designed for the difficult task of photographing
these faint, fast-moving objects, fix the satellites precisely in
time and space.
Besides these optical methods, the Vanguard Computing
Centre in Washington is responsible for two other systems
which gather information from satellites that are transmit-
ting. The Minitrack stations, of which during the IGY there
were four along the Pacific coast of South America and others
in the United States, South Africa, Singapore, and Australia,
locate the position and height of satellites by radio. More are
under construction. Another world-wide series of stations
known as Microlock interrogate satellites to obtain the infor-
mation they have recorded. From all these observations the
orbits of satellites are computed and predictions made for fu-
ture sightings.
The Americans have also recently announced a new scheme,
60 IGY : The Year of the New Moons
Tepee, which can record the blast of gases emitted by large
rockets. Since the radio waves on which this listening system
depends are reflected around the earth, it may be able even
to detect launchings on the opposite side of the globe.
Within Russia the Soviets have both optical and radio track-
ing systems, and the results of their observations on Rus-
sian satellites are published regularly in the Bulletin of the In-
stitute of Theoretical Astronomy. Russian predictions of the
time of passage of their satellites over foreign observatories
are available to those interested. Thus, predictions were re-
ceived throughout 1959 at the University of Toronto observa-
tory. The distinguished astronomer Mrs. Alia Masevich is in
charge of the program and has described it at a meeting of
the American Astronomical Society.
Finally, several very large radio telescopes with movable
dish-shaped antennae were modified to locate satellites either
by radio or by radar devices. The largest of these yet built has
a dish 250 feet across and is at Jodrell Bank near Manchester,
England.
The recitation of such extensive preparations suggests
that tracking should be complete, but this is by no means
so, for the problems are immense. In the early days the systems
did not work well. The batteries on Sputnik II failed less than
a week after it was launched, perhaps due to overheating by
sunlight. Because of the distance between ground stations and
the lack of experience of the operators, only 3 per cent of the
information broadcast by Explorer I in its first month of life
was recovered. In contrast, after tape-recorders had been in-
stalled to act as memories for satellites, 80 per cent of the
data from the later broadcasts of Explorer III was recovered.
Again, all traces of the rocket-case of Vanguard I were lost
from March 17, 1958, to May 6, 1959. It had been thought
that the rocket-case would have less velocity than the satellite,
THENEWMOONS 6l
which it pushed ahead with springs, but apparently the case
was still firing gently when the satellite was detached and the
case had the greater speed. As a result, the trackers looked
for the case at the wrong times.
Many people ask: Is there an exchange of data? Do the Rus-
sians really tell us what they discover? The answer in most
cases is emphatically yes. It is true that there have been cases
of delay and obscurity on both sides, but these exceptions
are far fewer than people believe. The remarkable thing is
not that there is an exchange, but that anyone, in view of the
difficulties involved, recovers any data worth exchanging. The
problems of keeping track of several objects, at most only a
few feet in dimension, which are hurtling through outer space
at speeds in excess of 18,000 miles an hour and at heights
greater than 100 miles are so complex that it is remarkable
how much information has been gathered. The undertaking
is further complicated because of the unexpected conditions
encountered in space. Experiments designed to measure one
supposed property have often found and measured other quite
different elements. In spite of rivalry, these common problems
have produced something of a bond among the scientists in-
volved; considering the difficulties, results have been reported
fairly quickly. The skill and labour necessary to decipher data
is illustrated in the American announcement that it would
take a year to decode all the messages telemetered from fifteen
experiments performed on Explorer VI during the two months
its batteries operated.
That both countries have given correct reports is proved by
the fact that the partial findings, not fully understood when
they were reported, have fitted together to give an improved
and revised picture of outer space. Many of the observations
do not touch on old theories; but when pieced together they
suggest entirely new and unsuspected possibilities.
62 IGY : The Year of the New Moons
SPUTNIKS
The first family of satellites, and the one to which the great-
est general interest was attached, was the Sputniks. The im-
minent birth of the Sputnik was first brought home to me in
the studios of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation during
the Toronto meeting of the IUGG, as I participated in a tele-
vision program about satellites with Mme Troitskaya, Profes-
sor V. V. Beloussov and Dr. Lloyd Berkner, the chairman of
the American Space Science Committee. Mme Troitskaya
cautiously confirmed the statement of the U.S.S.R. Academy
of Sciences that Russia intended to launch satellites. "Yes/'
she said, "they will be launched soon, and some will be larger
than those planned by the Americans/ 7
A month later, on the evening of October 4, while I was
in Bucharest, the Soviet ambassador in Washington was giving
a party to conclude the meeting of United States and Soviet
scientists who had been discussing the IGY satellite program.
In the Embassy, Walter Sullivan, science reporter for The
New York Times, received word from his paper's monitoring
service: "Radio Moscow is broadcasting that a satellite has
been successfully placed in orbit/' He ran with his news to
Dr. Berkner, who got on a chair to announce to the Western
world, from within the Soviet Embassy in Washington: "The
Soviet Union has placed an artificial satellite in orbit/ 7 This
news Soviet sources confirmed a few minutes later. Sullivan
and Berkner had made the best of a situation which they had
expected but which to most Americans came as a profound
shock. The events of the succeeding days were without doubt
planned by the Russians to increase the impact of their
achievement.
Next morning, and daily during the following week, a mul-
titude of radio sets throughout the world could hear the beep-
beep-beep emitted by the satellite whenever it passed on its
THE NEW MOONS 63
90-minute orbit around the earth. On the other hand, because
this signal was being broadcast on the amateur band frequen-
cies of 20 and 40 megacycles and not on the prearranged fre-
quency of 108 megacycles, the American tracking systems were
unable to pick up the signals by Minitrack until the night of
October 5 to 6. For several days the satellite did not cross
the United States during twilight, and Americans were not
able to see it. The consternation was immense; and it was not
much relieved when, on October 9, Sputnik I was first observed
in North America by a powerful Schmidt camera at the New-
brook meteor station in Alberta. The next day, at 10.23 hours
universal time, the satellite was seen in the United States by
the Moonwatch team at New Haven.
Sputnik I carried a radio transmitter but few instruments.
At most, it transmitted information on temperatures within
the satellite itself, upon which information the performance of
instruments in future satellites would depend. Like Van-
guard I, the satellite was spherical and designed to separate
from the last stage rocket-case. Both satellite and case could
be faintly seen in the sky. Because drag on the rocket-case
was greater and because the satellite had been shot ahead
by springs, the case travelled more slowly. This caused it to
move in an orbit of smaller radius and paradoxically revolve
about the earth in less time. The difference was appreciable
and the casing gained a revolution and lapped the satellite at
20.24 hours universal time on October 29 when both were
passing over the Pacific Ocean. By January 10 Sputnik I had
entered the atmosphere and disintegrated.
What precisely were Sputnik's effects? The successful
launching showed that the calculations regarding artificial
satellites had been correct and opened up vast possibilities for
the future exploration of space. On the other hand, the im-
mediate scientific results were not great. The satellite carried
few instruments, did not orbit far from the earth, and did
64 IGY : The Year of the New Moons
not stay up long. The operation of its radio indicated that
the temperature within the satellite was suitable for batteries
and electronic devices. The distortion of the messages told
something of the radio properties of the upper atmosphere,
while the rate of slowing by drag indicated the density of the
thin air.
The propaganda effect was immense. Since the Americans
had proposed launching satellites and had given their inten-
tions widespread publicity, they could hardly complain when
the Soviets launched an object which by its visibility and radio
signals attracted great attention. But in spite of popular feel-
ing on the subject, the launching of Sputnik I was not a tech-
nical defeat for the Americans. They had never intended to
launch a satellite as early as October 1957, and in due course
they successfully launched many well-instrumented satellites.
If it was a defeat at all, it was a political defeat, arising from
failure to appreciate the psychological impact of the first satel-
lite and failure to support unconventional technical ideas soon
enough.
A month later Sputnik II was launched. The design was
similar except that the rocket-case was not intended to separate
from the instrumented capsule, which carried a payload six
times as great as Sputnik I to twice the height. Sputnik II
carried a small dog, many instruments, and extensive tele-
metering equipment. Again it was a sensation. For the most
part it was devoted to the study of space travel. The fact
that the dog survived the launching and settled down, when
in orbit, to normal living was our first assurance that creatures
can survive in a weightless condition and was a preliminary to
placing a man in orbit and opening the era of space travel.
Instruments on Sputnik II confirmed that satellites in space
are kept warm by the sun's radiation. (Indeed it is possible
that Sputnik IFs batteries failed from overheating.) It was
shown that no micrometeorites punctured Sputnik II as had
THE NEW MOONS 65
been feared, but that cosmic radiation was greater than ex-
pected. This foreshadowed the later discovery, by the higher-
flying American satellites, of the Van Allen belts.
The end of Sputnik II came on April 14, 1958,, at 1.55 hours
universal time, after it had completed 2,367 revolutions about
the earth. Its incipient break-up was observed shortly after
dark as it crossed over New England, a glowing body with a
faint trail of luminous sparks. The sinking satellite rapidly
increased in brilliance as it passed the West Indies until it
appeared as bright as the moon at first quarter. It had a glow-
ing tail 70 miles long from which globules like minor comets
kept dropping away. A great number of people on islands and
ships, including about half the population of Barbados, saw
this striking object before it was consumed and faded low
in the air over the Atlantic Ocean northeast of British Guiana.
Sputnik III was not launched until May 1958, by which
time three American satellites were up at greater heights. The
third Soviet satellite was large and impressive. The elongated
rocket-case as it tumbled across the evening or morning sky
appeared as a flashing meteor often brighter than Venus. The
separated satellite was less easily seen but carried a payload of
more than a ton, including batteries- and instruments for mak-
ing a dozen experiments, tape recorders for memorizing the
observations, and radios for telemetering them back to inter-
rogating stations in the U.S.S.R. A long report on preliminary
results was issued in October 1958. The air density at a height
of 166 miles was found to be only one ten billionth of that on
the surface, but it was, nevertheless, five or ten times what
had been expected. At that height the atmosphere was found
to consist of atoms separated rather than joined in pairs as in
ordinary air. Nitrogen, which forms three quarters of the lower
atmosphere, was only present to the extent of 5 per cent. The
temperature was high, and the electric state such that the
satellite became charged to an electric potential of several
66 IGY : The Year of the New Moons
volts. Cosmic ray counters analysed the particles coming from
outer space and confirmed the radiation in the Van Allen belts
which had been found a few weeks earlier by the first Explorer
satellites. Other instruments measured the earth's magnetic
field and electric currents in the upper atmosphere.
The Soviets launched three Luniks and no Sputniks in 1959,
and only three Sputniks in 1960; but in the spring of 1961 five
successful launchings paved the way for Yuri Gagarin's first
orbit around the earth in 109 minutes on April 12, 1961.
The Soviet program was well designed to achieve two ob-
jectives: the placing of a man in orbit and the investigation of
the moon. Both were legitimate scientific projects, and both
made splendid propaganda. The United States so far has not
had such powerful launching rockets, although they are now
being developed rapidly. Meanwhile, the Americans have
done a much more thorough job in investigating the proper-
ties of nearby space and the potentialities of satellites as aids
to communication, navigation, and weather forecasting.
VANGUARDS
When the Americans decided to launch artificial satellites
for the IGY, the scientists decided to stay clear of existing
military rockets and design a program of their own: launching-
rockets, tracking facilities, computers, and all. They hoped in
this way to remain independent of military security and mili-
tary requirements and to develop a satellite designed solely for
the gathering of scientific information.
The outcome of these fine aspirations was the Vanguard,
a most elegant instrument. The United States Navy sponsored
it, under the direction of Dr. J. P. Hagen, but many of the
ablest scientists in the United States advised on the instrumen-
tation and its scientific program. It was a scientist's dream of
a perfect instrument for exploring nearby space.
THENEWMOONS 67
Unfortunately, the Vanguard program suffered the usual
penalty of pioneers and several of the satellites failed to orbit.
These failures received much excited publicity, which ob-
scured the many achievements of the men who developed the
Vanguards. For instance, the basic tracking facilities have
been used by all other satellite programs; the computers
evolved for predicting the future orbits of satellites were suc-
cessful, and the design of the satellites themselves had a wide
influence on subsequent satellites. Apart from the major con-
tribution made by very light and compact instrumentation,
Vanguard I also proved that solar cells can replace electric
batteries as a source of continuous power and that a reflecting
paint can successfully control the temperature inside a satel-
lite. The very light, compact instrumentation has meant a
lighter load, which in turn has made it possible for Vanguards
to be placed in higher and hence longer-lived orbits than any
other satellites. All three of the successful Vanguards are still
in orbit and are expected to remain aloft for many years. They
have demonstrated the satellite's remarkable potential for
mapping the earth and predicting the weather. From the ob-
servations made on Vanguards earth scientists have been able
to establish that the earth is not perfectly spherical, but very
slightly pear-shaped, and that the density of the atmosphere
at heights of a few hundred miles varies with the seasons and
with solar phenomena.
Each of the three Vanguards is different and has made dif-
ferent specific contributions. Vanguard I is a 6-inch test
sphere with no room for instruments except a radio transmit-
ter. This set is still operating with power derived from solar
batteries charged by sunlight. Careful observations of this
satellite have revealed much about the density of the thin
upper atmosphere and about the precise shape of the earth.
Vanguard II was the first satellite to attempt to televise
the earth. Two photocells provided a crude picture of the ex-
68 IGY : The Year of the New Moons
tent of cloud cover, but the satellite unfortunately developed
an unexpected wobble which made the results almost un-
decipherable.
Vanguard III consists of a 2o-inch spherical instrument
package that bears a 26-inch conical nose of fibre glass carry-
ing magnetic instruments, to which the third stage rocket-case
was intentionally left attached to reduce tumbling. The in-
struments included an extremely sensitive proton-type mag-
netometer, ion chambers to measure X-rays of i to 10 Ang-
strom units emitted by the sun, and four methods of detecting
meteoritic particles.
EXPLORERS
As soon as Sputnik I was launched and the extent of its
success was known, the United States Army was authorized
to use modified military rockets to launch satellites. By using
the Jupiter C or Redstone ballistic rocket as first stage, and
concentric bundles of respectively eleven, five, and one solid-
fuel Sergeant rockets for subsequent stages, the Army was able
to place three Explorers in orbit during the first half of 1958.
It seems probable that this could have been done at least a
year earlier had the politicians realized the psychological im-
pact which satellites would have, had the services not been so
divided by rivalries, had the scientists not been so keen to
do an elaborate job, and had the security agencies not been so
opposed to using secret military IRBM's for satellite launch-
ings. No one, in fact, in the United States appreciated the im-
portance of the job in time.
In Explorer I, which was launched in January, the casing of
the last empty rocket carried 11 pounds of instruments with
which to measure internal and external temperatures, micro-
meteorites, and cosmic rays. The rather scanty data gathered
THENEWMOONS 69
confirmed the results obtained by Sputnik II that micro-
meteorites were not as dangerous as had been feared, but that
cosmic rays were more intense than had been expected. An
additional complication of significance was that at heights
greater than those reached by Sputnik II the counters appeared
to fail. At the time this was attributed to faults arising from
hasty construction. Explorer II failed to orbit, but better
counters and a tape-recorder to store information were in-
stalled in Explorer III. By fortunate mischance this satellite
reached 1,741 miles at its highest point instead of the 1,270
intended, and swept within 121 miles of the earth at its low-
est. It therefore covered a very wide range and disclosed that
up to a height of 1,000 miles the radiation count was normal,
but at 1,600 miles the radiation was so high that it was likely
to be lethal to humans. It was now apparent that the counters
on the previous satellite had failed not because of a mechanical
defect but because they were too small to cope with the mag-
nitude of the task and had become choked. On May i, 1958,
when announcement was made in Washington of the discov-
ery of this belt of intense radiation, it was named in honour of
Dr. James S. Van Allen, who had designed the equipment
that had disclosed its existence. A fortnight later Sputnik III
was launched and confirmed the findings of Explorer III. Ex-
plorer IV was designed particularly to examine this Van Allen
belt.
Early in 1959, Pioneers and Luniks, in flights towards the
moon, showed that there were not one but two of these belts.
In August 1959, Explorer VI was launched in a large and
highly elliptical orbit to explore the belts in more detail and
to discover whether they changed with the sun's activity. So
that this satellite could monitor the radiation in these belts
and transmit this and other information for a long time, its
radios were powered by solar batteries supported on four
jo I G Y : The Year of the New Moons
vanes giving it the name, "the paddle-wheel satellite." One
paddle seems not to have opened, and the radio became silent
after two months.
Except for its functions, Explorer VI had little in common
with the earlier Explorers, for it was launched by a United
States Air Force Thor-Able Intermediate Range Ballistic
Missile rocket. Instead of being the shell of a Sergeant rocket
and weighing a few pounds as did the previous Explorers, it
weighed 142 pounds and had 100,000 components in a
2-foot spherical container with four 3-foot vanes around it.
Explorer VII, which was launched October 13, 1959, an< 3
weighed 91.5 pounds, was designed to make seven measure-
ments, of which the two most important concerned the radia-
tion balance of the earth. Our weather is profoundly affected
by the fact that near the equator the earth receives more heat
than it radiates, while near the poles it loses more than it re-
ceives. This lack of balance drives the winds. To learn more
precisely the nature of the energy received and lost, this satel-
lite carried three sets of sensors to measure radiation of dif-
ferent wave-lengths as the satellite swung from 50 north to
50 south latitudes about the earth. A photocell recorded the
direction of the sun. Other devices measured the intensity of
ultra-violet light and short X-rays during solar flares, the in-
tensity and nature of cosmic rays, and the prevalence of micro-
meteorites.
PIONEERS AND SCORE
When several satellites had been successfully placed in or-
bit close to the earth, President Eisenhower announced that
permission had been given for the Air Force to make three at-
tempts to send a rocket to the moon, and for the Army later
to make two attempts. The first attempt ended seventy-seven
seconds after lift-off, in a tremendous explosion caused by
nEEwooNs 71
failure of the first-stage engine. On October i, 1958, the whole
program was taken over by the civilian National Aeronautics
and Space Administration. Pioneers I and III were then suc-
cessfully launched and reached distances of 70,700 and 63,-
580 miles before they fell back to earth. They had not been
going fast enough to escape the pull of the earth's gravity. Pio-
neer II failed, but early in 1959 Pioneer IV was placed in orbit
around the sun as Artificial Planet II. None of these Pioneers
provided much information about the moon, because the scan-
ner provided for that purpose on Pioneer IV failed and the
others did not go far enough. But as we have said, they did es-
tablish the existence of the second Van Allen belt.
The last satellite of 1958 was an Atlas ICBM (Intercon-
tinental Ballistic Missile) fired into orbit by the Advanced
Research Projects Agency and the United States Air Force.
It was vastly larger than any previous American satellite; with
the attached but empty case of the last stage rocket it weighed
8,750 pounds and was claimed to be the heaviest satellite yet
launched. No doubt this was true, and it was the first demon-
stration of the power of American ICBM's. However, Acade-
mician L. I. Sedov quickly pointed out that the real test was
the total weight placed in orbit. He claimed that the detached
rocket-cases of Soviet Sputniks weighed even more, but he did
not say how much more. The Atlas-Score carried no scientific
instruments, but it contained a radio transmitter which, when
interrogated, broadcast a recorded Christmas message from
President Eisenhower.
DISCOVERERS
During 1959 the United States launched a series of six Dis-
coverer satellites which were designed to test the ejection
and recovery of capsules and to study environmental condi-
72 IGY : The Year of the New Moons
orbit as part of a biomedical experiment. Though the Dis-
coverers were not part of the IGY program, some geophysical
information was obtained by observing them. During 1960
this series of launchings was continued and extended, and the
first capsules were ejected and recovered from orbit.
LUNIKS
On January 2, 1959, between the launching of Pioneer III
and Pioneer IV space probes, Lunik I, or Mechta, was
launched. Two days later it missed the moon, passing within
3,700 miles of it and continuing on its way to become the first
artificial planet to be placed in orbit around the sun. Its
path is close to that of the earth but outside it and considerably
more elliptical, with a year of 450 days. The new planetoid has
a last stage weighing 3,245 pounds, of which 795 pounds is
payload, so that its launching an outstanding engineering
feat probably required an initial rocket-thrust of 500,000
pounds. It is a hopeful sign that this great technical achieve-
ment received general acclaim. Congratulations were sent to
the Soviets by the heads of other states as well as by their
fellow scientists.
Lunik I carried nine sets of instruments planned to measure
the earth's and the moon's magnetic fields and the intensity
and nature of the fast-moving atomic particles of outer space,
At an altitude of 75,000 miles two pounds of sodium were
vaporized and ejected from the planetoid in the form of a visi-
ble flare, which enabled the satellite's position to be precisely
fixed. This may have been intended as a guide for correcting its
path towards the moon. If so, it was unsuccessful. After trans-
mitting information for a few days, it faded forever from sight
and hearing. It is doubtful whether Lunik I will ever be identi-
fied again.
On September 12, 1959, a second similar body was launched
THENEWMOONS 73
toward the moon. The Soviets provided information and asked
the astronomers at Jodrell Bank radio telescope to track the
space probe. Fortunately they were able to locate it, receive
its radio signals, and track it up to the moment of impact.
When the Lunik entered the gravity field of the moon, its
velocity was observed to increase as it fell towards the moon.
At the moment of impact, the radio signals ceased.
Guided by Soviet information, several other astronomers in
Europe, which was at the time on the side of the earth to-
wards the moon, were able to observe the impact. G. Fielder
has collected and published the reports of ten observers who
were watching on September 13, 1959. The observations
made with the seven largest instruments are all in agreement
that at 21 hours 02 minutes 23 seconds universal time, Lu-
nik II struck the moon close to the centre of its disc at a point
near Mare Tranquilitatis and the crater Schneckenberg. The
reports made by observers using the three smallest instru-
ments show discrepancies of a few seconds in time and some
uncertainty in location, but these may reasonably be attributed
to errors arising from less satisfactory equipment.
Early on the morning of October 4, exactly two years after
the launching of Sputnik I, Soviet scientists launched Lu-
nik III, a 6i4-pound satellite with a 3,424-pound rocket-case,
into an immensely elongated orbit around the moon. About
six days later, as it swung around between the sun and the
moon at a distance of only 4,000 miles from the latter, a radio
message from the earth put in motion the most sophisticated
display of engineering virtuosity yet attempted in space re-
search. The timing of the signal and the course of the Lu-
nik III, which was at that moment on a line between the sun
and the moon, were such that after one light-sensitive device
had stabilized the rear end of the Lunik to point at the sun,
another took over to point the front end of the Lunik directly
at the fainter moon. Two cameras then started to photograph
^\ Hu/nboldt Sea
Diagram of the far side of the moon. Names were sub-
mitted by the U.S.S.R. Academy of Sciences to the Inter-
national Astronomical Union.
the moon with varying exposures on 35 mm film which had
been shielded from radiation in space.
The film was automatically developed in the satellite. It was
fixed, dried, and stored for a few days until the Lunik again
approached the earth. Television cameras then scanned the
film and transmitted to earth the first pictures ever seen by
humans of the far side of the moon. More than a dozen craters
and dark maria, or seas, were immediately recognized on the
photographs, and other craters have since been made out, but
the moon, like the earth, with its land and water hemispheres,
is not symmetrical in its features. We see the better view, for
THE NEW MOONS 75
the face of the moon is turned to us and Lunik photographed
the back of its bald head.
On October 18 Lunik III approached again to within 29,-
ooo miles of the earth. In accordance with predictions made
in November 1959, by L- L Sedov of the U.S.S.R. at a meet-
ing of the American Rocket Society held in Washington, it
followed a highly elliptic orbit about the earth. Perturbations
due to the attractive influences of the sun and moon caused
the orbit constantly to change in shape until in April 1960
the satellite fell to earth.
ROCKETS
Once satellites, which can stay aloft for weeks or years, had
been launched, rockets, whose flight lasts for only a few min-
utes, might be thought to have lost their value. This is only
partly true. Satellites disintegrate below a height of 100 miles;
balloons, which need some air for their support, will not go
above 20 miles; so rockets remain the only method of ex-
ploring the belt between. Rockets also can be fired to be in
precise spots at specific times, a valuable attribute demon-
strated at the Danger Islands during the eclipse of October 12,
1958. In addition, records can be recovered from rockets.
Nothing material was recovered from any satellite until Au-
gust 1960, but photographs of the earth from great heights
and packets of film showing the tracks of cosmic rays were
recovered from rockets before and during the IGY.
Rockets have the advantage also of being far cheaper and
simpler than satellites, and their size and cost can be further
reduced if they are attached to polyethylene balloons and
raised through the dense lower atmosphere before firing. Such
a combination is called a rockoon. Rockets so boosted may be
smaller, carry greater loads, or reach greater heights.
At least seven countries participated in the IGY rocket pro-
j6 IGY : The Year of the New Moons
gram. Australia launched rockoons at Woomera. France fired
Veronica rockets in the Sahara. Japan carried out an extensive
program of firing Kappa and other rockets and rockoons over
the northern Sea of Japan. The U.S.S.R. fired over one hun-
dred rockets from a base in the Franz Joseph Islands in the
Arctic, from central U.S.S.R., and from Mirny in the Antarc-
tic. The Russian program was a continuation of previous
work and involved a wide range of rockets; most were small
meteorological rockets, but some carried over two tons of ex-
perimental equipment and test animals to heights of over
100 miles, from which they were safely recovered by parachute.
The United Kingdom developed a research rocket, the Sky-
lark, capable of carrying 150 pounds to a height of 90 miles.
It is 25 feet long and \ 1 A feet in diameter. These were fired
from a special launching tower at Woomera, Australia. The
United States program involved firing over two hundred
rockets of various rockoon, Aerobee, and Nike types from ships
in many parts of the world and from four bases in the United
States and one in Churchill, on Hudson Bay, Canada. Various
animals were sent aloft to test their physiological reactions
and later were recovered. Canada assisted in the large Ameri-
can program at Churchill, chosen because of its location
within the maximum auroral belt.
CHAPTER 7
WHAT
THE SATELLITES
REVEALED
In 1959 Professor James A. Van Allen, head of the physics
department at the State University of Iowa, wrote of the
radiation belts around the earth which he discovered and
which bear his name: "So far, the most interesting and least
expected result of man's exploration of the immediate vicinity
of the earth is the discovery that our planet is ringed by a
region to be exact, two regions of high-energy radiation
extending many thousands of miles into space. The discovery
is of course troubling to astronauts; somehow the human body
will have to be shielded from this radiation, even on a rapid
transit through the region. But geophysicists, astrophysicists,
solar astronomers and cosmic-ray physicists are enthralled by
the fresh implications of these findings. The configuration of
the region and the radiation it contains bespeak a major
physical phenomenon involving cosmic rays and solar cor-
puscles in the vicinity of the earth. This enormous reservoir
7 8
IGY : The Year of the New Moons
of charged particles plays a still-unexplained role as middleman
in the interaction of earth and sun which is reflected in mag-
netic storms, in the air glow, and in the beautiful displays of
the aurora."
At the beginning of 1958 it was supposed that above a height
of a few tens of miles the tenuous upper atmosphere of the
earth was uniform and that most of the time it was approxi-
mately similar at all latitudes and only diminished in density
at increasing distances from the earth. It is true that the aurora
The earth, its inner and outer Van Allen belts of intense
radiation, and the artificially created and temporary Argus
shells between them.
required special explanation and so did certain other phe-
nomena in radio transmission, but the observed relation of
these to solar disturbances had led to the general belief that
these effects were all produced during the bombardment of
the earth by intermittent blasts of gas from the sun.
Van Allen's discovery indicates that at all times two belts
exist in the upper atmosphere. More recent discoveries suggest
that a third, weaker and more distant, belt may be present.
All act as reservoirs for more numerous, hotter, and more ac-
tive gas particles than are present elsewhere. It is believed
WHAT THE SATELLITES REVEALED 79
that these gases are held in place because they are trapped by
the earth's magnetic field, but it is not yet clear why these
belts exist where they do, and why there are not others.
The two main belts lie around the equatorial regions of the
earth, one outside the other as though the earth was a man
dressed in a rather loose cummerbund with a large barrel
around him. The gas particles trapped in these belts are not
static. They dash wildly from pole to pole and back every few
Lines of force of
earth's magnetic
field.
Diagram illustrating the corkscrew-line paths pursued by
high-speed electrons in the Van Allen and Argus belts.
seconds like caged animals trying to escape. They can do this
without much interference, for at these heights the atmosphere
is very tenuous, but the energy they carry is great and could
be fatal to space travellers unless they took off from a polar
region and so went around one end of the Van Allen belts.
Each particle follows a corkscrew path within what may be
thought of as the stave of a barrel. Particles can drift from
stave to stave, but they escape slowly from the barrel-shaped
Van Allen belts only at one end or the other.
These reservoirs are fed, at least in part, by solar winds.
8o IGY : The Year of the New Moons
When a blast strikes the reservoirs and disturbs them, they
overflow at the ends. Some mechanism based upon the excita-
tion of the outer belts by solar activity appears to promise a
better means of explaining magnetic storms, aurora, and radio
blackouts. Failure to appreciate the existence of these reser-
voirs in the Van Allen belts made earlier explanations of the
aurora unsatisfactory.
These belts were not discovered or even suspected until
satellites and rockets reached them. Because they are high
and transparent, they could not be detected from the ground.
Under the circumstances, they were found by chance rather
than design. Our knowledge of the belts is still fragmentary,
but indications are that they vary greatly in shape and intensity
with fluctuations in solar activity. A more precise picture will
emerge when there has been time to interpret fully the results
of Explorers VI and VII and of later satellites.
Although the implications were not understood at the time,
some evidence for the Van Allen belts had been found earlier
in the regions where the aurora is at a maximum and where
the horns of the outer Van Allen belt thrust down into the
earth's atmosphere until they are only a few score miles above
the ground. In 1953 scientists from the State University of
Iowa launched rockoons from United States Coast Guard ves-
sels off Newfoundland into the maximum auroral belt and
found that the radiation at a height of 30 miles was much
more intense than they had encountered elsewhere. Subse-
quent rocket flights showed that this radiation persisted even
when there was no aurora, contrary to theories then held.
In 1957 larger United States rockets were launched, and it was
found that the temperature of the atmosphere at a height of
150 to 200 miles was about 3,000 F over Churchill but only
half that value over White Sands, New Mexico. The rockets
at Newfoundland and Churchill had, of course, entered the
horns of the outer Van Allen belt. This discrepancy was not
WHAT THE SATELLITES REVEALED 81
understood until the two belts were discovered by Explorer I
and Pioneer II.
THE ARGUS EXPERIMENT
Few discoveries in science are wholly new or independent.
Many years ago the Scandinavian scientists Carl Stormer and
H. Alfven had suggested that charged particles might become
trapped in the earth's magnetic field and would then spiral
back and forth from one polar region to the other around
magnetic lines of force. They pointed out that if this were
true the particles would be reflected at each end, near which
the radiation would be most intense. To test the validity of
this speculation, N. Q Christofilos, of the University of Cali-
fornia, suggested that belts of radiation might be created arti-
ficially by the detonation at great heights of * small nuclear
charges.
The potential geophysical interest and the obvious impor-
tance of a knowledge of high-altitude nuclear explosions in
anti-missile defence were reasons enough to undertake the ex-
periment. It was christened Argus. Three nuclear devices
were fired from the U.S.S. Norton Sound at a height of 300
miles over the south Atlantic Ocean in August and September
1958. Explorer IV was aloft at this time to monitor the re-
sults. To collect further observations, a number of high-alti-
tude rockets were launched from key locations along the At-
lantic coast of North America. The experiment was a great
success. The particles generated by each explosion spread out
to form zones of radiation like the Van Allen belts, but smaller
and weaker than either of the two natural belts and located
between them. These artificial zones were called the Argus
shells. Immediately after the explosions the shells were re-
corded, as anticipated, by Explorer IV, which reported sharp
peaks of radiation on every subsequent passage through the
8z IGY : The Year of the New Moons
shells. No such peaks had been recorded before or have been
since.
The shells slowly faded in intensity but were recorded until
Explorer IV's batteries failed on September 21, and again
feebly by Pioneer III on December 6, but none was detected
in March 1959 by Pioneer IV. All the electrons created by
the explosion had leaked away. Although the charged parti-
cles in the Argus shells were trapped by the same magnetic
field as those in the Van Allen belts above and below them,
they slowly dispersed because they lay in a region where they
were not replenished by natural processes.
Just as auroral, magnetic, and radio effects are particularly
strong in maximum auroral belts where the horns of the outer
Van Allen belt come closest to the earth, so it was antici-
pated that there would be horns of similar kind in Argus shells.
This expectation was admirably fulfilled. When the explosions
took place, electrons, guided by the earth's magnetic field,
raced along corkscrew paths aligned like barrel staves about
the earth. At the northern end they were reflected back.
Slowly they spread out sideways to complete a barrel-shaped
"belt of radiation around the globe. Overhead, immediately
after each explosion, a colourful aurora formed in the sky. At
the opposite, or conjugate, point in the northern hemisphere
near the Azores a brilliant auroral display was observed from
aboard the U.S.S. Albemarle, which had been sent to keep
watch. This artificially created aurora started a few minutes
after the distant detonation of Argus III and lasted for several
-minutes. Similarly, electro-magnetic disturbances and fading
of radio waves were observed in both the launching and the
conjugate areas.
To make additional measurements of the radiation in Ar-
gus shells, a series of nineteen high-altitude rockets carrying
.counters were fired to heights of up to 300 miles over Florida,
WHAT THE SATELLITES REVEALED 83
Virginia, and Puerto Rico. As these passed through the shells
of Argus radiation, they detected intensities as much as 100,-
ooo times normal. It was found that each explosion created
a separate thin sheet of radiation shaped like a concentric
barrel about the earth between the outer and inner Van Allen
belts. Each Argus shell was about 13 miles thick, but the
second and third Argus shells overlapped each other.
The shells remained constant in position and thickness
for a hundred hours, during which time every electron made
approximately one million trips between the two polar re-
gions. This provided information about the stability of the
earth's magnetic field, while the rate of decay and the fact
that the shells did not thicken or diffuse suggest that the elec-
trons are chiefly lost by scattering into the atmosphere near the
ends of their paths where they are reflected back and forth
in the denser atmosphere near the ground.
MICROMETEORITES
Before any satellites had been launched, great concern was
felt lest space be so full of tiny, high-speed micrometeorites
that vehicles would be damaged and any future space travellers
killed. The particles, which become visible as meteors or shoot-
ing stars when they reach the atmosphere, were known to travel
at speeds sometimes exceeding 25,000 miles an hour relative
to the earth, and the worst was feared of them. To study these
effects, many satellites carried microphones or fine wires
to record hits. As it turned out, the situation is not serious.
One gauge on Explorer I was hit only once during a month
and that by a speck of dust less than one thousandth of an
inch in diameter. Apparently no satellite has been put out of
action by hits. It is radiation, not meteorites, which is likely
to prove dangerous to space travellers.
84 IGY : The Year of the New Moons
GROUND OBSERVATION OF SATELLITES
The studies which can most surely be made with all satel-
lites, whether instrumented or not, are those depending solely
upon ground observation. For example, much can be discov-
ered about the upper atmosphere by accurately timing the
satellites. At heights of hundreds of miles the atmosphere is
so thin that it would be regarded as a good vacuum in a
laboratory, but even thin air slows satellites so that their orbit
contracts and their period of revolution decreases.
The orbital period of a satellite can be measured with an
accuracy of a small fraction of a second. Thus, the rate at
which drag of the thin upper air reduces the speed of a satel-
lite can be precisely determined. Using American and British
observations of the orbital period of fifteen satellites and pub-
lished figures for the size and weight of satellites, D. G. King-
Hele has published estimates of the density of the atmosphere
at heights of from 100 to 500 miles. The densities, now known
accurately for the first time, have turned out to be from five
to fifteen times greater than had been previously believed.
King-Hele considers that variations due to latitude and season
are small, but that the effect of the sun-spot cycle may be
greater than expected. This information is important for in-
struments and essential for the safety of living animal or hu-
man passengers.
Luigi Jacchia, of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observa-
tory, believes that particles shot from the sun during solar flares
increase the density of the earth's upper atmosphere and that
this increase in density produced noticeable slowing of Van-
guard I and Sputnik III one or two days after major flares
were observed. He and Robert Jastrow have studied differ-
ences in the behaviour of satellites which swing far enough
north and south to enter the ends of the outer Van Allen
belt and satellites which do not. They conclude that the ac-
WHAT THE SATELLITES REVEALED 85
tivity of the solar particles trapped within the belts increases
the temperatures in these sections of the upper atmosphere.
The activity and heat are most intense in the horns of the
belts, at about 65 miles above the earth, where the particles
are bounced back to continue their endless, jostling journey.
Jastrow suggests that this extra energy may be the cause of
the aurora, which is most common at that height and in the
latitudes of the horns of the Van Allen belts. He points out
that if this conjecture is true the Van Allen belts should con-
tain more particles in the spring and fall, when the aurora is
most prevalent. When the data from Explorers VI and VII
have been deciphered, this matter should be settled.
IS THE EARTH PEAR-SHAPED?
It has been long known that the earth has the shape of a
slightly flattened sphere with an equatorial diameter 13 miles
longer than the polar diameter. From observations made on
Vanguard I, J. A. O'Keefe concluded that the north pole is
about 1 5 yards farther from the centre of the earth than the
south pole. He also suggested a slight neck around the north
pole and a bulge a few yards thick in the southern hemisphere;
thus, in effect, the earth has a very slightly pear-shaped figure.
It has also been suggested that the equator is not perfectly
circular but very slightly elliptical.
One may well wonder how O'Keefe discovered these irregu-
larities.
In the hope of simplifying a rather complicated explana-
tion, let us consider the earth as an eccentric matron who has
a hat with an elliptical brim. Her eccentricity demands that
she keep rotating her hat and swivelling it round and round
on her head, always at the nice angle of 35 degrees. Sometimes
the wide part of the brim is well down over her nose; some-
times high over her left ear; sometimes low over her right;
86 IGY : The Year of the New Moons
sometimes well up on the back of her head; sometimes low
on the nape of her neck. The edge of the hat brim corre-
sponds to the orbit of a satellite.
As the satellite swings round and round, irregularities in
the earth cause minute changes in the shape of its orbit. At
all times the satellite is most affected by the parts of the earth
nearest to it. The timing of the orbital period is so precise
and the readings of its position are so delicate that minute
variations can be detected. By carefully tabulating these small
discrepancies, O'Keefe and other scientists have been able to
plot the bulges and depressions on the earth's surface.
O'Keefe and his colleagues believe that the earth must be
inherently very strong to support its persistent irregularities.
Whether the earth has permanent strength or whether it flows
slowly to adjust itself to large forces is a question that has been
much debated. I am inclined to think that O'Keefe's observa-
tion that the earth is slightly pear-shaped is correct, but I do
not accept his conclusion that the earth is permanently
strong. For the earth to depart from a spheroidal shape it must
have been pressed inwards in Antarctica and in a ring through
Europe, Siberia, and Canada; these are precisely the places
where great loads of glacial ice were placed on the earth dur-
ing the recent ice age. These loads depressed the earth and
caused its present shape. But the earth is now observed to
be rising in those places, and I think that it is in the process
of slowly flowing back to a spheroid shape. Rather than be-
ing permanently strong, the earth is weak and malleable.
OTHER OBSERVATIONS FROM
SATELLITES
A great deal more could be written about satellite pro-
grams, but most of this would consist of plans and intended
programs and partial accounts of results. From what has been
W HAT THE SATELLITES REVEALED 87
said it will be apparent that nearly half the satellites placed in
orbit by the end of 1959 had few instruments or else produced
few results. Much more sophisticated models have been
launched since the end of 1959, but there has not been time
for the results to be fully reduced and published. This is not
surprising. What is astonishing is how much has already been
disclosed.
In future we can expect satellites and space probes to ex-
plore the solar system, measuring the magnetic fields and Van
Allen belts around other planets and bringing back photo-
graphs of them. They can be expected to televise back to earth
a complete picture of the whole world's cloud cover. They will
supplement our present sparse weather observations over the
oceans and polar regions. Other satellites will relay communi-
cation and navigation messages all over the world. And of
course many men, but not perhaps you and I, are anxious to
get into space. Some will probably lose their lives and remain
there, riding the solar wind and the cosmic rays to all eternity.
CHAPTER 8
COSMIC RAYS
Rockets and satellites have been essential tools in the study
of radiation in outer space. Their value lies in their ability to
carry instruments into that radiation before it has been ab-
sorbed or altered by the earth's atmosphere. I have already
mentioned that the radiation emitted by the sun is of two
kinds: electro-magnetic waves, like light and heat, and cor-
puscular radiation, including blasts of gases from solar flares.
These blasts are clouds or swarms of electrons, atoms, and
fragments of atoms travelling at speeds of a few hundred miles
every second. Cosmic rays are another form of corpuscular ra-
diation in which the fragments of atoms travel alone or in
smaller "showers" with even greater energies and higher
speeds, reaching as much as tens of thousands of miles a sec-
ond. It is possible, but not yet certain, that stellar blasts and
cosmic rays may form a continuous series. Usually the two
types are easily distinguished, however, and most cosmic
rays certainly do not come from our sun.
Cosmic rays were first recognized in 1911 by Victor Franz
Hess. He noticed the universal presence of a powerful radia-
tion, the intensity of which increased rapidly with height, as
COSMICRAYS 89
shown by instruments sent up in balloons. It seemed to be
unaffected by solar or terrestrial changes. Because Hess con-
cluded that this radiation came from outer space, he named
it cosmic rays, although he had little idea of its true nature.
Whence come these projectiles? What can their unrivalled
energy tell us about the nature of mass and energy? What ef-
fect do they have on man? Are they responsible for evolution?
Ten years ago these questions had not been answered. In-
deed, the nature of cosmic rays was very imperfectly under-
stood. In the intervening time much has been discovered, but
so much more needs to be known that these are still leading
questions in physics today. Since the occurrence of cosmic
rays is a world-wide, natural phenomenon, it was natural
that their investigation should have formed one program of
thelGY.
Cosmic rays are fragments of atoms which have been bat-
tered by their impulsive rush through space. To understand
these free-wheeling offspring, we have to recall the basic struc-
ture of their atomic parents. Atoms are designed after the fash-
ion of inconceivably small solar systems, with a nucleus for
a sun and one or more electrons for planets. Altogether some
90 elements have been discovered in nature, and a dozen more
have been made artificially. They differ from one another in
a simple and rather elegant manner.
Hydrogen, the lightest and simplest element, has one planet-
ary electron. Succeeding elements helium, lithium, and so
on have two, three, and successively more electrons up to
the ninety-second and heaviest natural element, uranium,
which has 92 electrons. Eleven artificially created elements
continue the sequence from neptunium, with 93 electrons,
through plutonium, with 94, and so on to lawrencium, with
103. All 103 elements are known. None is missing; no others
exist. It is all beautifully regular.
The planetary electrons are all identical. They are small,
Atomic fragments
Complete atoms
J
-r-
E.
03
elect
ron
proton
neutron
(unstable)
stripped
helium
nucleus
\ ordinary
/ hydrog'en H
\ heavy
/ hydrogen H
4^ / x tritium
3 ( <$> } hydromH B
1 (unstable;
\ ordinary
helium He 4
Diagram of the chief fundamental particles and of the
simplest atoms made of them. Cosmic rays are very high
speed atoms and atomic fragments like those illustrated.
light in weight, mobile, and carry one unit of negative electric
charge.
Nuclei are larger and more complex. The simplest is that
of the hydrogen atom and is called a proton. The proton
weighs as much as 1,836 electrons and is therefore less mobile.
It carries a small positive electric charge, exactly equal to the
negative electric charge of the electron. A hydrogen atom is
made up of one proton and one electron. All other elements
have heavier and hence more complex nuclei to hold their
larger numbers of planetary electrons in control. Each nucleus
has the same number of protons as the element has planetary
electrons one, as I have said, for hydrogen, two for helium,
three for lithium, and so on but the nuclei also have variable
C O S M I C R A Y S 91
numbers of uncharged particles, called neutrons, which can-
not exist alone. These three particles electrons, protons, and
neutrons make up all ordinary matter. Having equal num-
bers of negative electrons and positive protons, complete
atoms have no charge and therefore are not affected by elec-
tric and magnetic fields.
If an atom is abused, as by collision with other atoms, it can
be damaged. Some or all of the planetary electrons can be
knocked off and perhaps later recaptured. This happens easily
and the essential nature of the element is unaltered, except
that a nucleus stripped of some of its negative electrons ac-
quires a positive charge which makes it sensitive to magnetic
and electric fields. Primary cosmic rays are chiefly single
stripped nuclei travelling alone at colossal speeds through
space.
If, however, a cosmic-ray nucleus travelling at high speed
collides with another such nucleus, the impact will disrupt
both, changing them to other elements by processes which are
not easily reversed. The speed at which cosmic rays travel and
the violence of their occasional collisions mean that they are
always charged and sensitive to electric and magnetic fields;
but since they are travelling very fast, they are not easily de-
flected from their courses.
Of every hundred cosmic rays about eighty-five are protons
(stripped hydrogen nuclei), fourteen are stripped helium nu-
clei, and the remaining one may be the nucleus of any other
element, most likely one of the lighter elements such as lith-
ium, boron, or carbon. Some cosmic rays may be single elec-
trons or even a pulse of X-rays, but this is still under debate.
Thus, we see that there are several dozen kinds of primary
cosmic-ray particles and that some are much more common
than others. They are made of the same material as the ordi-
nary tilings about us, and only become cosmic rays by virtue
92 I G Y : The Year of the Ng-w Moons
of the tremendous speed and energy with which they arrive,
one at a time, individual fragments of atoms from outer space.
Most cosmic-ray particles have about the same speed and
energy as is given artificially to similar particles by cyclotrons
and other high-energy machines in physics laboratories. Such
energies are described as being a few billion electron volts
(Bev).
Every second or so at the top of the earth's atmosphere a
cosmic-ray particle with an energy of a few Bev hits an area as
big as one's thumbnail. Faster and more energetic cosmic rays
exist, but they are progressively rarer. An area of a square yard
is hit about once a minute by a particle with an energy of a
thousand Bev, and about once a month by a cosmic ray with
an energy of a million Bev. This is about the largest practical
size for a counter and the slowest practical rate at which to
operate them, but one million Bev is by no means the greatest
energy of cosmic rays. At rare intervals one arrives with an en-
ergy of over one billion Bev (a billion billion electron volts) .
Such cosmic rays are so infrequent that one would hit a sys-
tem of counters as large as a football stadium only once or
twice a year. These strong cosmic rays are by far the most en-
ergetic things we know. Weight for weight, they completely
dwarf atomic explosions. Even more powerful cosmic rays may
exist, and a search is being conducted to try to discover
whether there is an upper limit to their energy.
So far we have been discussing the nature of cosmic rays
winging their solitary way as single nuclei through outer space.
Mercurial messengers with speeds rivalling that of light itself,
they are the only corporeal bodies to travel from star to star
throughout the galaxy.
When these primary cosmic rays reach the atmosphere, they
strike other atoms and break them to fragments, giving rise to
a variety of effects, depending upon their initial speed. It has
only been by means of studies from high-flying balloons near
Primary
Cosmic Ray
Atmosphere
Secondaries
Earth
Shower development starting with the collision of a pri-
mary cosmic-ray particle with a nucleus and proceeding by
further collisions and by decay of short-lived radioactive
fragments. Most of the secondary particles reaching the
ground are electrons.
the top of the atmosphere and from rockets and satellites
above it that we have discovered the nature of primary cosmic
rays.
When a primary cosmic-ray particle strikes the atmosphere,
its first and commonest effect is to knock planetary electrons
off other atoms and so leave a trail of charged electrons and
nuclei along its path. Physicists have devised an ingenious
method of tracing these paths. The high-flying balloons and
rockets carry with them stacks of photographic plates covered
with very thick layers of emulsion. When a charged particle
passes through a stack of plates, it exposes the successive layers
of emulsion in its path and leaves a photographic record of its
94 I G Y : The Year of the New Moons
course. This is exactly the same principle used by the ballis-
tics expert in a murder mystery; he prowls around the library
where the body lies, tracing the course of a bullet that has
bored its way through a pile of books. By marking the path of
the bullet, he can tell the point from which it was fired and the
direction in which it was travelling.
High-flying balloons eventually return to earth and the rec-
ords they carry can be recovered. No capsules were recovered
from the satellites until after the IGY, but their counters were
designed to transmit a signal to earth each time a satellite was
struck by a cosmic ray, thus recording the number of hits.
Eventually a cosmic-ray nucleus may hit the nucleus of an-
other atom, and this Is likely to disrupt both. The effects on
ordinary cosmic rays of a few Bev are like the interactions on a
billiard table. One or both nuclei may be broken, producing a
shower of their constituent fragments electrons, neutrons,
smaller nuclei, and X-rays. Similar phenomena can be repro-
duced in large cyclotrons and other atom-smashing machines
in physics laboratories.
Such collisions are most numerous at a height of about 10
miles above the earth. Since low-energy fragments are ab-
sorbed before they reach the ground, balloons must be dis-
patched to that height to study weak cosmic rays.
Balloons are not so necessary for the study of high-energy
rays, which produce more exciting results (these cannot be
duplicated in the laboratory). Each of these atoms imparts so
much energy to the fragments created by the collisions that the
fragments surge on, causing billions of secondary collisions.
The resulting particles form a cone-shaped spray, or shower,
which expands as more and more collisions take place.
When the particles are travelling at nearly the speed of light,
collisions may change them into bursts of high-energy waves,
which may later reappear as new particles of matter called
mesons. These are between electrons and protons in mass
COSMIC RAYS
95
and, although short-lived, are highly penetrating and often
reach sea level. Such showers of billions of secondary cosmic
rays and electrons, though rare, may cover an area of a square
mile by the time they reach the surface of the earth.
The deepest interest is attached to the primary cosmic rays
which have the greatest energy. They are immensely rare,
and if they reached sea level without colliding we would need
counters as large as football fields to detect them. But be-
Shower of secondary cosmic rays striking an array of count-
ers on the ground in an oblique direction,
cause they produce showers of atomic fragments, this is not
necessary. Instead, several counters of normal size are spread
over a large area. A big shower, from a really energetic primary
cosmic ray, may simultaneously trigger all the counters scat-
tered over several acres, or even several square miles. The di-
rection of incidence of each ray can be measured electroni-
cally by noting the difference in time of arrival at each counter.
Weak cosmic rays produce small showers that only trigger one
or two counters*
96 IGY : The Year of the New Moons
In the spring of 1960 1 visited a spread of cosmic-ray counters
in Bolivia. A few miles from the highest commercial airport
in the world, at La Paz, instrument shelters, like little chicken
coops, were scattered over the desolate altiplano at a height of
16,000 feet.
The sun has been observed to affect cosmic rays. The effects
are of three kinds. There are small variations associated with
the rotation of the sun, small decreases after heavy magnetic
storms, and increases of cosmic-ray activity of as much as two
hundred and fifty times during some large solar flares. The
smaller variations are both probably due to deflections of cos-
mic rays through changes in the magnetic fields caused by solar
wind, and the large variations are almost certainly the result
of the emission of bursts of cosmic rays from the sun.
Large cosmic-ray increases due to solar flares have been ob-
served on these occasions:
28 February *94 2
7 March 1942
26 February 1946
19 November *949
23 February 1956
4 May 1960
12 November 1960
15 November 1960
20 November 1960
and it was a matter of great disappointment that none occurred
during the IGY. The cosmic rays coming from the sun during
these bursts are of low energy and may be but peak occurrences
of normal solar emissions. The rarity of these outbursts from
the sun and their relatively feeble nature show that the sun is
not the normal source of cosmic rays, which arrive continu-
ously and uniformly from every direction. The source of most
cosmic rays must be farther out in space.
COSMIC RAYS 97
The rays are indeed cosmic. Two theories have been sug-
gested for their origin in space. One is that they are created
during explosions of whole stars, rare and spectacular events,
of which the Star of Bethlehem may have been the most fa-
mous example. The formation of the Crab nebula was the re-
sult of a super-nova burst in A.D. 1054. If super-nova explosions
create cosmic rays, more of them should come from the direc-
tions in which stars are most numerous, because where there
are more stars there will be more chances for super-nova explo-
sions. One such direction is the plane of the Milky Way. The
other theory, suggested by the late Enrico Fermi, is that cos-
mic rays originate with low energies in stellar bursts, like those
observed on the sun, and that the cosmic rays are accelerated
to greater energies by the action of the galaxy's magnetic field
exerted on peripatetic particles during vast aeons of time.
If this problem could be resolved, we would know a little
more about the nature of the universe. But before we can un-
derstand the attempts being made to determine which of these
theories is more likely to be correct, we must consider the effect
of magnetic fields on cosmic rays. Being charged particles, cos-
mic rays tend to be deflected by magnetic fields and to follow
them, whether the fields are those of the earth, the sun, or the
whole galaxy. Two opposing influences determine the extent of
the deflection. The stronger the magnetic field, the greater the
deflecting influence; but the faster a particle is moving, the less
any particular field will bend it.
Consider first the influence of the earth's magnetic field on
cosmic rays. The earth is a large magnet whose lines of force
bend inwards to each pole, and above the equator lie parallel
with the earth's surface. Cosmic-ray particles can follow the di-
rection of the earth's magnetic field to the poles without being
deflected, but cannot reach other latitudes without crossing
the field and undergoing at least some deflection. The extent to
which a field succeeds in deflecting particles depends on their
The earth's magnetic field.
speed. Particles, like automobiles being driven around a sharp
bend in a highway, cannot make the bend if they are going too
fast, but keep straight on and go off the road. Thus, only fast
cosmic rays can burst through the magnetic field and reach the
equatorial regions, but all cosmic rays can follow the lines of
the field and reach the polar regions.
A study of the energy of cosmic rays received at different lati-
tudes makes it possible to plot a diagram of the magnetic field
in space around the earth. During the IGY ships and airplanes
equipped with counters cruised from the Arctic to the Antarc-
tic to do this. As had been suspected, the picture they obtained
COSMIC RAYS
99
showed that the earth's magnetic field is not regular, but dis-
torted. Not only are the magnetic poles in different places from
the true poles, but they are not opposite one another, and the
field in space over them is crooked.
During the last sun-spot maximum the average value of
cosmic-ray intensity decreased all over the world. A long series
of observations by S. E. Forbush of the Carnegie Institution of
Washington, which has now extended through two complete
sun-spot cycles, shows that average cosmic-ray intensity varies
in an eleven-year cycle, that the two cycles are out of phase,
Extra
Galactic
Space
Origin
Sun
Cross-section of our galaxy, illustrating the extremely
crooked path of a normal cosmic ray, which is readily de-
flected by the magnetic fields of stars, and the nearly
straight path of a high-energy cosmic ray.
and that cosmic-ray intensity decreases as solar activity in-
creases. Since cosmic rays are not normally produced by the
sun, decreases in intensity must be caused by more effective
magnetic shielding. In other words, cosmic rays are a means of
studying changes in the sun's magnetic field and determining
the effects of increases in solar wind during periods of high
solar activity.
Finally, still seeking the origin of cosmic rays, we turn to
the galaxy itself. Like other magnetic fields, that of the galaxy
tends to deflect cosmic rays; but the more energetic a particle
ioo I G Y : The Year of the New Moons
is, the less it will be deflected the stiffer its path. The galaxy
is so big that most cosmic rays wander through it on paths like
corkscrews, so that we cannot tell from what direction they
started. Fortunately, those rare cosmic rays with energies of
over a billion billion electron volts have paths so stiff that they
are not appreciably deflected from their course by galactic mag-
netic fields. Thus, strong cosmic rays should point directly to
their source. If cosmic rays are formed in super-novae, the
strongest rays should appear to be coming directly from them.
But if Fermi's theory is correct, once cosmic rays achieve this
stiffness they travel right out of the galaxy in which they origi-
nate. Any cosmic rays of greater energy, therefore, are likely to
have reached us from galaxies other than our own.
This suggests that a study of the directions from which the
most energetic cosmic rays come might provide a means of de-
termining their mode of origin. Bruno Rossi, an Italian who
like Fermi fled from Mussolini to the United States, built sta-
tions for observing cosmic rays in the United States, India, and
Bolivia. In 1960 he announced that a cosmic ray more ener-
getic than any previously recorded had been observed and that
he considered it to have come from a source outside our galaxy.
It is the only atom of matter so far reported to have reached
the earth from a galaxy other than our own Milky Way.
Another way of tackling this problem is to try to determine
the average age of cosmic rays. Their age would give us a clue
to their probable origin, for cosmic rays coming directly from
explosions of super-novae would be far younger than those
which had wandered through the universe for a vast time col-
lecting energy. Some idea of age may be obtained by consid-
ering the composition of cosmic rays. Old rays can be expected
to have suffered many collisions, and collisions tend to break up
.large nuclei, like iron, into several smaller nuclei, such as lith-
ium. H. S. W. Massey and R. L. Boyd, from measurements of
the abundance of light nuclei and the scarcity of heavy nuclei,
COSMIC RAYS 101
have suggested ages of a few million years. This would also in-
dicate that many cosmic rays gather energy slowly and are not
a result of large stellar explosions. The counters in Sputnik III
which separated very heavy nuclei from the rest found that
they constituted only 0.03 per cent.
Still another approach to this fascinating problem springs
from radioastronomy. The Crab nebula and other super-novae
have been found to emit strong radio noise. It seems likely that
the radio noise is due to the rapid movement of free electrons
in a magnetic field. This makes it probable that super-novae
are the sources of some cosmic rays.
Perhaps both theories of origin are correct. If some rays are
created by stellar explosions, an interesting corollary follows.
Throughout historical time three super-nova explosions have
been recorded for certain within a distance of 7,000 light years
of the earth. These occurred in A.D. 1054, 1572, and 1604.
There is some evidence in the Star of Bethlehem and in Greek
records of two earlier explosions. It is thus reasonable to be-
lieve that every few hundred million years a star may explode
very close to the solar system and envelop it for many years in
a cloud of cosmic rays of heightened intensity. Such a bom-
bardment hammering living creatures would certainly have af-
fected the genes by which the characteristics of different forms
of life are transmitted. This could have produced a burst of ac-
celerated evolution. The parallels between this possibility and
the effects of radiation due to atomic explosions are another
reason to warrant their active investigation.
Living processes are affected by cosmic rays in another way.
Interactions of cosmic rays with the atmosphere constantly
produce several varieties of radioactive nuclei. The best known
is carbon-i4 (a radioactive isotope or variety of carbon, most
of which is non-radioactive) . All living creatures constantly ab-
sorb this radioactive carbon as carbon dioxide from the atmos-
phere and water, and its decay creates internal radioactive
102 I G Y : The Year of the New Moons
bombardments within us all feeble, yet capable of causing
evolutionary changes.
The existence of this radioactive carbon in living matter pro-
vides a valuable tool for archaeologists. Accurate counting
shows that in all living matter the radioactivity is the same as
in the atmosphere, but with death breathing stops, and so does
exchange with the atmosphere. The radioactivity of the atmos-
phere is constantly renewed but not the radioactivity in dead
creatures. This decreases as the carbon-i4 decays, until after
40,000 years it has essentially all disappeared. Thus, a count of
the amount of radioactivity in any piece of formerly living mat-
ter, be it wood, shell, bone, or mummified flesh, can be used to
estimate its age. If it has as much radioactivity as living mat-
ter, it is young; if it has no radioactivity, it is 40,000 years old
or more; if it has an intermediate amount, its age is less than
40,000 years and can be accurately estimated.
CHAPTER 9
THE NORTH
MAGNETIC POLE
JUNE 1958
In June the Canadian Government invited a party of Cana-
dian and American scientists to fly to the Arctic to inspect geo-
physical stations and to see the remote and desolate places
along the margin of the Arctic Sea which were being inten-
sively surveyed for the first time. After breakfast in Ottawa we
took off through warm spring rain and flew in cloud for many
hours until we sighted the barren rock hills of Baffin Island.
Along the coast, winter drifts were melting to spread pools of
light-blue water and muddy stains over fast sea ice.
We landed on the airfield at Frobisher Bay, where every
night several airplanes stop to refuel on their flights between
Europe and western North America. Frobisher Bay is an un-
distinguished monument to expediency, a dingy collection of
wartime huts and hangars with later out-croppings of tempo-
rary buildings thrown up under the sudden necessity of provid-
ing radar lines in the Arctic. It mushroomed through the tun-
dra,, without benefit of the niceties of town planning, to fill an
urgent need.
104 I G Y : The Year of the New Moons
We had tea in a large waiting room built for the trans-
Atlantic passengers and then drove 10 miles in an enclosed
jeep to another settlement, new and of very different appear-
ance. It was a village of wooden houses, small and gaily
painted, among which a dozen Eskimo children in parkas were
playing. They and their parents were all going to school, for the
whole community had been uprooted and their life was being
transformed. They had always hunted for a living, but their
increasing population, the dearth of animals to hunt, and the
possibility of earning better livelihoods elsewhere had forced a
change. Parents were being trained to use their considerable
natural ability to carve soapstone and ivory, while the children
went to conventional schools to be equipped to run the airport
eventually. Until their lack of knowledge of English (inevita-
ble among nomadic hunters ) had been overcome and they had
grown accustomed to a settled life, they were being deliber-
ately kept apart from the airbase. I had met one of the Eskimos
twelve years before when as a young girl she was living with a
missionary family at Coppermine, farther west on the arctic
coast of Canada. As a result of good training, she was now the
capable and charming nurse of the Eskimo hospital, which she
ran in addition to taking care of her own home and family.
From Frobisher we flew across Baffin Island; it looked as
barren as the face of Mars, and with high anticipation we saw
that the sky over Foxe Basin was clear. The ice was cracking
along the low shore, one of the flattest in the world, where the
tide runs in and out as much as 1 5 miles twice a day, but the
ice never entirely leaves. Few ships have penetrated this north-
ern extension of Hudson Bay, and it is among the least known
parts of North America.
It had been cloudy when I had flown that way ten years
before, so that our party had not seen and had failed to dis-
cover the last major unknown part of North America. A year
later survey planes of the Royal Canadian Air Force noticed
THE NORTH MAGNETIC POLE 105
and photographed Prince Charles Island. In 1951, when Tom
Manning was sent in a small boat to plant the Canadian flag
on this last terra incognita of North America, he had a detailed
aerial map of the whole island (80 by 65 miles) in his hand.
The island was now below us.
Our journey over the ice fields of this white and empty cul-
de-sac of the seas was made the more interesting because we
had on board one of its first explorers. The region north of
Prince Charles and Air Force Islands had been first visited be-
fore the war by a party of adventurous youths under Manning's
leadership. One of them, Graham Rowley, was with us. As we
crowded over his shoulder by the porthole, he explained:
"There ahead, to the right, is Bray Island. On our first trip
across it I stopped, when I reached the highest point, to rest
the dogs and looked across the strait you see below. There was
a new island, the one that is right underneath us now/' Some
years later, when he was overseas, the Board of Geographical
Names had called this Rowley Island and named others after
his companions.
We were talking of the last explorations of North America,
for the whole of Canada has now been photographed and the
Arctic Sea has been searched by radar. There are no more un-
known lands; the new frontiers for adventure are the ocean
floors and limitless space.
We flew over Hecla and Fury Strait, its name commemorat-
ing, as do many polar features (Dolphin and Union, Erebus
and Terror) , the pairs of ships that first explored them. It only
seems regrettable that another incongruous pair, the Race-
horse and Carcase, were not so commemorated, too.
It was clear to the horizon and blindingly bright. We were
over the Arctic archipelago, the only assemblage in the world
of such large islands lying so close together. Three of the is-
lands below us were each larger than Great Britain, but those
ahead of us were of more moderate size and looking very
io6
IGY : The Year of the New Moons
Christmas-like. Their brown cliffs rose from the frozen sea like
chunks of layer cake on the white shelves of Santa Claus's
bakeshop. Over the tops of the tabular islands, the snow had
blown like frosting; and glaciers, like gobbets of icing, poured
in solid streams over the edge to join the frozen, broken, and
Map of part of the Canadian Arctic, showing the migra-
tion of the north magnetic pole. Shaded areas are the last
two groups of islands to be discovered in North America,
the "Conservative" Islands by Stefansson (1913-8) and the
Manning Islands (1936-9 and 1947).
THE NORTH MAGNETIC POLE 107
refrozen surface of the white sea below. To the west reared the
straight cliffs and flat surface of Somerset Island, off which in
1849 the British explorer Admiral Sir John Franklin had been
lost with both his ships and all his men. Beyond it lay, like an-
other great slab, Prince of Wales Island, to which in 1947 the
Dominion Observatory had tracked the shifting north mag-
netic pole.
What do we mean when we talk of the earth's magnetic
poles? Like other magnets, the earth has a north and a south
pole; however, the effective poles are not on the surface but in-
side the earth. In 1600, William Gilbert, physician to Queen
Elizabeth, pointed out that freely suspended magnets may be
used to plot the direction of the earth's magnetic field, which
lies in barrel-shaped curves about the earth, pointing towards
the poles within. The poles which we call the north and south
magnetic poles are simply the two places where a compass
points straight downwards.
The north magnetic pole was first discovered by Com-
mander James Clark Ross, R.N., on June i, 1831- From his
camp in an abandoned Eskimo snow house, he described the
desolate scene: "The land at this place is very low near the
coast, but rises into ridges of 50 or 60 feet high about a mile
inland. We could have wished that a place so important had
possessed more of mark or note. It was scarcely censurable to
regret that there was not a mountain to indicate the spot to
which so much of interest must ever be attached; and I could
even have pardoned any one among us who had been so ro-
mantic or absurd as to expect that the magnetic pole was an
object as conspicuous and mysterious as the fabled mountain
of Sinbad, that it even was a mountain of iron, or a magnet as
large as Mont Blanc. But Nature had here erected no monu-
ment to denote the spot which she had chosen as the centre of
one of her great and dark powers; and where we could do little
ourselves towards this end, it was our business to submit, and
io8 I G Y : The Year of the New Moons
to be content in noting by mathematical numbers and signs,
as with things of far more importance in the terrestrial system,
what we could but ill distinguish in any other manner/ 7
That journey was a hard one. The ship Victory, an old Isle
of Man ferry with primitive steam engines as well as sails, was
beset by the ice and crushed. The crew who had sailed on
May 23, 1829, were not picked up until more than four years
later, by which time they were "unshaven since I know not
when, dirty, dressed in rags of wild beasts instead of the tatters
of civilization, and starved to the very bone gaunt and grim/'
During the last winter their food ran out and they survived by
trapping and eating arctic foxes. At that time the captain wrote
in his diary: "Let him who reads to condemn what is so mea-
gre, have some compassion on the writer who had nothing bet-
ter than this meagreness, this repetition, this reiteration of the
ever-resembling, every-day dullness to record, and what was
infinitely worse, to endure. I might have seen more, it has been
said; it may be; but I saw only ice and snow, cloud and drifting
and storm. According to Persius, it is hunger which makes
poets write as it makes parrots speak; I suspect that neither
poet nor parrot would have gained much eloquence under a
fox diet, and that an insufficient one, in the blessed regions of
Boothia Felix/' Let those who consider it a hardship today to
spend a year in the polar regions reflect upon exploration in
the days of sail.
We had no such hardships, for our plane landed at the all-
weather airfield at Resolute, the central base for weather sta-
tions on the Canadian Arctic Islands. Although there were still
high drifts of snow, it was melting. The temperature was
slightly above freezing, and the sun shone brightly twenty-four
hours a day. Inside the base a large mess-hall was open day
and night, and a succession of men from the construction and
supply crews, meteorologists and airmen, came and went in
relays. They were working around the clock to take advantage
THE NORTH MAGNETIC POLE 109
of the brief summer season. The majority were Canadians, but
there were some American meteorological observers and scien-
tists among them.
Since Resolute is so close to the magnetic pole and so far
from settled regions, it is not surprising that in addition to the
ten-year-old weather station a great number of other scientific
projects were in hand. There was a new tide-gauge, built with
considerable difficulty to function without damage from the
grinding ice. There was an important seismological station.
There were cosmic-ray counters and filters to measure the
amount of radioactive fall-out in the air. But the chief interest
of the scientific colony centred on the magnetic recorders, on
the ionospheric sounder for probing the upper atmosphere
with radio waves, and on the transparent dome which would
shelter an observer of the aurora during the winter darkness.
Here, sitting almost on top of the north magnetic pole, was
one of the best places to learn more about the earth's magnetic
field and its subsidiary effects on radio communications and
on the aurora.
CHAPTER 10
THE EARTH'S
MAGNETIC FIELD
We have noticed a curious feature of the north magnetic pole.
It is moving. In 1831 Ross located it on Boothia Peninsula on
the north coast of North America. In 1947 P. H. Serson found
it to be on Prince of Wales Island 200 miles farther north. In
1959 it was heading across Melville Island and had picked up
speed, for it had travelled another 200 miles in much less time.
Such movement is not only true of the magnetic poles but
also of the whole magnetic field of the earth, which is con-
stantly changing in strength and direction. This is called the
secular variation. It is well illustrated at Greenwich, England,
where changes in direction of the compass have been followed
since A.IX 1600. What could be moving about inside the ap-
parently solid earth in such a manner as to produce these ef-
fects? The first clue is linked to another reason for thinking
that the earth should not be considered a fixed magnet like
those in hardware shops. At red heat, iron loses its magnetism.
There are many indications that the temperature of the inte-
rior of the earth is at a few thousand degrees. Thus, the core is
THE EARTH'S MAGNETIC FIELD
111
much too hot to be permanently magnetized. Indeed, it is
thought to be iron so hot that it is molten in spite of the great
pressures existing there.
A century ago the first analysis of tidal behaviour of the solid
part of the earth also suggested that it reacted to tidal forces
not as a uniform solid sphere, but as a hollow one or one con-
taining a fluid core. This also made it probable that the central
part of the earth might indeed be molten.
During the last fifty years the study of earthquake waves has
revealed the nature of the earth's internal structure in much
more detail. Large earthquakes shake the whole earth, imper-
ceptibly in distant places, but enough to affect delicate seismo-
graphs almost daily. These seismic waves, deep whispers from
some monstrous organ, pass across the whole earth in twenty-
three minutes and reverberate within it for hours. They are
recorded and precisely timed at six hundred earthquake observ-
atories throughout the world. The records of waves which pass
through the earth have been pieced together to reveal the in-
ternal structure of the earth, just as X-rays do the human body.
thqualce Focus
Seismological
Obs-
Cross-section of the earth's interior, depicting the inner
core, believed to be solid; the outer core of liquid iron; and
the solid mantle and crust of rocks of different kinds. Two
possible paths of seismic waves from an earthquake to an
observatory are shown.
112 I G Y : The Year of the New Moons
The earth's internal arrangements are like those of a four-
minute egg. There is a liquid yolk or core of one composition, a
solid white or mantle of another, and a thin solid shell or crust
of a third. In the very centre within the liquid core there may
be a solid button.
On the assumption that meteorites are broken pieces of a
planet, or at any rate representative of material common in the
solar system, it has been suggested that the earth's mantle has
the composition of stony meteorites. Thus, the core is gener-
ally considered to be white-hot molten iron, the mantle to re-
semble stony meteorites; and the crust is, of course, the part we
see. In A.D. 1600 William Gilbert demonstrated that the main
part of the earth's magnetic field is generated deep within it;
the only place which could both generate a magnetic field and
allow it to move about is this great central globule of white-hot
molten iron 1,800 miles beneath our feet.
This seething molten mass is believed to be moving in torpid
currents, ceaselessly ebbing and flowing inside the earth, just
as the hot gases in the sun boil up, ebb, and flow. Applying
knowledge that astronomers have gained of the shifting mag-
netic fields in the sun, physicists have come to believe that the
earth's magnetic field shifts with the movement of the currents
in its molten core. Astronomers believe that the swirling vor-
tices of ionized gas on the surface of the sun may act like the
wires in an electric dynamo to carry electric currents which ex-
cite magnetic fields. The earth's core is thought to behave in
the same way in generating the earth's magnetic field. If the
motion of the core produces currents which rise in some places
and sink in others, as in sun-spots or like the currents in a
saucepan of boiling water, the earth's magnetic field might be
expected to vary and perhaps be stronger above rising currents
and weaker above sinking currents. This view is supported by
the observation that there are regions of greater and lesser in-
tensity scattered irregularly about the earth. It has also been
THE EARTH'S MAGNETIC FIELD 113
noted that the spots of higher and lower magnetic intensity
move westward around the globe. Evidently, the solid part of
the earth is moving faster than its liquid core.
A knowledge of the irregular changes in the earth's field, be-
sides having value in theoretical studies, is of great practical
importance for navigation of all kinds. These changes cannot
be predicted but can only be discovered by world-wide surveys.
The best surveys were those made by the non-magnetic ship
Carnegie which had no iron on board, only wood and bronze.
In 1929 she unfortunately burned at Apia, Samoa, and with
the passing of time navigational charts are getting out of date
and there is a grave danger that essential data will not be gath-
ered. In some places the declination shown on charts is already
in error by several degrees. Fortunately, however, the Soviet
Union has recently built another non-magnetic ship, the
Zarya, and during the IGY this vessel and American and Ca-
nadian airplanes made magnetic surveys of the Pacific and At-
lantic Oceans and over the Arctic. The Americans have now
proposed a scheme to complete an airborne magnetic survey of
all the oceans of the world before 1965.
In recent years new light has been shed on the behaviour of
the earth's magnetic field through the study of the feeble mag-
netism of ordinary rocks and old pieces of pottery. When sedi-
ments accumulate on the sea floor, when lava solidifies, or
when pottery is baked, certain processes act to line up the mag-
netic elements of the rock or earthenware with that of the pre-
vailing magnetic field, and then lock a record of that direction
into the material so that the record is preserved without subse-
quent change. These studies have shown that the earth's mag-
netic field was very different in the past and has changed more
rapidly than anyone would have believed possible a few years
ago. Not only is it changing in direction in a way that corre-
sponds to the observed wanderings of the magnetic pole, but it
has also changed in strength and been reversed from time to
ii4 I G Y : The Year of the New Moons
time. These studies have been interpreted to mean that the
continents were in different latitudes in past times. It seems
likely that they have moved about relative to one another,
and this slow wandering has been called continental drift
Odd as it sounds, the earth seems at times to have lost its
magnetism; and when this magnetism has reappeared, it has
been reversed in direction, so that the north magnetic pole
would at times have been in the southern hemisphere. Deter-
minations of the strength of the earth's magnetic field suggest
that such a change is now taking place, because the strength of
the field has decreased by 10 per cent in the past century.
If the trend continues, the earth's magnetic field may pass
through a zero value in a few centuries and then reverse its di-
rection. When it gets too weak, compasses will cease to work,
the aurora and the Van Allen belts will vanish, and long-range
radio channels will no longer operate.
The behaviour of the magnetic field of the earth seems less
surprising when we realize that something similar is occurring
in the sun. The solar cycle of roughly eleven years, which we
have mentioned in connection with the sun-spot cycle, also cor-
responds to changes in the magnetic field of the sun. Appar-
ently, the sun reverses its magnetism each cycle and the sun-
spots are direct signs of magnetic swirls in the gases of the sun.
The earth and the sun and other stars all generate magnetic
fields in the same manner. But the currents in the liquid iron
of the earth are sluggish and take thousands of years to reverse,
while the sun takes eleven years, and one peculiar star has been
observed to change every nine days.
Besides the main field of the earth, which is generated in the
core, there is another rapidly varying field which is generated
in the upper atmosphere. Like the sea, the air has tides. These
liave no more effect on us than ocean tides have on the fish in
the sea. It is at coasts that tides are observed, and it is on the
upper surface of the ocean of air far above us that tides in the
The sun's two toroidal magnetic fields whose existence is
suspected. They probably rotate in opposite directions and
create sun-spots where they emerge.
air produce noticeable effects. There, on the edge of space, the
atmosphere is thin and light and with corresponding ease
twice a day it bobs up and down as much as a mile. The effect
can be seen even in high mountains. For example, at Chacal-
taya Observatory, Bolivia, which at 17,500 feet is the highest
permanently inhabited geophysical observatory in the world,
the recording barograph shows two tidal waves a day with the
greatest regularity.
ii 6 IGY : The Year of the New Moons
Higher in the atmosphere, the gases are so thin as to be
nearly a vacuum, and they are exposed to bombardment by
cosmic rays, solar winds, and waves of ultra-violet and other
radiation from the sun. Under these circumstances many of
the atoms are stripped of some electrons and become charged
ions. These ionized gases can then conduct electricity and are
in the same state as the tenuous gases in neon signs and fluores-
cent lights. The same properties that light up the streets with
advertising produce conducting layers high in the upper atmos-
phere, which because of these properties is called the iono-
sphere. As tides move these conducting layers up and down
within the earth's magnetic field, electricity is generated in the
layers. In any limited volume these currents are small, but
there is an immensity of air and, collectively, currents of over a
million amperes surge above us at heights of 100 miles or so.
These produce a smaller secondary part of the earth's magnetic
field which varies much more rapidly than the part deep in the
core.
Currents are presumably formed in the oceans also, but the
oceans are much smaller and more scattered than the core or
the atmosphere, and their tides are much slighter than those in
the upper air, so that the magnetic effects of the sea are negli-
gible.
The complexity of these variations explains the value of hav-
ing magnetic observatories at all latitudes to keep systematic
records. The main field generated in the core is subject to slow
changes over very long periods of time. The secondary field,
formed by the reaction of the main field on the conducting
layers in the upper atmosphere, is constantly changing in a
regular fashion, under the influence of solar and lunar tides,
with the time of day, with the season of the year, with the
eclipses of the sun. It varies also with latitude.
When outbursts of radiation from the sun strike the upper
atmosphere, they cause powerful and irregular currents to flow,
ii 8 IGY : The Year of the New Moons
and create erratic fluctuations in the total value of the earth's
magnetic field. These sudden disturbances are called magnetic
storms and are usually accompanied by aurora and disruption
of radio propagation. Happily, they do not occur every day.
But because they derive from solar eruptions, and because the
blast of gas takes about a day to travel from the sun, they can
often be predicted.
In each cycle, as the sun-spots increase in number, magnetic
storms increase in frequency and severity. They show some
correlation with individual sun-spots and tend to recur at in-
tervals of twenty-seven days, the period of rotation of the sun.
All these effects are prominent enough to be readily ob-
served and of such obvious value that it can be well under-
stood why many geomagneticians welcomed a chance to estab-
lish new geophysical observatories during the IGY. One
example is the Addis Ababa Geophysical Observatory, which
was established in 1957 as the first geophysical observatory in
Ethiopia. The effects of magnetic storms are plainly shown in
the records obtained there in February 1958. These include
large daily variations in the magnetic field due to the sun's nor-
mal activity and a large disturbance due to the sizable mag-
netic storm of February i. This storm was unusually powerful
for the tropics. Because the earth's field attracts the solar wind
to the polar regions, magnetic storms are more numerous and
severe there than they are nearer the equator.
Slowly, by piecing together many such fragments of infor-
mation, scientists are discovering more about the earth's mag-
netic field. The field is already known to be asymmetrical, but
it will take time to draw a precise map in three dimensions.
In any case, such a map will be only an average or instantane-
ous view because, due to the fluctuations in the ionosphere,
the field is constantly changing.
CHAPTER II
THE UPPER
ATMOSPHERE
The earth y like Salome, is shrouded in seven veils. Two we
have discussed: the Van Allen belts, the farthest flung and
most tenuous, wisps blown by the sun and shot with the colour
of the aurora. Now let us admire the other five the four re-
gions or layers of the ionosphere and the innermost ozone
layer, all rising and falling with breath-like tides upon the
earth's rotund figure.
These veils are earth's garments, but in rather immodest
fashion they are transparent, as we can tell whenever we look
up at a cloudless sky. This is scarcely surprising, for the upper
atmosphere, of which these layers form part, is so thin and ten-
uous that for most purposes it could be regarded as a vacuum.
Nevertheless, it affords great protection to us from the storms
and blasts of outer space; without that protection it is doubt-
ful whether life would ever have developed. Each veil is a trap
that stops some particular type of radiation and is, by that ab-
sorption of energy, itself created.
In Chapter 7 we mentioned that the outer and inner Van
THE UPPER ATMOSPHERE 121
Allen belts are magnetic traps which catch and hold the fast-
flying particles from the sun and outer space. The main parts
of these belts were not discovered until artificial satellites pene-
trated them at heights of over 1,000 miles, although we now
know that the horns of the outer belt may reach down in the
polar regions to altitudes of only about 65 miles.
The other five layers were not recognized until this century,
although some of the indications that finally led to their dis-
covery have been known longer. As soon as the earth's mag-
netism was accurately observed, it was noticed that a compass
needle moved in a slight oscillation with the time of day. A
few scientists believed that strong currents flowing high in the
atmosphere could produce these oscillations of compass
needles.
This theory was being developed at the same time that
James Clerk Maxwell and H. R. Hertz were doing their work
on radio waves. They had established that these waves trav-
elled in straight lines and therefore could not be transmitted
around a spheroidal earth because they would shoot straight
out into space. G. Marconi in 1901 upset all their calculations
and predictions by transmitting a radio message over the great
hill of the earth's curvature from England to Newfoundland.
The only feasible answer to this obvious contradiction was
that the radio waves had bounced off some obstruction and
angled back to earth; and the only possible reflectors were
charged particles high in the atmosphere. No proof of this ex-
isted until after World War I, when radio techniques were
improved. Sir Edward Appleton and Dr. Merle Tuve by dif-
ferent methods established the presence of three reflecting
layers in the ionosphere from which they obtained reflections
of radio waves sent vertically upwards. Tuve's technique was
similar to that used in timing echoes to measure the distance
to an echoing cliff or to the ocean floor. It involves a radio or
radar set emitting very brief bursts upwards and recording the
122
IGY : The Year of the New Moons
time that passes before an echo returns. Since the object of
much of this work is to discover a good frequency to use for
sending messages, the sounder does not send just one burst, but
immediately tunes itself to a slightly higher frequency and
sends another. Continuing in this fashion, it sweeps the fre-
quencies from i to 25 megacycles (i to 25 million cycles a sec-
ond i , measuring the height at which radio waves of each f re-
Pulse travel time s= t sees
Transmitter T T Receiver
The ionospheric sounder reflects signals off the ionosphere
to determine the presence of its various layers.
quency are reflected. It then shuts down and repeats the
operation automatically every fifteen minutes. The instrument
reproduces the results on a photographic film.
Not all the regions produce simultaneous reflections be-
cause the layers in the ionosphere are unstable and change.
Some of these changes are diurnal and regular; some are irregu-
lar and connected with solar outbursts. Anyone who considers
THE UPPER ATMOSPHERE 123
the matter can recall noticing the diurnal changes; they make
it possible to receive distant radio stations better at night. At
less frequent and irregular intervals solar outbursts cause extra
ionization which can absorb radio waves on some frequencies
and play havoc with international radio, ship, and aircraft
communications. Both sorts of change can be predicted, and
recommendations can be made as to the most effective radio-
wave frequencies to use at any time between any two stations
in the world-wide net of commercial radio communications.
Such a sendee is provided by the National Bureau of Standards
in the United States.
This sounding board in the ionosphere is formed by the ab-
sorption of the intense ultra-violet and X-rays from the sun
which strike the upper atmosphere during each day. These rays
ionize the atoms and molecules of the upper air; that is, they
break them apart into electrons, each carrying a negative
charge, and ions, carrying a positive one. As the rays penetrate
more deeply into denser air and encounter more numerous
atoms, this process increases until all the energy of the ultra-
violet and X-rays has been absorbed. At certain levels in the
atmosphere the ionization produced by different types of ab-
sorption is intense, and layers of charged particles are formed.
The process is complicated by the rotation of the earth, which
causes the sun's rays to slant at changing angles through the
atmosphere. The height and strength of the layers, therefore,
varies according to the time of day; and at sunset the source
of ionization is cut off. The layers also vary with the irregular
changes in emission from the sun and are especially affected by
solar flares. Finally, the gases in the upper atmosphere differ
in abundance and ease of ionization, so that each of several
kinds of gas tends to produce a separate layer. Appleton
quickly discovered and named three reflecting layers, one of
which is sometimes observed to split, and these he named
from the bottom upwards D, E, Fi, and F2 regions. There is
124
IGY : The Year of the New Moons
one more layer, the lowest, which is not ionized and does
not reflect radio waves. It is, therefore, not recorded by the
same devices and not called the C region but the ozone layer,
because of the extra ozone molecules present in it.
Although the atmosphere in all of these regions is extremely
tenuous, much has been discovered about its probable compo-
sition. From the character of the radiation in the farthest layer
of the atmosphere (the outer Van Allen belt) , it seems to con-
sist almost exclusively of electrons, each having weak energies
300
200
100
01 2345678 9 10
Frequency in Me/sec.
The altitude at which radio signals of varying frequencies
are reflected by layers of the atmosphere. Data was ob-
tained by a vertical incidence sounder.
of only 100,000 electron volts; although the particles are multi-
tudinous. The way in which the changes observed in this belt
coincide with changes in solar activity would indicate that
some of thesje electrons come from the sun. Whether they are
accelerated within the sun and merely trapped in the earth's
field or trapped first and subsequently accelerated is not yet
clear. There may also be heavier ions present in this belt, but
they are not energetic.
The radiation in the more stable inner member of the Van
THE UPPER ATMOSPHERE 125
Allen belts consists primarily of very energetic protons with
energies in the order of 100 million electron volts. There are
also electrons. Whereas the outer belt is fed by intermittent
blasts of solar wind, the inner belt is thought to have resulted
from the trapping of particles created by cosmic-ray bombard-
ments of the atmosphere. This may explain why it is more
stable.
It is known that electrons, rather than positive ions, reflect
radio waves, and these are concentrated in the E, Fi, and F2
layers, the last two of which often merge. The D layer only
forms intermittently at a height of about 40 miles* Electrons
in the E layer, at a height of 65 miles, suffice to reflect waves
of low frequency, but higher-frequency waves pass through the
E layer, especially at night, and are reflected by the F layers at
heights of from 100 to 150 miles. Still higher frequencies, such
as those used for television, are only reflected under abnormal
conditions. Generally they go straight on out into space and
are not reflected around the earth, as are radio waves.
In addition to electrons, the ions present are chiefly those
one might expect to find in the atmosphere charged ions of
nitrogen and oxygen. Free hydroxyl ions are also present, and
very rarely, sodium ions. These sodium ions occur in the ratio
of one atom of sodium to every three million million nitrogen
atoms, but we know they are present because we can recog-
nize their characteristic yellow spectral lines in the faint air
glow at night.
Below the ionosphere, at a height of only about 10 to 20
miles, the ultra-violet light nearest to the visible violet is ab-
sorbed by a process that instead of breaking up atoms into ions
builds approximately one in every million oxygen atoms (O 2 )
into an ozone atom (O 3 ). Although this layer cannot be de-
tected -by ionospheric sounders, it is so low that it can be sam-
pled by balloons, and its variations are followed by measuring
from the ground the extent to which ultra-violet light is being
126 IGY : The Year of the New Moons
absorbed. As more opportunities occur to sample the higher
regions with the aid of rockets and satellites, more precise
knowledge of composition w r ill be obtained.
Since the ionization which produces these layers is due to
ultra-violet light and X-rays coming from the sun, we might
expect that when the sun is directly overhead the ionization
would be strongest and at night it would disappear. In a gen-
eral way the strength of the ionization of the E and Fi layers
follows this predictable pattern with the days and seasons, but
it is complicated by the lingering of radiation after the sun has
gone, especially in the F2 layer, by large vertical movements of
the electrons, and by winds which blow turbulently from one
part of the world to another with great speed at those immense
heights.
These ionospheric wands were studied during the IGY, as
were the implications of the discovery of the outer Van Allen
belt, with its horns which project down to disturb the iono-
sphere. In Antarctica new stations co-operated to study the
rather unexpected phenomena found during the long alternat-
ing seasons of winter darkness and continuous daylight. An-
other chain of stations was relatively closely spaced across the
maximum auroral belt from the polar regions in Canada and
Greenland into the United States. On the equator a group of
four vertical sounding stations in Peru and one in Bolivia inves-
tigated sizable changes occurring in the ionosphere at sunrise
and sunset. Simultaneous comparisons in radio transmission
were made across the equator between Antofagasta, Chile;
Clorinda, Argentina; Huancayo and Trujillo, Peru; Guayaquil,
Ecuador; and Sao Paulo, Brazil, which proved that conditions
were similar in all circuits in daytime but different at night.
The strength of the radio signals could be correlated in some
cases with the variations in the magnetic field recorded at
Huancayo. Variations in both are caused by strong electric
currents in the ionosphere over the equator.
THE UPPER ATMOSPHERE 127
I have mentioned that equipment was installed in many
places to measure radio noise and to check whether outbursts
occurred simultaneously in widely separated places. Some
bursts of radio noise are associated with solar flares, but other
radio noise is related to local and distant thunderstorms, about
five thousand of which are believed to be active at any time
over the earth.
An idea of the power and impact of magnetic storms can be
conveyed by describing some of the effects a single large storm
can have on the ionosphere and on communications. Early in
1958, as the number of sun-spots was beginning to decline
from the highest peak ever recorded, the interest of solar as-
tronomers centred on a group of sun-spots covering three bil-
lion square miles of the sun's southern hemisphere, one of the
ten largest groups on record. The group was active, and on
February 8, as it crossed the central meridian, it emitted no
less than seven minor solar flares. On February 9 at 2:08 p.m,
mountain standard time, or 21.08 hours universal time, the ob-
server on duty at Sacramento Peak Observatory, New Mex-
ico, looking through a solar telescope similar to that which I
had seen at Climax, Colorado, noticed the outbreak of a major
flare in the form of a bright explosion which spread rapidly in
the vicinity of the sun-spot group. During the two hours that
the flare lasted he and other observers all over the sunlit side
of the earth flooded with messages the branches of the World
Data Centres charged with receiving reports of flares. These
branches were the High Altitude Observatory, Boulder, Colo-
rado; the Crimea Observatory, Simeis, U.S.S.R.; and the Ob-
servatoire de Meudon, Meudon, France. A large flare, cen-
trally located in the sun's disc, appeared likely to blast the
earth with particles a day later, and as a routine matter warn-
ings of a magnetic storm might have been sent to cable and
wireless companies, to airlines and shipping companies and
others whose communications could be affected. But the sci-
128 IGY : The Year of the New Moons
entists at Boulder, who, being on the sunlit side of the earth,
had received most of the reports, decided that this type of flare
would not cause a magnetic storm. The sky at Boulder was
overcast, and they could not see the flare themselves; as they
freely admitted af terwards, they were quite wrong. Today with
our increased experience, the special features of this flare
would have been noted and correctly interpreted, and a warn-
ing would have been issued.
On February 10 at 8:26 p.m. eastern standard time, twenty-
eight hours after the flare began, one of the greatest magnetic
storms on record struck the earth. Within a few seconds mag-
netograms all over the earth quivered. Their recording beams
of light or their pens, which had been pursuing a steady course,
began to zigzag back and forth across the paper within the
non-magnetic huts in which they were housed in scores of
places around the globe. Probably at first no one noticed that
the earth had been struck by a shock wave of first magnitude
which was sending currents of millions of amperes coursing
through the ionosphere; geomagneticians do not sit in the dark
in their unheated huts with their instruments. But at Hiraiso,
Japan, one instrument reacted so violently that a technician
thought it was out of order and stopped it for an hour and a
half until a scientist recognized the cause of the trouble as an
unprecedented storm.
As the solar wind blasted the earth, the outer Van Allen
belt filled to overflowing with electrons rushing widely from
one hemisphere to the other and exciting the upper atmosphere
until it glowed. At eight-thirty a fiery red aurora spread rapidly
from the maximum auroral zones across all Canada and the
whole United States to Mexico and Cuba and from Antarctica
to Cape Horn and South Africa. In Australia it was reported
at seventy places and lasted in some throughout the night.
Aurora was observed in Japan half a dozen times during the
IGY, but the red aurora of February 11, 1958, was outstand-
THE UPPER ATMOSPHERE 129
ing and widely reported. Its fiery brilliance misled the local
populace into calling out the fire department to deal with non-
existent conflagrations. That night while flying across Iowa at
17,000 feet I watched it filling the sky with brilliant rosy arches
which turned from red to a luminescent greenish glow.
At one minute before nine a fresh blast sent magnetometers
everywhere off scale. The intense radiation had, without doubt,
greatly increased the ionization in the atmosphere and added a
D layer. This more intense radiation, instead of reflecting high-
frequency radio waves, absorbed them. At nine o'clock all di-
rect radio links across the Atlantic Ocean faded out. Desper-
ately engineers relayed messages south to escape the worst
effects and for a time were able to reach Europe via stations in
Central and South America and Tangiers, but by eleven
o'clock all radio communication between the Old and New
Worlds ceased. The effects on airlines can be imagined. When
trans-Atlantic radio faded, there were a hundred or so airplanes
over the north Atlantic. So long as they were within line of
sight of some ground station, they could communicate, but the
ionosphere was useless. Urgent messages were relayed from
plane to nearby plane by radio operators nervously keeping
contact with one another as they crossed the broad stretches of
the ocean. Passengers slept undisturbed that night, unaware
that trans-Atlantic planes were flying blind like two opposing
flights of pigeons in a fog. Over the Pacific lonely planes, too,
flew in silence, their whereabouts unknown to anyone but
themselves.
The magnetic impulses generated by electric currents in the
ionosphere in turn created other electric currents in the earth
and in power and cable lines across it. All over Canada and
northern United States surges of power swept over transmis-
sion lines, tripping circuit breakers and plunging cities into
darkness. The trans-Atlantic cable, which after nine o'clock
was the only channel of communication across the ocean, al-
130 IGY : The Year of the New Moons
ternately faded and squawked as electrical pulses of potentials
as high as 2,600 volts raced through it, straining both the
equipment and the nerves of the engineers. But it continued to
operate fitfully until at dawn the return of sunlight exercised a
tranquilizing effect on the ionosphere. Slowly over the next
two days the ionosphere returned to normal. These then were
the effects of a great solar and magnetic storm. Ironically, it
was one for which no official warning was issued although the
solar flare which caused it had been seen twenty-eight hours
in advance.
CHAPTER 12
AURORA
Among all earthly phenomena one of the most eerie and spec-
tacular is the aurora polaris. Unfortunately, most of its bril-
liant displays occur over the globe's inhospitable and empty
regions. A truly fine show of the aurora borealis is seen only
once or twice every ten years over the thickly settled parts of
Europe and North America, and over the tropics about once
in a century. The aurora australis is almost exclusively a per-
quisite of penguins, for only rarely does it reach as far north as
Tasmania and New Zealand. The glimpses had by most city
dwellers, therefore, convey but a poor impression of the mag-
nificent displays regularly seen over the zones of maximum
auroral frequency.
In these regions, when the displays are at their best in the
spring or autumn nights during the times of sun-spot maxima,
the whole sky may at one time be filled with swirling flames
of red, pulsating and changing as though blown by silent tor-
nadoes of ineffable intricacy and speed. On occasion, in the
Northwest Territories of Canada, I have seen brilliant bands
of light dim the stars in the black dome of the sky, while other
parallel arches stretched more and more faintly to the distant
Dip Pole
* Geomagnetic Pole
Distribution of maximum frequency of aurora borealis.
horizon until the heavens were filled with moving lines of col-
our advancing like ranks of soldiers into battle. Each band
rippled and shifted brilliantly with a shimmering flicker and
flow, from its dull red base, through yellow, to a crest of palest
green or purple. The whole army of marching lines of light was
matched against its own reflection on the sparkling waves of
the cold lake below.
Seneca, the Roman, knew them, but auroral displays are
very rare in the Mediterranean, and the best early accounts
were by the Norse Vikings and by Polar explorers.
AURORA 133
Scientific interest in aurora seems to have been first awak-
ened by the remarkable display of March 6, 1716, described
by Edmund Halley of London. He related the aurora to the
earth's magnetic field, an observation which was confirmed
and extended by the Swedish scientists Celsius and Hiorten a
few years later. In the next hundred years further progress be-
came possible through studies, pursued quite independently by
two German scientists, of phenomena with which auroral dis-
plays are linked earth's magnetism and the sun-spot cycle.
We have already mentioned the discovery of the sun-spot cycle
by Schwabe; the earth's magnetism (which the Chinese had
discovered long before) first began to be well understood about
1830 through the efforts of the great German mathematician
C. F. Gauss. One of the observatories which Gauss was re-
sponsible for establishing was at Bombay, and there the In-
dian geomagnetician N. F. Moos first analyzed the character-
istics of magnetic storms, with which the aurora is so generally
associated.
The First and Second Polar Years provided valuable oppor-
tunities for the study of the aurora. In the course of the former,
Herman Fritz produced the first maps of the frequency of au-
rora by drawing lines to connect places where on the average
the aurora was visible the same number of nights each year.
More recent and refined versions of these maps have been pre-
pared by E. H. Vestine, a Canadian working in the United
States. They reveal that aurora are most frequent along two
circular belts or zones which have their centres at the north
and south geomagnetic poles and lie at distances of about
1,600 miles away from the poles. Along these belts the aurora
may be seen on most nights.
Meanwhile, the Norwegians Carl Stormer and Lars Vegard,
by photographing aurora simultaneously from two places some
miles apart, provided us with most of the data we have about
their height. Aurora are most frequent at a height of about 65
Distribution of maximum frequency of aurora australis in Antarctica.
miles, few being observed at lower levels. They are occasion-
ally seen, however, at heights of as much as 600 miles.
As early as 1733 a Frenchman, M. de Mairan, demonstrated
that the early idea that the aurora was due to the reflection of
sunlight by high ice crystals was probably wrong. The first no-
tion of the true origin of aurora followed the successful photo-
graphing of the aurora spectrum by A. J. Angstrom in 1867 in
Sweden. At first the lines could not be identified, but further
photography of the aurora and successful reproductions of the
lines in laboratory experiments (by many workers including
L. Vegard in Norway, J. Kaplan and C. W. Gartlein in the
United States, and J. C. McLennan in Canada) showed that
they were mostly due to molecules and atoms of oxygen and
nitrogen which had become excited or ionized in the upper at-
AURORA 135
mosphere. Molecules of both oxygen and nitrogen normally
consist of two atoms linked together. Collisions in the near
vacuum at heights of 60 miles or more can knock electrons off
the molecules or even separate them into individual charged
atoms.
The absence of any hydrogen lines was long considered
proof that there was no hydrogen in the upper atmosphere, but
during observations of a strong display on August 19, 1951, in
the United States A. B. Meinel showed that the red colour
often observed was at least partly due to hydrogen, and a slight
displacement of the hydrogen line towards the violet end of
the spectrum could be explained by the Doppler effect.
The Doppler effect in sound waves is familiar to anyone who
has listened to a fast train passing a station platform. The ef-
fect is particularly noticeable if the locomotive's whistle is
blowing, because the note drops to a lower tone, and changes
in volume as well, as the train passes. The speed of an express
train may be as much as 100 feet a second, a fraction of the
speed of about 1,000 feet a second at which sound waves travel
in the air. As the train approaches, the speed of the sound
waves is increased by the addition of the velocity of the train,
so that the waves arrive faster than if the train were standing
stilL As the train recedes, the sound waves are slowed down,
their wave-length is lengthened, and the frequency of the note
falls. In the case of extremely fast motions, the same effect can
be observed in light waves; those from a rapidly receding body
arrive less frequently and hence appear redder than light from
the same body when it is still; those from a rapidly approach-
ing body are crowded together and appear more violet. Using
this technique, Meinel in 1951 showed that, unlike the light
from oxygen and nitrogen atoms in aurora, the frequency of the
light due to hydrogen atoms was increased, indicating that the
hydrogen atoms were moving towards the earth at speeds of as
much as 2,000 miles a second along lines of force in the earth's
i 3 6
IGY : The Year of the New Moons
magnetic field. The earth was being bombarded by hydrogen
atoms from the sun.
This was the first definite evidence that aurora might be pro-
duced as the result of the bombardment of the upper atmos-
phere by high-speed nuclei of hydrogen atoms. The reader will
of course have realized that the probable source of high-speed
hydrogen nuclei is the sun. It was suggested that particles trav-
elling at such speeds could easily give rise to the excitation of
other atoms and explain in general terms the cause of aurora.
Earths
orbit
Earth.
\
Boundaries
of stream
Sun
A corpuscular stream from the sun.
But, more recently, the discovery of the Van Allen belts made
it probable that the full explanation is more complicated.
The close association of auroral displays and magnetic
storms has been known since the time of Halley. Slowly a suc-
cession of geomagneticians, mostly working in England, have
established some of the details in the relationships existing be-
tween magnetic storms, sun-spots, and solar flares. These ob-
servations had suggested in a general way how solar outbursts
could cause aurora and magnetic storms, and at the start of the
IGY a whole series of rather similar theories had been ad-
A photograph of the far side of the moon,
radioed back to earth bv Lunik III.
The Crab nebula in the constellation
Taurus, the remains of the super-nova of
1054. This photograph was taken through
the zoo-inch telescope at Mount Palomar.
Greek astronomer with small solar telescope
used in co-operation with Moomvatch team
at Athens, Greece.
Moon watch team tracking satellites at Terre Haute, Indiana. The
row of observers is looking through small telescopes. These point
downward at mirrors so arranged that each observer sees a differ-
ent part of the sky.
Australian solar radio telescope that produces radio pictures of
the sun in the "light" of 21 -centimetre wave-length radio \\aves.
The Baker-Nunn-Schmidt camera at Woomera, south Australia.
With this camera Explorer VI was photographed at a distance
of 12,000 miles.
The camera mounted at the top of the pic-
ture is used to photograph the reflection of
the entire sky in the dome-shaped mirror
below it.
A photograph of an auroral display taken
with the camera shown above. The reflec-
tions of the camera and its supports form
the dark shadows across the photograph.
An ionization chamber for counting cosmic
rays at the U.S.S.R. Academy of Sciences'
Terrestrial, Magnetism, Ionospheric, and
Radio-Wave Propagation Institute.
A tracing from a mosaic of microphoto-
graphs of the collision of a primary cosmic-
ray particle with a nucleus in a photo-
graphic emulsion. The heavy black tracks
are part of the disrupted nucleus. The light
tracks are high-speed protons and mesons.
The cosmic ray probably consisted of an
alpha particle or a helium nucleus.
Observers preparing to release a meteoro-
logical balloon carrying instruments which
will read temperature, pressure, and hu-
midity and transmit this data. The balloon
is tracked by the radio-direction finder on
the right.
Indian meteorologists working with a Dob-
son ozone spectrophotometer used for meas-
uring the total amount of ozone contained
in the column of air extending from the
instrument to the top of the atmosphere.
AURORA 137*
vanced in attempts to explain the details. None of them was
completely successful. Some vital piece of information about
the aurora was clearly missing.
To see just how much was known, let us consider one of the
more acceptable theories, that of Sydney Chapman, V. C. A.
Ferraro, and F. A. Lindemann, the last of whom became bet-
ter known as Lord Cherwell, wartime confidant and advisor to
Sir Winston Churchill. In the vicinity of sun-spots the sun fre-
quently emits jets of high-speed gases, both as visible solar
flares and as invisible weaker emissions. These rush out from
the sun like gas from a punctured balloon in jets of electrons
and charged nuclei, mostly hydrogen. Because of the sun's rota-
tion, they follow curved paths, sometimes hitting the earth and
sometimes missing it, and in any case travelling like a stream
of water from a rotating sprinkler. Those that reach the vicin-
ity of the earth are dispersed on so wide a front and are travel-
ling so fast that the blast of this tenuous sheet of solar wind
bears down upon the tiny earth as a flat cloud. The geomag-
netic field deflects it, so that the wind flows around the earth
leaving the earth in a relatively empty pocket several times its
own diameter. The surrounding ring of charged particles flow-
ing around the earth acts as an electric current, producing the
effects known as a magnetic storm; the particles feeding more
slowly into the earth's atmosphere under the guidance of the
earth's magnetism disturb the upper atmosphere and cause it
to glow, especially in the maximum auroral zones around the
poles. The colours are caused by processes analogous to those
in neon display signs but differ in colour because the atmos-
phere is made up of gases other than neon. This was the pre-
vailing theory at the beginning of the IGY.
This theory left a great deal still to be explained. Why, for
example, does the aurora flicker and move about so quickly? If
there is a fine display in one place, are good displays simultane-
ously widespread elsewhere? In particular, if there are good dis-
Passage of the front of a corpuscular stream past the earth.
plays in the northern hemisphere, are there also good displays
in the southern? Do the displays change in any regular way,
for example moving steadily southward or higher in the sky?
Why do the colours change? Does the pattern of the displays
reveal anything about the shape or nature of the earth's mag-
netic field or about winds in the thin, high atmosphere which
may control the aurora?
On a different theme, scientists were eager to discover the
connection between aurora and the mysterious air glow. This
unseen phenomenon was discovered on photographic plates
that had been exposed to the sky for long periods. Astrono-
mers observed that the same spectral lines which occur in au-
rora also appear on these plates. Investigation showed that this
light is not due to the stars but arises high in the atmosphere.
The air glow is so soft and diffused a light that it is not gen-
erally visible; nevertheless, it contributes almost as much light
to the night sky as do the stars. Little was known about it. Still
another mysterious phenomenon, only visible in the tropics, is
the faint zodiacal light, a trail or glow seen near the horizon
AURORA
in the night sky after sunset or before sunrise perhaps a faint
vision of the sun's outermost corona.
It was against this background that the program for study-
ing the aurora and the air glow was planned. Thousands of
volunteers, including weathermen, amateur astronomers, sail-
ors, airline pilots, and parties of enthusiastic amateurs in all
parts of the world, were organized to watch for aurora and to
plot its occurrences every fine night. At a hundred or so scien-
tific stations special cameras and spectrographs were installed
to photograph and measure particular features of the aurora
and the air glow. A special camera was designed which pointed
downwards at a convex mirror and could thus photograph a
reflection, in the curved mirror, of the whole sky at once. At
many sites these were installed to take pictures of the sky, in-
cluding any aurora, once a minute. At a few stations, arrange-
ments were made to record aurora by radar, or to fire rockets up
through aurora, or to take simultaneous pairs of height-finding
photographs from positions many miles apart. These programs
would, of course, produce literally several million reports and a
few million feet of photographic film. To reduce so much data
to manageable proportions, ingenious routines and machines
were developed and codes of instructions worked out so that
electronic computers could compile the results. Once these
preparations had been put into effect, the countries involved
could begin sending results to the World Data Centres. Need-
less to say, no such thorough study had ever been instituted
before.
Typical of the program for visual observation was the watch
agreed upon for North America. Cards showing a simple map
of the sky were printed and distributed. On these, observers
were asked to plot the aurora every quarter of an hour. A map
of the sky should be round; but to see the whole sky involves
lying on one's back, which is inconvenient, so the maps were
cut like a pie. In this way the observer can stand and face the
140 I G Y : The Year of the New Moons
four cardinal directions in turn, and sketch each quadrant of
the sky. A series of guide sketches printed on a separate card
make it possible to standardize these observations. Of course,
notes about absence of aurora or about cloud conditions are
just as important as reports of displays.
Observers are able to identify the forms of aurora by their
descriptive names. Arcs are parallel with the horizon or stretch
across the sky; rays are elongated in a vertical direction; and
spots are diffused. A poorly defined spot is known as a glow,
and a strongly developed combination of arcs and rays reach-
ing to the zenith from all directions is called a corona. During
any particular display the various forms tend to succeed one
another, moving systematically away from the polar regions.
When they first appear, they may be below the horizon and
only reveal themselves as a glow, low in the northern heavens.
Slowly they climb up the dome of the night sky, great arcs and
rays increasing in brilliance and movement until they drop be-
low the horizon as a glow. The light is most often a pale, lumi-
nous green, but on occasion red may tinge the lower edge, and
sometimes even yellows, blues, and purples.
Two lines, labelled 30 and 60 were drawn across the map
for convenience in interpreting the results. Since the lowest
part of any auroral arc is generally at a height of about 60
miles, a simple calculation shows that auroral arcs appearing
to be at angles of 60 degrees and 30 degrees above the horizon
would be overhead at places which are, respectively, 3 5 miles
and 105 miles away from the observer.
When data for different areas have been gathered, they will
be assembled into maps, which will show the distribution of
aurora over the entire globe.
It has been found that great auroral displays occur simul-
taneously in both northern and southern hemispheres and that
they stretch across the entire night sky, for they have been ob-
served all the way from Ohio to the English Channel.
Au ROR A
141
During the IGY there were many brilliant displays, and the
aurora was seen unusually close to the tropics in such places
as Mexico, Cuba, Fiji, Japan, Pakistan, and as far north in
South Africa as Bloemf ontein. Aurora were recorded on nearly
one third of the nights of the IGY somewhere in Australia.
On the other hand, in some countries which had watchers, in-
cluding India and Taiwan, no aurora were reported.
Aurora are most numerous, widespread, and vivid during
sun-spot activity when the emissions from solar flares most fre-
Legend
Arc
Pulsating Forms P
Glow
Rays R
Distribution and frequency of auroral displays at a given
time in the evening of February 11, 1958-
142 I G Y : The Year of the New Moons
quently bombard the upper atmosphere. Since the IGY coin-
cided with the period of greatest activity of the sun ever re-
corded and since many observers were keeping careful watch,
it is not surprising that aurora were more widely recorded than
at any previous time. Such elaborate plans deserved success,
but it is doubtful that a satisfactory answer would have been
found to the detailed mysteries of the aurora if help had not
been forthcoming from a totally different source, and if, as we
have seen, satellites had not unexpectedly disclosed the exist-
ence of the Van Allen belts. The horns of the outer of these
great belts of charged particles reach down towards the earth
in the neighbourhood of the maximum auroral zones. Clearly
the belts play a major part in the story of the aurora; without
their discovery we might still not hope to understand the beau-
tiful aurora in spite of our elaborate surface observations. Now
we can be confident of making progress. But the discovery of
the Van Allen belts is so new that data concerning the belts
are still being continuously transmitted by the satellites 7 radios
as I write; at the moment we can only suggest the trend of dis-
covery. There has not been time to assimilate the data, develop
theories, and get them published.
We can now understand how the discovery of the Van Allen
belts and the production of artificial aurora in the Argus experi-
ments modified existing ideas about the cause of aurora with-
out destroying the old views entirely. In place of rings of cur-
rent freshly created in space about the earth each time a blast
from the sun occurs, we now substitute the permanent Van
Allen belts; and we attribute the coincidence of auroral dis-
plays with solar outbursts to the disturbance and excitation of
the belts by the arrival of solar discharges.
Due to the careful tracking of satellites by radio and optical
means, variations in their orbital periods are accurately known.
We have already seen how King-Hele used this data to obtain
AURORA
more precise values for the average density of the atmosphere
at various altitudes.
Careful studies by Luigi Jacchia at the Smithsonian Astro-
physical Observatory have shown how the rates of revolution
of satellites are affected by solar activity. In particular, he has
shown that although both Vanguard I and Sputnik III are
slowed down a day or so after solar flares, the effects are much
greater on Sputnik III. The discovery of the Van Allen belts
immediately provided an explanation. Vanguard I, whose or-
bit lies between 34 N and 34 S latitude only penetrates the
inner belt, but Sputnik III swings from 65 N to 65 S, regu-
larly passing through the horns of the outer belt. If the particle
density in the outer belt is built up directly by the solar wind,
and in the inner belt is not, the discrepancy can be explained.
There is other evidence that this is so. Pioneer IV passed
through the outer belt immediately after five days of intense
solar activity, and it measured particle densities many times
greater than did Pioneer III, which passed after a quiet period.
S. N. Vernov has confirmed these results with data from Lu-
nik I, which also passed following a quiet period. It appears
that the strength and position of the outer belt fluctuates
greatly with changing emissions from the sun. This belt is in-
deed a trembling and shaking veil buffeted by blasts from the
boisterous sun. The evidence suggests that the inner belt, on
the other hand is quiet and stable. It seems to be the grave-
yard of many atomic fragments created by cosmic rays. The
Argus and Jason projects showed that the flow of particles from
one Argus shell, or belt, to another was very slow and that
these belts were also stable in position.
As was mentioned in the discussion of the Van Allen belts,
rockets fired in 1956 showed that over the auroral zone in the
outer Van Allen belt the temperature may be twice that at the
same altitude elsewhere. This extra heating, which may reach
144 I G Y : The Year of the New Moons
4,000 F, could be produced by the collisions of particles
where they are most numerous, and this may be sufficient to
excite the upper atmosphere and cause auroral displays. R. Jas-
trow, who has made these suggestions, considers it significant
that the loss of particles from the belts to the atmosphere oc-
curs at the tips of the horns. His calculations indicate that the
heating thus produced should be greatest at heights of about
65 miles, which is the height at which aurora are most fre-
quently observed. Here then is one possible explanation for
the cause of the aurora. Without doubt, it will be proved or dis-
proved and a more detailed picture formed when the results
obtained by Explorers VI and VII are available. But we still
have no prospect of explanation of why the aurora is broken
into many narrow arcs and rays and why they move about so
rapidly.
CHAPTER 13
LANDFALLS
IN A FROZEN SEA
JUNE 1958
Continuing our Arctic journey from Resolute, the main
base of the Queen Elizabeth Islands, we made three great tri-
angular tours, fanning northwest to the rim of the Arctic Sea.
On those flights we saw very plainly the difference between
land ice and sea ice. Some of the islands over which we flew
were partly covered by land ice in the form of ice sheets and
glaciers. Land ice accumulates where more snow falls in winter
than melts in summer. Over the years the snow becomes con-
solidated into ice often thousands of feet thick. Very slowly
these glaciers flow downhill until they melt or reach the sea.
Sea ice, or pack ice, forms like ice on a pond and floats on the
surface of the Arctic Sea and of the Southern Ocean around
the coasts of Antarctica. Although broken and heaped up by
the wind, it is never more than a few feet thick, and fish,
seals, and atomic submarines can travel beneath it. Icebergs
are much thicker. They are parts of glaciers which have flowed
off the land into the sea, broken off, and floated away. They
146 I G Y : The Year of the New Moons
may be seen either in the open ocean or frozen as raised ice
islands into the pack.
On the first flight we headed west over the main Northwest
Passage by Barrow Strait, Viscount Melville Sound, and Mc-
Clure Strait. These magnificent ice-blocked channels lie be-
tween islands, capes, and passages whose names resound like a
roll-call of past explorers, their patrons, and their faith Dis-
trict of Franklin, Byam Martin Island, Cape Providence, Win-
ter Harbour, Resolute Bay, and Bay of God's Mercy. It was
brilliant white over the jumbled ice packs and glaciers, buff
and brown over the surrounding hills, and blazing blue above.
We turned over Mould Bay, a remote weather station jointly
supported by Canada and the United States, and followed
north along the low coast of Prince Patrick Island, against
which the arctic pack was heaped in ridges. In sheltered places
where the ice was broken, seals had come out of the water and
lay basking in the sun with their young; here and there a trun-
dling yellow figure or a red splash on the ice showed where the
solitary polar bears roam and kill, lords of an empty land.
To the west lay the Beaufort Sea, across whose surface Vil-
hjalmur Stefansson had walked when he went northeast from
Alaska to discover Borden and Meighen and the other "Con-
servative" islands, which he named after leading figures of the
political party then in power in Canada. On this expedition to
the farthest frontiers of the Canadian Government's posses-
sions, Stefansson left the north cost of Alaska on March 22,
1914. A blizzard with 8o-mile-an-hour winds at 37 F below
zero had just blown itself out. Accompanied by Ole Andreasen
and Storker Storkerson and equipped only with two rifles, 330
rounds of ammunition, and one sledge drawn by six dogs, he
tramped for three months over hundreds of miles of frozen sea,
hunting to support the party. On the twenty-fifth of June they
reached the northwest coast of Banks Island and continued
northwards to discover new lands. After that trip it is not sur-
LANDFALLS IN A FROZEN SEA
147
prising that for the rest of his life Stefansson should be an ad-
vocate of an all-meat diet. It is true that Nansen in 1895 and
Peary in 1910 made long marches over the polar ice, but they
did not depend solely upon hunting for a living.
On the next flight we flew past another joint weather station
on Isachsen Island and saw nearby salt domes on the desert
plain, great rings of rock, like the tops of sliced onions, with a
tumble of gypsum and clay hills in the centres places which
promise oil in abundance, although they have never been
drilled. We flew beyond, out over the Arctic Sea 99 per cent
with a solid ice cover, but cracked and broken and showing a
few open leads of black water until we reached the large flat
iceberg T3. This ice island appears to have broken off a glacier
on the north coast of Ellesmere Island a few years ago. In con-
trast to the shattered surface of the frozen ocean, it appeared
massive and unbroken. Upon it the Americans had built the
ice station Bravo.
We had hoped to land there and at Isachsen, but the spring
sun was already so hot that the ice runways were dangerously
soft for a large plane. The pilot contented himself with circling
low over the square of huts, the fluttering stars and stripes, and
the excited men. Scattered over the ice within a few miles were
other flags, vehicles, men, and wires which indicated where
experiments were being carried out. Until the United States
submarines Nautilus and Skate cruised under the arctic pack
in 1958, our whole knowledge of the Arctic had been derived
from a few such ice parties, a few beset ships, and several hun-
dred airplane landings mostly made by Soviet explorers. Dur-
ing the IGY arctic exploration was greatly increased, and the
results suggest a possibility of drastic change in North Ameri-
can climate. To appreciate this change, we must consider ear-
lier investigations.
The coasts of the lands surrounding the Arctic Sea were dis-
covered by sledging. In the eighteenth century Peter the Great
Map of Arctic Sea, showing drifts by American and Rus-
sian parties during the IGY.
sent naval parties to the north coast of Siberia, and later others
explored Alaska, Canada, and Greenland, but the central part
of the sea remained a mystery, guarded by pack ice too thick
for ships to penetrate. In the 1870*8 Joseph Wiggins surveyed
far along the northeast coast of Siberia and Baron Norden-
skjold completely circumnavigated Eurasia. Fired with enthu-
siasm, Lieutenant George De Long sailed from San Francisco
in the Jeannette in 1879, passed Bering Strait, and became
locked in the pack. Admiral Clements Markham, a survivor of
the search for Admiral Franklin in the Canadian Arctic, had
met De Long in England and wrote of him: "He was a good
seaman, a scientific officer, and an agreeable companion.
Trained to the management and care of seamen, De Long was
undoubtedly the best of all American arctic commanders, and
LANDFALLS IN A FROZEN SEA 149
he well fulfilled the trust that was placed in him/ 7 Misfortune,
however, overtook him when the Jeannette was crushed and
De Long lost, but the survivors, who reached Siberia at the
Lena delta, brought back word of the discovery of Bennett and
other islands. Thus one of the most remote of Soviet posses-
sions bears to this day the name of James Gordon Bennett, the
New York publisher who had financed De Long's expedition.
In spite of misfortune, the expedition indirectly established
the course of the drift of the arctic pack, for wreckage from the
Jeannette was picked up years later in Greenland. This in-
spired Frijof Nansen to have a stouter ship built to withstand
the ice pressure, and between 1893 an d 1896 the From safely-
drifted right across the Arctic Sea. Nansen, in a vain attempt
to reach the pole, left his ship on March 14, 1895, and with
Lieutenant F. H. Johansen walked north. Famine forced them
to turn back, and more than a year later they were picked up,
"wild men, clad in dirty rags, black with oil and soot, with long
uncombed hair and shaggy beards, black with smoke," on the
Franz Josef Islands. Meanwhile the Fram drifted on, her
scientists measuring from time to time the thickness of the
surrounding ice, the depth of the water, and such other mat-
ters as they could observe. Nansen and the crew of the Fram
continued on their separate odysseys, neither knowing the fate
of the other until they reached Oslo within a few days of one
another. As the old college song has it:
What a glorious day,
For old Norway,
When the Fram came sailing into the bay.
To the old fiord,
With the crew on board,
All safely restored,
By the hand of the Lord.
And they shouted "V/hoa,
1 50 I G Y : The Year of the New Moons
Is this Skaervoe?"
And they rent the air,
With a loud "Bailor
And the crowd on skis,
As thick as bees,
Came down through the town,
On their hands and knees.
And oh what cries,
When they recognized,
A man with a pair of sealskin pants on,
And there I declare was Frijof Nansen!
A comparison of modern measurements with the data col-
lected by the Fram suggests that the volume of ice over the
Arctic Sea is only half as great now as it was sixty-five years
ago. If this trend continues for another half century, the results
will be spectacular. An open ocean will greatly simplify arctic
navigation, but more important it will provide a source of
moisture and warmth likely to affect profoundly the climate of
all North America.
This sounds so beneficial for Alaska, Canada, and Siberia
that some Soviet scientists have proposed speeding the process
by damming Bering Strait and pumping warm Pacific water
into the arctic basin. Apart from the fact that the sea ice may
melt anyway and that a dam 50 miles long would be expensive,
some American scientists doubt that the results would be as
favourable as seems at first glance. They suggest that an open
Arctic Sea would provide moisture to the north winds, thereby
greatly increasing the snowfall on surrounding lands. At pres-
ent these lands are very dry, like cold deserts, and the summer
sun barely melts the thin winter snows; the mean tempera-
ture is far below freezing and a more abundant snowfall could
probably not be melted. If so, it would pile up in ice caps,
like the ones that melted only eleven thousand years ago, and
LANDFALLS IN A FROZEN SEA 151
an ice age would quickly return to North America and Siberia.
If present warming trends continue, it will be important to
watch the Arctic, for remarkable changes could take place
there in the next fifty or a hundred years.
Modern scientific investigations of the arctic basin may be
said to have begun in 1937 when the first of a series of parties
of Soviets and Americans was landed on the floating ice to
establish bases by plane like that we saw at station Bravo. In
1948 the Russians discovered the great Lomonosov submarine
ridge, running right across the arctic basin from Ellesmere
Island to the New Siberian Islands. During the recently in-
creased activity, American parties, by measuring the depth of
the sea below their floating ice station, have discovered one
and probably two other smaller parallel ridges.
During the IGY two new types of vessels were introduced
which will greatly facilitate such investigations in future. Both
are nuclear-powered and have tremendous range. They are the
submarine Nautilus and her sister ships, and the ice-breaker
Lenin. The use of nuclear power and the consequent reduction
in fuel requirements made it possible to build the Lenin half
as large again as any other ice-breaker and twice as powerful.
Launched in September 1957 and commissioned two years
later, the Lenin has a displacement of 16,000 tons and her
engines develop 44,000 horse power. She should be able to
cruise at 2 knots through ice up to 8 feet thick and operate for
up to a year at full speed without refueling. The submarine
Nautilus has similar advantages and, in addition, when sub-
merged can operate at high speeds beneath the ice and in-
vestigate the thickness and nature of the lower surface of the
ice in a way not possible from a surface ship. As the Nautilus
and her sister ships have demonstrated, submarines can rise to
the surface through open leads in the pack and even through
thin sea ice. These two types of vessels, each in their own way,
open new possibilities for investigating the frozen oceans*
1 52 I G Y : The Year of the New Moons
Imagine the difficult}- of exploring in any other' way the vast
area of ice-covered sea around Antarctica in storms and cold, in
darkness, and at a tremendous distance from any air bases.
Our third flight went north by the west sicLs and south by
the east side of Axel Heiberg Island. A great plateau of ice
occupies its entire mountainous centre. But we went farther,
entering the heart of Ellesmere Island by Greeley Fiord. There
we met a sight of awesome grandeur: from the mountain peaks
the low midnight sun cast black shadows far across the tumult
of ice fields, and the limitless sky washed with its orange glow
those harsh, clear, and desperately barren regions. When we
were less than 600 miles from the north pole, our plane landed
on ice 7 feet thick on Lake Hazen, named, like other features,
for a member of the Greeley expedition which was sent to
these remote places by the United States Government during
the First Polar Year in 1 882. We were warmly greeted by mem-
bers of a Canadian party, some of whom had wintered there at
a meteorological station.
The winterers could be readily distinguished by their fine
spade beards, by their tendency to stand apart as a group,
polite but slightly condescending towards the new arrivals, and
by their rather fixed attitudes concerning camp routine and
meals. They claimed that the winter had been uneventful and
pleasant It had been dark for five months but the moon had
been so bright that they could travel without any trouble for
half of each month. They had recorded 67 degrees below zero,
which was the coldest temperature reached anywhere in North
America that mild winter, but since there was virtually no
wind, the cold did not inconvenience them. We saw that the
thin snow had not been blown into drifts and could easily be
scraped away by grazing animals.
Other parties were fanning out along the 5o-mile-long lake
or were climbing the United States and Challenger Mountains
beside it to carry out programs particularly concerned with
LANDFALLS IN A FROZEN SEA 153
climate and with the history of some of the local glaciers.
These glaciers are the highest near the north pole and provide
a small but interesting comparison with those of Greenland
and Antarctica.
Several biologists had seized the chance to come to this
place. It has been so seldom visited that one can walk up to
the placid, white arctic hares, watch the arctic foxes playing
near camp, and see the strange musk oxen grazing unperturbed
upon the hillsides. After supper our air crew, who had visited
the party before, lost no time in getting an ice auger, lines, and
tackle. By fishing all night, they had caught a total of seventy-
nine salmon through holes in the ice before breakfast next
morning. Later I tried my hand at this quick but rather primi-
tive way of catching arctic char. Although the lake has an out-
let to the sea and is ice-free every August, the fish are so hungry
that all one needs is a large auger, a strong line, and a mini-
mum of patience.
CHAPTER 14
GREENLAND AND
THE WORLD'S ICE
JUNE 1958
From the Arctic Islands we continued our flight across the
ice over the narrow strait to Greenland. If one wants to see
scenery that is stark, impressive, and desolate, the easiest way
is to fly over Greenland. It is a measure of the change in trans-
portation brought about in recent years that Greenland, once
one of the most inaccessible countries, is now crossed every
night by planes flying the polar routes from the west coast of
North America to Europe, and from Montreal to Scotland.
True, these planes do not usually stop, but on a clear, moonlit
night one may see as wild and lonely a piece of territory as
exists on earth outside of Antarctica. In size, Greenland is four
times as large as France and more than a quarter of the area of
the United States.
In summer the black-green ocean and in winter the sea ice
lap cliffs and mountains of jagged ferocity, rivalling the
Rockies or the Alps. Such settlements as exist are hidden in
the half-open jaws of rocky fiords. At night nothing is seen of
life. The whole interior is a plateau of ice and snow 9,000 feet
GREENLAND AND THE WORLD'S ICE 155
in height, hemmed in by a rim of mountains reaching as high
as 13,000 feet. In gaps between the rpountains, rivers of pale-
blue ice squeeze and tumble towards the sea. Greenland is
like a spoonful of mashed potatoes hollowed on top and filled
to overflowing with gravy. Like gravy, the ice, constantly re-
newed by snowfall, forever flows out from the centre to break
off in the sea as icebergs and drift south to melt in the Gulf
Stream. As the glaciers descend into the sea, they become
scored with crevasses, fractures along which individual ice-
bergs will break off.
In June 1958 it was not this distant view which we had.
Instead, we flew to the Thule airbase to see Dr. H. Bader,
scientist in charge of a glaciological program on the ice sheet.
The brilliance of the snow-covered scenery that morning was
the most intense I have ever known, and my light-meter went
off scale when pointed in any direction through the plane
windows. Viewed through my very dark glasses, the jagged
peaks of Ellesmere Island appeared black against the glisten-
ing snow around them. We crossed Baffin Bay covered, except
for a patch of open sea off Thule, with a frozen swirl of pack
and icebergs. In this open place, called the North Water, rising
currents prevent ice from forming, and the open ocean creates
clouds of vapour.
On the coast at Thule there is a steamer dock. Behind it is a
valley in which rows of great hangars and barracks are set
among a tangle of roads lying like thread on the gravel. Behind
the camp, towering above us as we came in to land, is a smooth
white wall of inland ice, poised like a substantial cloud upon
the hills. It is a forbidding place, this great United States Air
Force base which forms the apex of North American defence;
not on account of military display, which is not flaunted, but
rather because of the chill and awesome setting, a no man's
land of bleak, dark rock between the white ice on the moun-
tains and the white ice on the bay.
Miles
Contour map of the ice surface of the Greenland ice.
GREENLAND AND THE WORLD'S ICE 157
We were warmly welcomed by the base commander, and
taken to bachelor officers* quarters and a comfortable officers'
mess. Whatever defence installations there may have been,
they were not evident. What lay behind closed hangar doors
was no affair of a party of visiting scientists, but we felt an air
of alert expectancy and a sense of front-line tenseness which
was illustrated for me by the action's of two very 1 different men.
One of the enlisted men who looked after our quarters, his
twelve-month tour of duty almost up, longed for home. The
loneliness of the winter of darkness among a thousand other
men and no women had frayed his fibre to the last strand. He
talked darkly of what would happen to Thule if war broke out,
and seemed to fear that he might get blasted with the rest of
the base before the next month was over and he escaped to the
familiar embrace of the United States. The other was the base
commander, a very charming and distinguished officer. He
also seemed to have the jitters, but for quite a different reason.
As a seasoned combat pilot, he was not fearful. Nevertheless,
he had a phone in his car; another, so he told us, by his bed;
and at breakfast, when the one in the dining hall rang, he ran
and answered it himself. His concern was to be ready at what-
ever instant S.A.C. headquarters might call. In his decisions,
seconds counted. During his tour of duty there were no days
off, no office hours. He did not allow himself the respite of one
single minute of complete relaxation. While it is indeed reas-
suring to know that defence services are maintained in the
alert and efficient manner so evident everywhere at Thule, it is
also a matter of concern that in other countries the same scenes
are without doubt being enacted with the same grim and
dedicated earnestness. So long as this tenseness prevails, it is
always possible that some weak link, like the overwrought
enlisted man, may panic and set in motion an irreversible
sequence of blows and counterblows which would very effec-
tively solve the world's problem of overpopulation.
15 S IGY : The Year of the New Moons
We drove up the hills to the ice. The road was longer than it
had looked from the air, and we bumped and lurched over life-
less gravel, stone, and snowdrifts. At short intervals there were
safety shelters where any driver caught in a blizzard could find
fuel, food, and blankets until the storm passed or help came.
\\1iere the road ends, the ice begins; not gently like the sea on
a beach, but as a bulging white wall dwarfing the operations at
its foot and rendering the ascent on to the ice steep and dan-
gerous.
In one place an adit, or passage, had been driven from the
base i T 2Oo feet straight into the ice walL The previous year
heavy coal-mining machinery had been used to cut this open-
ing to a height of 7 feet and a width of 20. At intervals along
the roof and walls square grids of precise dimensions had been
inscribed and dyed on flat surfaces in the ice. In the ensuing
months the great weight of the ice had very slowly caused it to
flow off the plateau, and its movement had reduced the size of
the passage. The resulting distortion of the grids provided an
exact measure of the flow. Near the head of the tunnel the
reduction had become so great and the roof was so low that we
could walk only with difficulty in a stooped position with our
hands clasped behind our backs and our heads or shoulders
bumping at intervals on the roof.
Even more spectacular were the effects to be seen in larger
rooms which had been cut in openings off the main passage-
way. Here, mass flaking had led to the collapse of the roof. It
was unsafe to enter these rooms, but from the doorways we
could see a succession of huge slabs, 10 feet or more across,
broken off the roof and hanging like the petals of inverted rose
blossoms, or heaps of ice which had fallen from the roof lying
in shivered blocks about the floor.
At another place a few miles away, where the ice face
steepened less precipitously, a ramp had been built and a road
climbed up it on to the inland ice. The surface of this road
GREENLAND AND THE WORLD'S ICE 159
was, of course, of snow; the ice is only formed in glaciers below
a depth of several hundred feet, when the weight of fresh snow
above and the passage of time have squeezed out air and caused
the snowflakes to congeal. As a consequence, this road could
only be used by snowmobiles and over-snow tractors, both of
which have wide tracks to support them. The great tractors
used for hauling equipment to the interior of Greenland were
particularly impressive, as the steel tracks on some were as
much as 6 feet wide. These tractors pulled 10- and 2o-ton loads
on heavy sleds and also wanigans, as the bunk houses mounted
on sleds are called.
The glaciologists told us of a further difficulty which they
had to overcome in getting up to the ice plateau so many
thousand feet above. The margins and indeed some patches of
the interior of any ice sheet are cut by crevasses, great cracks as
much as 200 feet deep, many feet wide, and miles long. The
ever-drifting snow is able to build bridges across most of these
and hide them completely from view. These hidden crevasses
are dangerous enough for men on skis or dog-sledges, although
the snow bridges can usually support such relatively light loads.
If they do not, the custom of roping a party of men together
enables them to arrest the fall of any one of their number so
unfortunate as to fall through. Such techniques are even of
value in stopping the fall of snowmobiles, but they will not
do for large tractor trains. Before these can cross the ice sheet,
roads must be established and marked. All crevasses must be
found and at the road crossings they must be filled with snow
by bulldozers.
Once well up on the ice, other difficulties present them-
selves. The weather on top of ice sheets is cold; blizzards are
frequent, and there are no landmarks to guide the parties
which break trail and mark the routes. They have to "hole up"
during blizzards, dig themselves out afterwards, and navigate
across the featureless snow plains like ships at sea.
160 IGY : The Year of the New Moons
With utmost labour they had manoeuvred a large drilling rig
on to the ice cap to drill holes i ? oco feet deep. Just as archeolo-
gists slice through the site of an ancient city to discover from
the layers of broken fragments the history of an ancient civili-
zation, so glaciologists, by studying the annual layers, the
orientation of crystals, and the debris in the ice, trace the
history of the ice cap. By measuring the thickness of annual
layers, they can estimate the precipitation; by observing the
extent of melting, they can tell the summer temperatures; and
by locating traces of ash, they can identify former volcanic
eruptions. These operations and those we were to see later in
Antarctica provided an insight into the formidable task faced
by explorers of the world's two great ice sheets, and they
formed an interesting contrast with the very different opera-
tions we had just seen in the mountains of Ellesmere Island
and on ice island T3. All had a common basis in man's desire
to investigate the world's ice 7 whether in continental sheets, in
mountain glaciers, or in the frozen surface of the ocean.
The first extensive area of glacial ice to be explored was
Greenland, which Nansen crossed in 1888. Since then a suc-
cession of American, British, Danish, French, German, and
Swiss expeditions have added greatly to our knowledge. The
area of ice in Greenland has been surveyed. Its thickness has
been measured in many places by firing small shots of ex-
plosives on the surface and timing the echoes reflected from
the bottom. Its behavior has been explored by drilling and by
digging pits and tunnels. Of the 840,000 square miles of Green-
land, glacial ice covers more than 700,000. Beneath it, the
surface of the bed-rock is shaped like a dish rising to over
13,000 feet along the eastern rim but lying close to sea level in
the central parts. This dish is filled to overflowing with ice,
which reaches a maximum thickness of 11,000 feet and which
has a total volume of 620,000 cubic miles. This volume is
steadily, if slowly, diminishing, as can be seen from the reces-
GREENLAND AND THE WORLD'S ICE 161
sion of the edges of the glaciers and from calculations of the
total balance sheet of the ice- The average snowfall over all
Greenland is equivalent to 12 inches of rain, which would
contribute 118 cubic miles of new ice each year. Fourteen ice
rivers have been mapped, and each year these earn- an average
of 57 cubic miles of ice to the sea, where they break off as ice-
bergs. Melting of the lower parts of the glaciers in summer
causes a loss of another 83 cubic miles of ice yearly. If these
estimates are correct, Greenland is losing an average of 22
cubic miles of ice a year. Should this rate of shrinkage con-
tinue, all the ice would melt in about thirty thousand years.
The ice sheets of the last glaciation disappeared from Eu-
rope and America in about one tenth of this time. The shrink-
age of the Greenland ice cap is thus comparatively slow, but
the circulation of ice through the ice sheet is faster. The addi-
tion of 118 cubic miles of snowfall each year will completely
replace, or rejuvenate, the Greenland ice cap in about five
thousand years. This is the average time of circulation of ice
through the sheet.
One of the methods commonly used to gather information
is to dig pits. On the upper reaches of an ice sheet the climate
is too cold to cause any melting, even in summer, so that a
vertical section of the ice contains a sample of all the snow
that has fallen. The annual layers can be counted and meas-
ured to determine the average annual snowfall, and the mean
annual temperature can be recorded. In Greenland and on
mountain glaciers, it is usually possible to distinguish the
summer and winter layers in the ice by sight, but in Antarctica
this is difficult. Fortunately, the entrapped oxygen contains
two isotopes oxygen-i6 and oxygen-i8 the ratio of which
varies with the temperature at which snow was deposited. If
the ratio is measured, the summer and winter layers can be
determined.
It is not practical or safe to dig pits by hand to greater depths
162 IGY : The Year of the Xew Moons
than about ico feet. During the IGY a 5-inch oil-well drill was
adapted for drilling in ice to extend investigations to greater
depths. At a place on the ice sheet about 200 miles east of
Thule, a hole was drilled to a depth of 1,350 feet, and cores of
ice were recovered from it. The annual layers show that this
ice had talcen over eight hundred years to accumulate. At a
depth of i co feet the core contained a layer of fine volcanic ash
identified as coming from the eruption of 1912 in the Valley of
Ten Thousand Smokes at Katmai, Alaska. It is expected that
small amounts of volcanic dust from the great eruption of
1883 at Krakatoa, Indonesia, may be found in cores all over
the world. Measurements of the radioactivity of ice in different
layers can provide comparison of the rate of natural and
artificial fall-out at different times in the past.
The drill was later taken from Greenland to Antarctica,
where I saw it in use. There, with a slower rate of accumula-
tion, a i .coo-foot core may provide a frozen record of two
thousand years of history, but greater depths cannot be reached
with present techniques because the release of pressure pro-
duced by drilling causes the ice to fly to pieces.
In 1959, to learn more about the dynamics of ice sheets,
Expeditions Polaires Frangaises sent the largest glaciological
expedition ever launched, a party of sixty men with several
aircraft and helicopters and many over-snow vehicles, to make
an exhaustive study of an active part of Greenland ice sheet
which lies between latitudes 68 and 74 N. The ice there is
flowing seaward at the rate of about 450 feet a year. Markers
that will last for ten years have been placed every 6 miles along
a joo-mile traverse of the ice cap. Accurate ground and aerial
surveys of the region and of the stakes have been made and will
be repeated in order to determine how the ice sheet is re-
newed, how it moves, and how it is dissipated. The study and
publication of the results of this work will lead to improve-
ments and refinements. It is in the Antarctic, which was least
GREENLAND AND THE WORLD'S ICE
known, that recent efforts have produced the most marked
changes in our knowledge.
Most of the ice in the world is in Antarctica. Before the
IGY the outlines of much of the coast had been mapped, but
no one had seen or even flown over the greater part of the
interior. A single line of surveys by the Xorwegian-British-
S\vedish expedition of 1949-52 had suggested that along this
route Antarctica was a continent covered with ice a mile thick,
but it was still possible that Antarctica might either be an ar-
chipelago of rock islands linked by ice or a continent with only
Contour map of the ice surface of Antarctica. Broken lines
indicate routes of the major traverses across the ice sheet
up to the end of 1959.
164 I G Y : The Year of the Xew Moons
a frosting of ice over the rock. If the first were true, there would
be twice as much ice in the world as if the second were so.
During the IGY twelve nations operated fifty-five stations
on the Antarctic continent and adjacent islands, and in 1959
another nation, Poland, proposed to take over one station
from the U.S.S.R. American, Australian, British, French, and
Soviet parties carried out major traverses across the interior
making geophysical soundings. From preliminary accounts of
these ventures, from reports of the earlier inland journeys of
Amundsen, Scott, Shackleton, and the Norwegian-British-
Swedish expedition and from observations made on flights,
rough sketch maps were prepared. They show the contours of
the top and bottom surfaces of the ice. The bottom surface is,
of course, the rock beneath. These maps suggest that the
volume of ice in Antarctica is about 4,000,000 cubic miles.
Because the traverses have been few and a long way apart and
the maps are merely rough sketches, the results are preliminary
and unprecise. Other estimates range up to 7,000,000 cubic
miles. That possible errors would be large is indicated by the
difference in the results of three seismic measurements of
thickness of ice made at the south pole. American seismolo-
gists, who were flown to the south pole on Operation Deep-
freeze, obtained a thickness of 8,900 feet; G. Pratt, the gla-
ciologist with Vivian Fuchs's Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic
Expedition, found 6,300 feet; and a Soviet party, which made
another traverse reaching the south pole on December 26,
1959, found 9,500 feet.
Only Greenland and Antarctica have large ice sheets, but
small ones are to be found on a few polar islands, including
Ellesmere Island and Novaya Zemlya, and on high moun-
tains in all latitudes. In the tropics these mountain glaciers
can only form at altitudes greater than 16,000 feet, but they do
exist in New Guinea, East Africa, and South America. Because
mountain glaciers are widespread and because their melt water
Contour map of the bed-rock of Antarctica below the ice
sheet as deduced from soundings.
provides a good summer flow of water, they are of immediate
interest and consequence to people in many countries. With-
out glaciers to store the winter snow, many rivers now used for
irrigation would flood in spring and run dry in summer. Ex-
amples of rivers fed in part by glaciers are the Colorado, the
Saskatchewan, and the Rhine. During the IGY, expeditions
were sent to investigate many mountain glaciers. An important
example was the joint Swedish-Finnish-Swiss expedition to
Murchison Fiord, North East Land, Spitsbergen, where thir-
166 IGY : The Year of the New Moons
teen men wintered. Poland established another station nearby.
In Mexico there are glaciers on the three highest peaks.
J. L, Lorenzo, who studied them, has described the difficulties
glaciologists encounter. Concerning the glaciers of Mount
Orizaba or Citlaltepet fat 18,620 feet, the highest peak in
Mexico - , he points out that there had only been one previous
report, in 1910, and that it was quite wrong. Lorenzo's party
camped above the i6,ocofoot level for twelve days, and under
conditions of snow storms and high-altitude fatigue, they
mapped 3.8 square miles of glaciers. On Popocatepetl the party
were troubled by smoke and fumes from the volcano but com-
pleted the mapping of several small glaciers. About the third
volcano, Iztaccihuatl, he writes: "It is a volcanic range, the
silhouette of which recalls the figure of a sleeping woman,
whence its name, Iztac, white, and cihuatl, woman, the white
referring of course to the white of the snow and ice covering it.
It is curious to note that Iztaccihuatl is the mountain with the
most ancient references as to its glaciers. Sometime between
1781 and 1789 Father Jose Antonio de Alzate Ramirez in
taking some barometric measurements noticed 'a great wall of
ice, which because of its great width must have been formed
since time immemorial/ "
Since the end of the war, the whole of Canada has been
photographed from the air. Examination of these photographs
and of maps made from them revealed that Canada has many
more glaciers than had been supposed. About 5,000 separate
valley glaciers and many small ice sheets have been plotted, in
all covering 70,000 square miles, an area equal to England and
Wales or as large as all the New England states plus New
Jersey.
We have already quoted calculations of the annual incre-
ment and losses of the Greenland ice sheet and the estimated
net loss of 22 cubic miles of ice a year. During the IGY at-
tempts were made to extend this to the world as a whole.
GREENLAND AND THE WORLD'S ICE 167
Among others, F. Loewe and H. Lister have published pre-
liminary estimates of the changes in Antarctica. Lister suggests
a gain of 125 cubic miles a year, but his figures (although
attained by the same methods used by Bauer for Greenland)
must be treated with great caution because, as he points out,
they are based upon observations made on one crossing only
and involve a good deal of guesswork. Similar estimates or
balance-sheets have been drawn for the changes in some of
the world's mountain glaciers. Almost all are diminishing, but
we do not yet know the total figure. Since the mountain gla-
ciers cover a relatively small area, we can be fairly certain that
the loss is no greater than that for all Greenland.
Using these estimates, we can try to arrive at a balance for
the whole world. The total amount of water on the world's
surface is nearly constant, so that whatever water melts from
the ice sheets and glaciers will increase the volume of sea water
and raise sea level. We have figures to make a very rough cal-
culation. Think of it in terms of water gained and lost by the
oceans each year:
Water gained from Greenland (from 22 cu.
miles of ice) +19 cu. miles
Water gained from mountain glaciers + 19 cu. miles
Water lost to Antarctica 125 cu. miles
Total volume of water lost each year by the
oceans 87 cu. miles
A volume of 87 cubic miles spread over the whole area of the
world's oceans, which is about 150,000,000 square miles,
would result in a lowering of sea level by 0.037 inches annually
or 3.7 inches a century. However, direct estimates of the
change in sea level suggest a quite different result. Tide-gauges
show that on the average over the past many years sea level has
been rising, not falling. Estimates of the rate vary from 2.5 to
6 inches each century. Studies of the rate of submergence of
marine beaches in middle latitudes also suggest that through-
i6S IGY : The Year of the Xew Moons
out the past 3,000 years sea level has been rising at an average
rate cf 4.8 inches a century.
It is obvious that the two sets of results are in direct con-
tradiction to one another. The changes in sea level are based
upon world-wide observations made over a long period of time
and are almost certainly approximately correct, although many
new tide-gauges recently established will in a few years refine
our knowledge. The view that the oceans are deepening and
that the land is diminishing is also supported by the existence
of many dry valleys in Antarctica. There is much evidence that
these valleys were formerly filled with ice and that the height
and volume of ice in Antarctica has diminished during the past
few thousand years.
The discrepancy in the figures is thus considered to be due
to an error in the measurement of snow accumulation in
Antarctica. Recent discussions in London suggest that, in ad-
dition, the rate of flow of ice off Antarctica may have been
seriously underestimated. It also seems probable that the few
places measured for the rate of snow accumulation in Ant-
arctica are not typical of the continent as a whole. These
factors may have contributed to the discrepancy. We have
much to learn, indeed, before we can accurately explain the
causes, and thereby predict the onset, of climatic changes.
That these changes can be very great and could have a pro-
found effect on human destiny is hard to accept, but it is
certainly true. It is now well established that large areas of
Canada, northern United States, northern Europe, and Siberia
were covered with ice sheets which began to melt with great
rapidity only eleven thousand years ago. For tens of thousands
of years before that, all these lands resembled Greenland in
the extent and thickness of their ice cover and in the bitterness
of their climate. This load of ice locally depressed the land,
which is still rising rapidly. Indeed it is probable that the
shallow Baltic Sea and Hudson Bay only exist because they
GREENLAND AND THE WORLD'S ICE 169
were depressed by the loads of ice. Everywhere else the melt-
ing of so much ice has caused sea level to rise by a height of
over 100 feet. This melting appears to be still in progress. The
rise of land in some places and of sea level in general are causes
of anxiety to harbour masters throughout the world.
It would be of the greatest importance to mankind to be
able to predict whether the ice age will return, whether condi-
tions will remain as they are, or whether the remaining ice
sheets will continue to melt and inundate all coasts to a depth
of scores of feet. But until more is known of the behaviour of
ice sheets and the influences which affect them, we cannot tell
what will happen or at what rate changes in climate are likely
to occur.
CHAPTER 15
BRUSSELS
TO MOSCOW
JULY 1958
On July 16, 1958 I flew to Europe with a party of Iowa
farmers, whom I met again in Moscow, and an American
archery team y who fell to earth I know not where. I was on my
way to attend meetings in Moscow, but I stopped for twenty-
four hours in Brussels to see the World's Fair and in Helsinki
to call on colleagues*
At the World's Fair I went directly to the American and
Soviet pavilions. The United States had erected a light and
splendid circular building, easily the finest in the fair. The
huge hall was bright and well proportioned and rose to a
great open skylight in the centre, but it was almost devoid of
exhibits. It looked like an empty stage, waiting for the actors.
There was a lake, open fields of grass, and a few gaunt trees. It
was beautiful, but appeared to have little to do with the
vibrant life of the United States. The lonely emptiness was
more a foretaste of Siberia.
A more careful search revealed a collection of abstract paint-
ings, a movie about atomic energy, a voting machine, a glass
BRUSSELS TO Moscow 171
box containing six tumbleweeds, and a room in which hi-fi
records were being played. In another darkened hall there was
a good display of the program of the IGY. The whole was
restrained to the point of bleakness, and what finally made it
seem clear that the exhibits were intended to advertise Siberia
and not the United States was an exhibit of wooden farm im-
plements used by the pioneers three hundred years ago, and a
collection of enamel campaign buttons from past presidential
elections. Americans only wear lapel buttons at service club
luncheons and during political campaigns. On the other hand,
throughout Asia in the summer of 1958 the well-dressed Com-
munists wore lapel buttons all the time, and the more of them
the better!
It seemed curious to me that the American nation had be-
come so sensitive to public opinion (and let us be candid to
public envy) that they had staged an exhibit of exactly what
they were not. Artistically it was a great success, but it did not
convey much impression of the abundance, the exuberance,
the freedom, the exultant joy of living which seems to me to
be the essence of America.
I went across to the Soviet pavilion. From the moment that
I bought an ice cream "Morozony" and entered the big, stark,
rectangular modern building until I was at last disgorged from
the aisles within, I felt I was back in the New York which I
had left only twenty-four hours before. The building was
crowded with people and lined with displays of Sputniks, sleek
automobiles, vast machines and towering piles of food and
clothes. During the ensuing months in Russia and China, I
was never to see such abundance again. Strange that these
nations, both so powerful, each wanted to be esteemed not
for what it was, but in the image of the other: the Americans
as simple, hardy pioneers; the Russians as lavish providers of
the world's goods.
Out of curiosity I went for supper to the Canadian building.
172 IGY : The Year of the New Moons
It was a skeleton of a place, a lot of girders held together with
wire and decorated with excellent photographs, plans, and
models. To a much greater extent than the designers had in-
tended, it typified the country, half empty and half finished.
In the restaurant upstairs I had what was advertised as a
typically Canadian meal: pea soup, stuffed tomatoes, green
beans with chunks of bacon, maple-syrup pie, and rye whisky.
I was glad to get coffee and not Labrador tea or stewed spruce
roots. All the individual ingredients were authentic but the
menu was not, and I can appreciate why so few restaurants at
home advertise Canadian cooking.
The exhibition had a superb setting in a royal park. The
Belgians had gone to great trouble; I was sorry not to have
seen more, but I had to catch a plane and fly to Finland over
the peaceful lands that border the North and Baltic Seas, with
their trim fields, neat forests, and compact villages of red brick.
Europe, like most of the more fertile parts of the world, is
getting so full of people that the cities sprawl together, devour-
ing the countryside.
After two days in Helsinki I boarded a two-engined Soviet
plane, rather like a DC-3, and flew south over the Gulf of
Finland and the Russian forests to Moscow. During the flight
a large and attractive stewardess with a mass of fair curls
plunked a tray of caviar, smoked salmon, cheese, bread and
butter, fruit, vodka and wine before me and dealt out coloured
brochures in several languages explaining the wonders of the
Sputniks.
At Moscow the vice-president of the IUGG, Professor
V. V* Beloussov, a gracious, wise, and ponderous man built to
the dimensions and colour of a brown Russian bear, met the
plane and whisked me through immigration and customs and
into a waiting VIM, the Russian version of a 1950 Buick, for
the 1 5-mile drive to the Moscow Hotel.
BRUSSELS TO Moscow 17
In the course of our drive I was guilty of a social error:
lowered the window of the car to throw away the butt of
cigarette I had been smoking. "There are ash trays in the arr
rests of our cars/' said Beloussov. Today in Russia it is irr
portant to be culturny. Hatless, dishevelled, with bags dc
liberately chosen for their battered condition, travelling "toui
ist," and throwing butts out of windows, I was clearly no
living up to the precise and formal standards of behaviou
required in the new Russia. I felt like a revolutionary visitin
the country of the czars.
We entered Moscow, that huge forbidding city, the Chicag
of Eurasia and the melting pot of Russia. Here the peasants o
the steppes come to gawk, here the elite of satellite countrie
are royally entertained and impressed with the wonders of th
new Russian fatherland; from here the mass of Communis
orders and propaganda issues forth; and here, ironically, th
Western influences of education and science are most strongl
felt. It was the infiltration of Western ideas and defeat b
Western armies that caused the Russian revolution, and th
Western influence has remained strong. Today in Russia ther-
is a level of popular education and of material progress tha
would have astonished the czars.
Our meetings were held in the University of Moscow, new
ornate, and the tallest building in Europe. Some of its pro
fessors complained about the difficulties of getting up anc
down in the elevators, but our meetings went welL At som<
meetings everyone spoke English; at others, Professo
V. V. Beloussov acted as chairman, and himself carried on ;
three-way translation into English, French, or Russian as re
quired. After breakfast Ludmilla, Natasha, and other efficien
Intourist guides would pick all of us visiting scientists up at ou
hotels and drive us to the University, and then would reappea
each afternoon, offering to show us the sights. With their hel]
174 I G Y : The Year of the New Moons
and with a gradually growing confidence in my own ability to
find my way about alone, I saw what I could of the city.
The hotels which I saw fell into three classes. There are
three old czarist ones, the National (the most comfortable),
the Metropole, and the Savoy, There are the new skyscrapers:
the Ukrania and the Leningradskaya for tourists, and the
Sovietskaya where the party elite congregate. This last has
much the best service and the best orchestra in town. Lastly
there are two oddities, the Peking and the Moscow. The Pe-
king is small and has a good Chinese restaurant. It seems to be
the place where junior officers and officials like to go for a good
time and it gets pretty riotous. The Moscow, where I stayed, is
the largest and most unusual. Its forbidding appearance, the
bad service, and the close surveillance of its guests remind one
that it was built by Stalin in the 1930'$. In addition to the
watchful doorman and the girl on each floor, I regularly re-
ceived an incomprehensible phone call at eleven-thirty each
night and once, returning unexpectedly, I caught a man emerg-
ing from my room. Perhaps he was inspecting the plumbing.
On the top floor is a caf6 accessible from the street, not
from the hotel frequented by the rock and roll teen-agers who
also gather on the square in front of the hotel in great numbers
each evening to watch an open-air stage show, listen to the
loudspeakers, dance on the pavement, and jostle the girls.
One of the interpreters took us to the Tretygof Gallery the
Moscow counterpart of the L/Hermitage Gallery in Leningrad,
but devoted solely to the work of Russian artists. Although the
Russians have never been as distinguished in painting as in
writing or music, the gallery is a splendid review of the social
history of the country, A French scientist who had praised
L'Hermitage to the skies said: "Ride a bicycle through the
Tretygof, but spend hours in its basement among the old
ikons/' We did. I had no idea until I saw them how superbly
colourful and imaginative these religious paintings could be,
BRUSSELS TO Moscow 175
and how many facets of the life of the times could be packed
into the background of a saint's portrait.
Seeing our interest in the ikons, our interpreter asked: "Do
you believe in God?'* One of us replied and returned the ques-
tion. "Xo," she said doubtfully. * 4 We have no need. Science is
our God/' I considered advising her to spend more time on her
scientific catechism, for her knowledge of science was slight,
but realizing that she was an Intourist guide, not a technical
translator, I held my peace.
Another night she took us to the State Central Puppet
Theatre. We were late because the service at the Moscow
Hotel was so slow that it always took two hours to get dinner.
It made no difference whether the Intourist guides were there
to browbeat the waiters, or whether we were unattended and
free to try cajolery and tips; the sendee was uniformly bad. The
endless delays were compounded by a chronic shortage of
menus. The more farsighted waiters had small caches of them
hidden under the tablecloth, but they usually managed to
produce the wrong one. They had three to choose from:
tourist, first class, and de luxe. We scientists all sat together,
but we were travelling in varying degrees of grandeur and the
changes that could be rung on three classes of meal tickets and
menus led to endless confusion.
That night, when we had at last got our salt fish in jelly,
partridge with jam, tomato salad, coffee with lemon, and ex-
cellent bread, we made our way to the theatre, which stood in
a garden like the Tivoli in Copenhagen. The production was
directed by People's Artist of the U.S.S.R., S. V. Obreztsov,
whose puppets seemed to be able to lampoon the regime in a
way no actors would have dared. The tickets, at 17 roubles
(officially $4.25), were beyond the means of any but the more
prosperous and sophisticated Russians,, and most of the au-
dience were tourists.
I sat between my interpreter, Natasha, and a businessman
176 IGY : The Year of the New Moons
from New Haven* He mentioned that during the day he had
driven into the country to a Greek Orthodox monastery and
that he had been unfavourably impressed by the number of
empty trucks he had seen bouncing along the roads. I later
learned that this apparent inefficiency and waste was due to
the fact that the peasants, having no cars of their own, seize on
any sort of an errand as an excuse for a joy ride in a truck.
An enthusiastic choir of puppets began the first chorus,
which was translated for me:
Drink more vitamins,
Ml drink vitamins,
Vitamins A B C D.
Only those who drink more vitamins
Will live to their death.
I probably looked rather blank, but Natasha thought it very
funny and daring, "Don't you see/' she explained, "that they
are laughing at the ridiculous laws and edicts which the Gov-
ernment is always issuing?"
There followed a quick succession of clever acts from old
fashioned vaudeville:
MAKEIT BETTEROF Cellist
ALLEGRETTA TRALAIALOVA Coloratura Soprano
Also an infant prodigy, a lion tamer, an illusionist, a waltz
team, and at the piano SufFerin Victor. The jazz quartet of
"Boogie, Woogie, Jeep, and Creep" roused shouts of enthu-
siasm because at other places jazz is frowned upon as decadent.
Best of all was the gypsy choir. As the program had it: "Just
imagine that we are in a restaurant. Enter the gypsy choir.
Around us rises the smell of the steppes and schnitzel What-
ever anyone may say, for me this is real art: Ochi Ghernize.
... I have not enquired too closely into their family back-
grounds. I wouldn't like to say that they are all gypsies, but
BRUSSELS TO Moscow 177
don't let's be too particular. I do know that one of them has a
gypsy sister-in-law/*
The puppets had faces and dresses of a completely oriental
cast obviously from Turkestan and Central Asia. They
danced and sang gypsy choruses interspersed with solos. Each
time another slit-eyed Turk or Uzbek was introduced, Natasha
was convulsed with laughter. I became more and more puzzled.
"Don't you see/ 7 she whispered hysterically, "how they are
laughing at the fuss the Government makes about the national
minorities? Don't you hear how completely Russian the names
are that they have given to all those extraordinary-looking
people from the south? Don't you hear/' she sobbed between
her laughter, "what those horrible gypsies are singing? They
are saying: "Money is everything, money is everything/ "
Perhaps this show was put on for the benefit of tourists. If
so, this particular tourist missed the finer points, but the Rus-
sians in the audience didn't miss a thing, and they loved it.
I went to many scientific institutes, several with very fine
new buildings. But whether new or not, all were full of eager
and able scientists who showed great interest in exchanging
ideas with the West. Some of them asked us to their homes, a
fairly new venture I believe, because only recently have sus-
picions been relieved and the standards of living raised suffi-
ciently to make this possible.
The living standard for full professors in Moscow is com-
parable with that in North America; they have rather fewer
rooms, and fewer cars, but they have more books. They have
good food, summer holidays on the Black Sea, the chance to
travel over half Asia, and for the fortunate, occasional trips to
underdeveloped countries or to Europe.
The fact of the matter is that I thoroughly enjoyed my time
with the Russian scientists, and I found them not funda-
mentally different from ourselves. Another Canadian scientist
in Moscow summed up our views on Russian progress by re-
178 I G Y : The Year of the New Afoons
marking: "Only a fool could fail to be impressed." Why then
is this picture so different from what we imagine? Were these
scientists typical? Was my view of Russia genuine?
It was genuine enough. We went into well-known institutes,
met well-known scientists, saw their laboratories, and talked
about science. Countries don't build jet airplanes and launch
Sputniks without a very real and large body of able engineers
and scientists. These scientists came from many classes and
held many beliefs, not always what the Communist party
would have wished. One cannot easily be specific in these
matters, but the diverse backgrounds are illustrated by two
scientists whom I met. One was Urey Goudin, Stalin Prize
winner and devoted Communist, skeptical of foreigners and
brought up entirely in the pattern of the revolution, but an
able oil-finder none the less. The other was the late Academi-
cian Ivan Bardin, vice-chairman of the Academy of Sciences of
the U.S.S.R. and chairman of the Soviet IGY Committee. At
a reception in Moscow he said to me in good English: "Profes-
sor Wilson, Fm glad to see you again. We enjoyed our visit to
Toronto last year. It was good to be back in North America/'
When I asked him about his previous visit, he said: "Yes, in
1910, when I was a young man, I worked for a year as a
metallurgist for the Illinois Steel Company in Gary, Indiana/'
The young engineer of czarist days who was able to go
abroad and round out his education is hardly one's idea of the
successful revolutionary, but because of his ability that wise
old man had remained to render great service to his country.
CHAPTER 16
GRAVITY AND THE
EARTH'S WOBBLE
Gravity is the power of attraction of the earth. It is what keeps
men's feet on the ground. In doing so it provides us with a
strong sense of direction. Being upright feels the same every-
where, although a moment's reflection about people around
the globe shows that the vertical direction is not uniform, as it
feels, but is always radial to the earth.
This power of attraction is not confined to the earth but is a
universal property of matter, We don't know why it exists, but
we do know that it cannot be generated like magnetism and
that it does not vary with time. Its study is therefore much
easier than is the study of geomagnetism. Once the value of
gravity has been measured at any place, that value is fixed.
There is no need for gravity observatories as there is for mag-
netic observatories.
Broadly speaking, geophysicists concentrated during the
IGY's year and a half span on phenomena which fluctuated
rapidly with significant and measurable changes. Gravity was
certainly not one of these, and was not a major program but it
180 I G Y : The Year of the Xevv 1 Moons
was included because the IGY offered gravity specialists so
many good opportunities to get to out-of-the-way places and
speed the regular collection of data.
To measure gravity two means are employed: deflections of
delicate spring balances called gravimeters and variations in
the rate of swing of pendulums.
The earth is slightly flattened at the poles. Thus, anyone
sitting at the north pole is thirteen miles closer to the centre of
the earth than he would be if he were sitting at the equator.
The fact that the earth may also be somewhat pear-shaped
would have less effect than the flattening.
Since the closer a body is to the centre of the earth the
greater is the pull of gravity, a heavy man weighs about a
pound more at the poles than he does at the equator. This
change would not show on a steelyard because the balancing
weights would be equally affected by the change, but it would
show on spring scales because springs are not affected by
gravity. By using special spring balances called gravimeters,
we can measure variations in gravity with extreme accuracy,
even to one part in a billion.
Pendulums swing because gravity attracts them. Therefore
the rate of swing of pendulums is affected by changes in the
value of gravity. The astronomer Pierre Bouguer discovered
this when he was sent by the French Academy to carry out
surveys in Ecuador and Peru in 1735 and found that his
pendulum clock ran slower over the equatorial bulge. Pen-
dulums used in this work can now be timed so precisely that
even the slight aging which occurs in any material after it has
been worked during manufacture affects their length and time
of swing and causes errors. Thus, old pendulums, which have
been through a long settling-down period, so to speak, tend to
be better than new ones. It is generally agreed that the two
best sets are those made twenty-five years ago by the Gulf Oil
Company and the University of Cambridge. Measurements
GRAVITY AND THE EARTH'S WOBBJ.E 181
have now been made by these instruments and by sensitive
gravimeters at stations all over the world.
The IGY, with its many bases in remote places, provided an
excellent chance to measure gravity more extensively than
ever before. The United States took a lead in linking existing
surveys by networks around the world and from pole to pole.
One of the latter lay through the Americas and another lay
through Japan and New Zealand. A third network extended
from the Arctic through Europe and South Africa.
When plans had been made to complete the land network
for the measurement of gravity, concern \vas expressed about
how to supplement the scarce observations over the seven
tenths of the earth's surface covered with water. The motion
of waves has always made measurement difficult, and observa-
tions had only been made by instruments lowered to the
bottom in a few shallow places and from submarines sub-
merged below the waves. Both methods were necessarily
limited. Italian, Swedish, and Finnish scientists urged that
underwater gravimeters be widely used on continental shelves
during the IGY, and much of the Baltic Sea was covered in
this fashion.
The idea of using a submerged submarine as a quiet place in
which to measure gravity at sea was first put into practice in
1923 by the Dutch geodesist F. A. Vening Meinesz. The
Americans wished to make no less than two thousand observa-
tions from submarines, but since all navies seem to share a
reluctance to lend their submarines the proposal did not prove
feasible. J. L. Worzel, of Columbia University, found a way
out of the impasse by developing a method of measuring
gravity from surface ships. In November 1957 he succeeded in
adapting a new German Graf instrument to record gravity
continuously on shipboard as long as the weather was rea-
sonably calm. He achieved this by placing the instrument
exactly at the centre of buoyancy of the ship, where the motion
GRAVITY ANOMALIES
{ FREE AIR)
Map indicating variations in the strength of gravity in the
Baltic Sea. Survey was made by Dr. Honkasalo, who low-
ered underwater gravimeter to the bottom of the sea to
obtain measurements.
is least, and setting it ? dampened with viscous oil, on a
stabilized platform so that it did not respond to rapid wave
motion. In this way it has become possible to measure gravity
over the oceans and so complete a gravity survey of all parts of
the world; but this will take several more years.
Gravity is an inherent property of all matter, and the
GRAVITY AND THE EARTH'S WOBBLE 183
amount of matter near any spot determines the value of
gravity there. For most practical purposes, the earth is so much
the largest piece of matter in our vicinity that its attraction
outweighs all else. That is why the value of gravity is said to be
constant. If, however,, large masses lying close by are moved,
then a detectable change can occur. The movements of the
sun and moon can also produce small but regular tidal effects.
Extremely sensitive gravity instruments can detect so minor
a change as a wash-out under an apparently sound pavement.
They can also disclose a body of heavy ore in the ground or
show that in general tall buildings \veigh less than the earth
excavated from their basements.
Just as the sea rises and falls with the tides, so does the land;
but whereas the great pulse of the tides of the sea is measured
in feet, the rhythm of the rise and fall of the land is measured
only in inches. Nevertheless, increases and decreases in the
distance from the surface to the centre of the earth cause very
small variations in the value of gravity which can be detected
by delicate gravimeters. The most sensitive can record changes
in elevation as small as one eightieth of an inch.
Both the U.S.S.R. and the United States proposed that
earth tides should be recorded at fixed stations which would
provide information about the rigidity of the earth's interior.
Such stations were established all over the world, including
one at a depth of 4,000 feet in a mine at Pribram, Czechoslo-
vakia.
Due to the preponderant influence of the earth, the value o
gravity at different places is related to the size and shape of the
earth. The study of the earth's vital statistics, or the figure of
the earth, is called geodesy. This word puzzles a great many
people, but one can remember it if one understands that
geodesy bears the same relation to an appreciation of the earth
as the figures 3525-35 bear to the judging of Miss Universe.
Geodesists confine themselves to the main features and leave
1 84 I G Y : The Year of the New Moons
it to the topographers and hydrographers to fill in the detail.
A knowledge of the shape of the earth is of course essential
to any broad-scale mapping, and that is chiefly why countries
have geodetic surveys. To survey a one-acre field, it makes no
difference whether the earth is a large sphere or a flat slab
borne on the back of a turtle; but to survey very large tracts, to
navigate across oceans, or to determine boundaries between
countries, it is necessary to know the shape and size of the
earth as precisely as possible.
Geodesists use three types of measurement: observations of
stars; surveys of distances and directions; and measurements of
changes in the value of gravity from place to place.
It is surprising that such good astronomers as the ancient
Babylonians and Egyptians were hypnotized by the uniformity
of the feeling of uprightness and failed to realize that the
earth is spherical, not flat. The Greeks were the first to dis-
cover this truth and thereby explain such well-known phe-
nomena as the round shadow cast by the earth on the face of
the moon during eclipses, the sinking of distant objects below
the horizon, and the apparent change in the heights of the sun
and stars between temperate and tropical latitudes.
To an Eskimo the Pole Star appears high in the heavens;
in Ecuador it is close to the horizon. There, on the earth's
waist line, I have seen the Great Bear and the Southern Cross
on opposite sides of the heavens at the same time. The Pata-
gonian cannot see the Pole Star at all because the bulge of the
earth hides it from his view. By making a precise series of such
observations from different places on the earth, we can chart
the curvature of the earth and so discover its shape and size. It
was in this way that Eratosthenes measured the size of the
earth fairly accurately. Geodetic surveys were among the first
scientific measurements to reach a high degree of precision,
and in the two centuries since the initial French expeditions
preliminary surveys have been executed in most parts of the
GRAVITY AND THE EARTH'S WOBBLE 185
world. It has been discovered that if the topographical details
are smoothed out the general shape of the earth closely ap-
proximates a flattened spheroid. Since 1924 the figures adopted
by international agreement for this spheroid have been:
polar diameter 7 12713.824 kilometres; equatorial diameter,
12756.776 kilometres.
Given these figures and the elevation of any particular place,
it is possible to calculate what the value of gravity should be at
that place. This calculated value can be compared with the
measured or observed value. Any difference between the two is
called an anomaly and is attributed to irregularities within the
earth. This is one way in which gravity measurements help us
understand the earth's interior.
In a few years, when there has been time to calculate and
collect all the results obtained during the IGY, it is probable
that the official figures for our standard spheroid will be
slightly revised and improved. If, as J. A. O'Keefe has postu-
lated, the earth is very slightly pear-shaped, and if the equator
is indeed somewhat elliptical, then small modifications may be
introduced in the equation.
Since we have already described how irregularities in the
motion of satellites are used to study irregularities in the shape
of the earth, it will be understood that local variations and
anomalies in gravity affect the paths of long-range missiles. If
the dimensions of the earth are in error or the distances be-
tween continents and islands are not precisely known, then
the aim of missiles will be correspondingly affected. These
military implications have on the one hand intensified the
study of geodesy and gravity, and on the other they have led
to some reticence in the exchange of certain information. For-
tunately, most of these measurements were known fairly
accurately before the missile age so that only limited refine-
ments are possible.
In addition to observations from satellites, precise clocks
iS6 IGY : The Year of the Xew Moons
and ingenious telescopes have been introduced to increase
accuracy in the measurement of the stars. In 1958 at Welling-
ton, New Zealand, I saw a Danjon astrolabe, a telescope
developed in France for fixing the direction of stars. Later in
Sao Paulo, Brazil, I saw the American Markowitz moon
camera, which makes it possible to photograph perturbations
of the moon with great precision. The principle is very simple.
The path of the moon past the stars each month can be cal-
culated, its average speed is known, and for any instant of time
its position relative to stars can be predicted precisely. Photo-
graphs can then be taken to determine whether the moon is on
time. If it appears not to be, slight irregularities in the rate of
rotation of the earth are probably the cause. This process in-
volves practical difficulties, however, because the moon is
moving relative to the stars and because it is so much brighter
than the}' are. With a fast exposure only the moon shows on
a photograph; and with a long exposure, which would show the
stars, the moon's image is fogged by its greater brilliance
and both moon and stars are blurred by their motions. To
overcome these difficulties, the Markowitz camera is driven by
a small motor in such a way that the images of the stars remain
fixed on the plate and can be photographed without apparent
motion during long exposures. To reduce the glare of the
moon, a round dark filter is positioned in the barrel of the
telescope so that it just covers and darkens the image of the
moon without interfering with the light from the surrounding
stars. The moon filter incorporates a prism that is rotated at
the rate required to hold the image of the moon steady against
the stars, thereby effectively "stopping* 7 the motion of the
moon relative to the stars.
The importance of these geodetic and astronomical meas-
urements to gravity studies has already been indicated, but
they are also vital to another related program of the IGY, one
called Longitudes and Latitudes, which was aimed at discover-
GRAVITY AND THE EARTH'S WOBBLE 187
ing how much the earth wobbles during its rotation. Astrono-
mers have observed for a long time that the earth is not entirely
uniform in either its direction or its speed of rotation; its axis
wobbles like a top and its speed is also slightly irregular* Small
fluctuations might have been predicted and can easily be ex-
plained. The interesting questions are whether systematic
changes are moving the direction of the axis of rotation about
and whether the earth is speeding up or slowing down.
Everyone knows that a skater spins faster when he hugs his
arms close to his sides than he does when he holds them spread
out. In the same way, shifting of the earth's cargo of water, ice,
and air can cause it also to wobble about on its axis. These
changes in distribution can be brought about by great storms
or by variations in the pattern of persistent winds. Thus, the
speed at which the earth is spinning varies according to
whether the waters on its surface are piled up around the
equator or driven towards the poles. W. A. Munk has suggested
that such changes are also due in part to movements in the
liquid core of the earth.
These effects have long been known. Observations collated
at Naples, Italy, show that the wobbling of the axis causes the
north and south poles to move with an irregular circular mo-
tion about 10 feet in diameter. But we have been observing
this phenomenon for so short a time that no one can yet say
whether the poles are migrating or whether the continents are
drifting. Likewise, the speed varies so much that some days are
one thousandth of a second longer than others, and this can
easily be measured on atomic clocks precise to one part in a
billion. There is also good evidence that the earth is slowing
down. This theory is the result of work on historical records of
old eclipses by an astronomer named J. K. Fotheringham.
Fotheringham searched the old Babylonian records and
from time to time found references such as: "On the twenty-
sixth day of the month of Sibellu in the seventh year, the day
iSS IGY : The Year of the New Moons
was turned to night and there was fire in the midst of heaven/'
From his knowledge of the records he was able to interpret this
to mean: fci On the thirty-first day of July, 1062 B.C., there was a
total eclipse in Bab\lon." Working with modern astronomical
tables, he established the fact that there had indeed been a
total eclipse on July 31, 1062 B.C., but that the narrow path of
totality for that eclipse should not have passed near Babylon.
He found similar discrepancies between calculations and ob-
servations throughout, which he could only explain if the
earth had slowed down by four and a half hours in the past
three thousand years. Inasmuch as there are a great many days
in three thousand years, and since the changes in rate are
cumulative, this discrepancy could also be explained if the
days in each century were on the average only about one
thousandth of a second longer than the days of the preceding
century.
Several of the matters discussed in this chapter are related
to a fundamental question which has not been fully settled.
This is the problem of whether the earth has permanent
strength or not; of whether it behaves like a true solid and
holds its shape indefinitely against applied forces or whether
if these forces are applied for a long time it will flow slowly
like pitch or tallow and adjust itself to them. For short periods
we know the answer. The earth is more rigid than steel. Large
earthquakes make the earth ring like a bell and daily tides in-
dicate a similar rigidity to brief forces, but there is still no
agreement as to whether the earth flows in response to forces
which are applied for thousands and millions of years.
O'Keefe's discovery that the earth is slightly pear-shaped led
him to believe that the maintenance of this shape indicates
permanent strength, but we have seen that other geophysicists
consider the pear shape a relatively temporary deviation caused
by ice loads applied during the recent ice age. The discovery
that the rate of rotation is changing also suggests that the
GRAVITY AND THE EARTH'S WOBBLE 189
earth is capable of flow, for the present shape of the earth is
just what it would be in a fluid body rotating at the earth's
speed. If the earth is able to flow, this is to be expected. But
if the earth is rigid, it is a remarkable occurrence that we should
be living just when its unyielding shape exactly corresponds
to that of a liquid body rotating at the same speed.
A sufficient knowledge of gravity might also help us settle
this problem. If over the whole earth the calculated and ob-
served values agree closely, then the earth is in equilibrium
and has probably flowed slowly to reach adjustment. If, on
the other hand, these values do not agree, then it can be con-
cluded that the earth has not adjusted to its irregularities and
hence probably has permanent strength which enables it to
resist adjustment. The settlement of this question is funda-
mental to an understanding of the causes and nature of
mountain-building. Because the enigma has not been resolved,
there are many theories of mountain-building, each supported
by some evidence and apparently contradicted by other ob-
servations. Some theories have depended upon a strong earth,
others on a plastic one.
By coincidence, another theory which had not been taken
very seriously before was raised during the IGY, It is that the
earth is expanding due to a weakening in the force of gravity.
Astronomers have observed that the distant galaxies are re-
ceding; this is referred to as the expansion of the universe. In
1931 P. A. M. Dirac suggested that this expansion might be
the result of a steady and universal decrease in the attraction
due to gravity. If so, not only would the universe be expanding,
but also the solar system and the earth and indeed everything
in creation. At that time the origin of the universe was widely
believed to have occurred two billion years ago. It was soon
pointed out that the resulting rate of expansion would, a
comparatively short geological period ago, have placed the
earth so much closer to the sun that evidence of the higher
190 IGY : The Year of the New Moons
temperature would be evident in the older rocks. Such evi-
dence was not in fact there. Dirac's speculation was shelved
until 195-% when R. H. Dicke recalled it and pointed out
that the universe is now believed to be far older, that the rate
of expansion need not have been so great, and that the heat-
ing effects would not be noticeable in the geological record.
He also pointed cut that the interior of the earth is greatly
compressed by the weight of overlying material and that any
reduction in gravity would lighten the load of overlying mat-
ter, thus causing the earth to expand. Dicke could think of
no experiment that could be performed in a physics labora-
tory to prove or disprove this hypothesis, so he appealed to
astronomers and earth scientists for help. "It would/' he said,
"be truly remarkable if geology and astronomy could answer
such a fundamental physical question about the gravitational
interaction/'
It had not occurred to many geologists before that the earth
might be expanding, and it is still difficult to see how expan-
sion could push up mountains. But the IGY disclosed the
existence of great cracks in the ocean floor, and B. C. Heezen,
who noticed the cracks, adopted this idea as an explanation
of their existence. He considers that the rate of expansion is
of the right order of magnitude to have produced the cracks.
I shall return to this question again and present evidence
from other fields. However, as yet we have not been able to
solve the problem of the degree of permanent strength of the
earth. No one knows with any certainty how the earth be-
haves, why mountains are uplifted, how continents were
formed, or what causes earthquakes. We know some anatomy
of the earth, but no real physiology. Earth scientists are as
ignorant of their patient as doctors were of theirs before Har-
vey disclosed the circulation of the blood. But earth scientists
are knocking on the doors of discovery; they await the answer.
CHAPTER 17
THE SOVIET UNION
AUGUST 1958
For any nation to have launched a satellite would have beei
a remarkable feat, but it was a particularly great achievemen
for the Russians. One hundred years ago the majority of th<
Soviet people were illiterate serfs, chattels of the czar, of grea
landowners or of independent Oriental khans. Their emer
gence from ignorance, poverty, and defeat during the las
forty-five years has been rugged, and they have not yet attainec
Western standards of freedom. Why were these people back
ward for so long? And how did they so quickly assume a lead
ing place in science, as made manifest to all the world wher
they launched the Sputniks as part of the IGY?
From time immemorial one of the outstanding geographica
features of Eurasia has dictated the history of Russia. This it
the great natural highway which extends across central Asi
and southern Russia, from Mongolia all the way to the gate;
of Europe. This belt of fertile grassland, the steppes, skirfc
the northern flanks of the mountains of central Asia anc
Kazakhstan, sweeps through a passage between the Urals anc
the Caspian Sea, and flows over the great plains of the Ukraine
192 IGY : TheYear of the New Moons
and Romania. It finally ravels out in a tangle of passes through
the Polish marshes and the Carpathian Mountains. From ear-
liest history by this route have come the invaders: Goths,
Huns, Magyars, Turks, Mongols, and Tartars. Not until after
the Tartar Empire of Genghis Khan had finally collapsed were
the scattered nomads of these ravaged plains able to develop
settlements and unite.
To the north of these great steppes vast forests engulfed
and held prisoner isolated pockets of Slavs and Scandinavians.
Slowly and ruthlessly the princes of one city, Moscow, ex-
tended their autocratic domination in spreading rings about
their capital, swallowing one isolated community after an-
other until their dominion stretched over the Urals to the
Bering Sea and across the great southern plains. In 1 884, with
the conquest of the farthest deserts of Turkestan, the great
Russian Empire was complete, stopped from further expan-
sion to the south by mountains and by the armies of British
India, to the west by Germany and Austria, and to the east
by the Chinese in Manchuria. The Russian Empire, which is
now the Soviet Union, is thus a comparatively new country.
This vast land is far from homogeneous, for it incorporates
many varied and restless peoples, including 25,000,000 Mos-
lems. They speak a great variety of languages. They have never
known freedom or democracy. Until this last generation few
could read or write or travel farther than they could walk from
their native village. Their history had been one of unmitigated
horror and misery. It seems fair to say that today the average
Soviet citizen is better educated, freer, and wealthier than
his ancestors ever were. He certainly has better hopes for the
future. For this, two tyrants are chiefly responsible: Peter the
Great and Stalin. Peter introduced European civilization to a
small group of aristocrats and professional men; Stalin intro-
duced it to the Russian masses. He may have killed millions
and been hated by tens of millions, but he was cast in the
THE SOVIET UNION 193
old tradition of the czars who ruthlessly imposed the great-
est and most significant changes upon Russia. The success of
the Soviet revolution was demonstrated to the world by the
launching of Sputnik.
Because of this success, the IGY was acclaimed in the So-
viet Union by government and people alike. Anyone coming,
as I did, in connection with the IGY was free to meet Soviet
scientists and to see their \vork. As a consequence, it was my
good fortune to visit geophysical parties working where the
forest meets the steppes in the oil fields of the Volga plains,
to see earthquake observatories in the Caucasus, to examine
institutes and universities in Peter's City, Petrograd, now re-
named Leningrad, and to attend conferences in Moscow', the
ancient capital, which Stalin restored as the heart and centre
of all the Russias. Finally I left the Soviet Union by the slow
length of the Trans-Siberian Railway. From these various
points of vantage I caught intimate glimpses of both Russian
science and Russian people many of whom struck me as
ebullient, forceful, modern reincarnations of the Horatio Alger
hero.
Soon after my arrival I arranged, through the good offices
of Dr. V. Fedynski, who had visited the Alberta oil fields the
year before, to see a deep-sounding seismic party investigating
the crust of the earth around the Tuimasi oil fields, the largest
in the U.S.S.R. Very, very early on an August morning, in
spite of the assurances of the Canadian Embassy that no
Westerner would be allowed to visit the provinces of Tartaria
and Beskeria, I flew from Moscow with Vladimir Orichenko, a
cheerful and sophisticated technical interpreter, and Michael
Davidchev, a shy engineer. At dawn, as we circled to land at
Kazan, we saw the great Kuibishef Sea, a hydroelectric storage
lake on the Volga River, and the Kazanski Kremlin, an ancient
fortress of the forest edge.
At Ufa, where the foothills of the Urals are still scarcely
194 I G Y : The Year of the Xeiv A loons
perceptible, we landed again to be met by three members of
the Tuimasi Expedition. In the Expedition's two small
YAK-12 planes, fiown by U.S.S.R- Air Force pilots (there is
no other kind of pilot in Russia * , we were taken to the head-
quarters, a collection of wooden buildings on the edge of
Tuirnasi, a new town whose dominant features are brick blocks
of flats, several sprouting refineries, and a lamp-black factory.
For the next four days Urey Goudin, the Communist Stalin
Prize winner, showed Tuzo Wilson, the capitalist professor,
even-thing about his expedition. He told me that he had never
had a non-Russian visitor before, and his attitude suggested
that he regarded me, a representative of capitalism, as axio-
matically an effete and dangerous exploiter of the downtrod-
den. Nevertheless, orders had come sifting down to him from
the upper reaches, and he showed me everything I wished to
see of his party and its work. He was forty-six years old, capa-
ble, and hard-driving. He had been an oil man all his life and
seemed not a little surprised and put out when I told him that
I, a capitalist, had started summer work when I was fifteen
years old two years before he had,
He had 1,100 people, 200 vehicles, and a budget of 20 mil-
lion roubles a year (equal to $5 million at the official rate of
exchange and not less than $2 million in purchasing power.)
These he directed in the investigation of geological formations
of the largest size scores and hundreds of miles across
hidden beneath the plains. Other parties followed to look for
the oil pools themselves. In the winter the whole party moved
south to continue similar researches in the deserts of Turke-
stan. Crustal studies of a like nature were undertaken in many
areas of the world as part of the IGY seismic program.
For four days we travelled by jeep and by plane, visiting
his work parties. From the air we could spot the special ve-
hicles and lines of instruments which made them unmistak-
able. We landed in stubble fields beside several, and I have
THE SOVIET UNION 195
no doubt that the geophysical exploration which we saw was
genuine and unstaged. The most interesting and picturesque
party was one at which we had not intended to land at all
We did so because due to rain and a late start our timetable
had been disrupted, and by evening we were still far from base
and had not had a bite to eat or a drop to drink for twelve
hours. It is possible that Goudin was expecting his capitalist
visitor to collapse, but I was so fascinated at watching his
scientific teams at work that I had not noticed the passing of
time. At seven o'clock we landed to see a part} 7 and took a
swim at the junction of the Belaya and Kama Rivers. After
that Goudin radioed ahead to one of his prospecting parties
that we would land in twenty minutes and wanted supper.
The pilot set down our light plane in a field beside a thresh-
ing machine. Men and women were working together to bring
in the harvest, and a tractor provided the power. Geophysicists
met us with a jeep and drove us a couple of hundred yards
to a camp at the edge of the forest where a party of twenty-
were living in tents. The cook asked whether we wanted our
eggs boiled or fried, and while she cooked them, we looked
at each tent. All had aluminum cots, reasonable bedding, and
in the dining tent were a table and some folding chairs. As
we sat down, I noticed that each place was set with a bowl
and a mug, a big spoon and a small one. We had black
bread, soup made of cabbages, potatoes, and dried meat (there
being no refrigeration), and ate boiled eggs in their shells.
The tea was sweetened with huge lumps of sugar and a syrup
made of boiled wild cherries. The Russians said that they liked
their tea 4< hot, strong, and sweet like kisses/' to which I sug-
gested that they should add the word "often." The cook con-
tinued to protest that she had not had time to prepare a proper
meal, so we had clearly had what was left from the workers'
supper. I would not have minded working in the camp and
indeed, thinking of my own days in the Canadian woods when
196 IGY : The Year of the New Moons
we travelled by canoes, not trucks, I said: "We didn't have
beds in our camps." To this they replied: "But you did not
go prospecting in 1958." I do not think that they have long
had such comforts.
The fine-looking people who inhabit this region are, I was
told, Tartars, descendants of the Golden Horde. "They are
the best workers," said the leader of the expedition. Some had
been trained locally for prospecting. Half were men and the
other half shy, pretty girls who retired into the background
after being introduced. Even-one was in Western dress shirts
and trousers for the men, and slacks or simple dresses for the
girls.
It was peaceful standing at the forest edge after supper and
looking out at the slanting light of the evening sun. The leader
of the Tartars was a stalwart man with almost orange hair,
light blue-green eyes, very red cheeks, and the bull neck and
rather flat upright face we associate with the word "huns."
When I remarked to him on the beauty of the rolling fields
of grain, he replied: "We are not ashamed to admit that this
is our country. All races are equal in the Soviet Union now!"
I felt that his obvious enthusiasm owed nothing to Commu-
nism, but that his feelings were the same as those of the na-
tives of Texas, of Alberta, and of Arabia when the discovery
of oil brought new jobs and new wealth to local people.
During these four days we flew back and forth for 1,000
miles through the heart of the Russian steppes the vast
tract that lies between the Kama River and the Urals. As I
travelled over those endless plains, my first impression was
that the country could have changed but little in the centuries
since it was first settled. The scattered and isolated villages
are all alike: Identical mud roads are lined with little log cabins
with thatched roofs and tiny windows brightened by frames of
painted fretwork. Behind each cabin, enclosed by a picket
fence, is a tiny barn, a chicken yard, a cabbage patch and as
THE SOVIET UNION 197
long a field of potatoes as a man can dig and harvest in the
evenings. The wide and muddy street is the stage on which
the life of the village is played. Children swarm over it all day,
and in the evenings their elders stroll along it or sit and gossip
on the benches before their houses. Thev build their houses
*f
on it. These cabins are fashioned of fir or aspen logs. In the
course of time, as the logs rot and the cabin is in imminent
danger of collapse, a new one is built in the middle of the
village street. One day the old one is knocked down and the
new one shoved into its place.
Each nightfall the life of the village street rises to a crash-
ing crescendo when the small boys return from the uplands
driving the flocks and herds before them. Stampeding down
the street, the cattle come; and glorious chaos reigns until each
animal is sorted out and herded into its proper barn.
As we flew over the plains, I sa\v the little villages edging
the streams, and between them the flat uplands marked out in
fields of wheat and rye, oats and barley, and occasionally corn
and sunflowers. In the south on the Orenburg steppe are broad
stretches of wheat country like our own prairies. Farther north
the ground is wooded. The villages are surrounded by dense
forest, a great, green carpet only occasionally marred by a
clearing, like a moth hole, each with its wood-cutter's cottage
surrounded by neat piles of cord wood. All this we saw, hour
after hour, in unending repetition. I watched the geese rear
up and flap their wings, saw the sparrows whirl from the
threshing floor, waved at the little boys swimming in the river,
and marked the lone thatcher harvesting his reeds in the
swamp. I watched the sheep and goats stampede amongst
the unconcerned cattle beneath the shadow of our plane.
A question that greatly interested me was how far the Rus-
sian form of Western industrial revolution had affected the
villages of the steppes. First and most striking is the fact that
every field I passed gave evidence that the whole task of plow-
198 I G Y : The Year of the New Moons
ing, harvesting, and seeding had been mechanized. I saw
hundreds of tractors working in the giant fields. I counted
thirty-eight in one half-hour, but I did not see a single plow or
combine drawn by horses. In only three cases did I see men
reaping by hand and all were in odd corners, river banks for in-
stance, where tractors could not penetrate. Horse-drawn carts
Were used for drawing crops and for family transport, but there
were also many large farm trucks. There were no private cars,
but a few bicycles and motorcycles.
The recent abolition of the State tractor stations was men-
tioned two or three times and was evidently regarded as im-
portant. I gathered that it was not only a sign of an increasing
liberal attitude on the part of the Government but also a
sign that there were plenty of tractors and that all farmers
were accustomed to their use. The tractors were rather rough-
looking, but they pulled a span of five plows through the rich
black soil without any trouble.
The second thing I noticed was the widespread rural elec-
trification in these remote plains. At least half the villages
we passed were reached by rows of wooden poles carrying a
three-wire electric system very far from the power houses on
the Volga and the main steel transmission lines. The elec-
tricity was carried down each street on poles, and we were
often low enough to discern the two wires leading from the
poles into the tiny thatched cabins. It is true that by our stand-
ards the power was limited, with only one street light for a
whole street and only a bare bulb in each room, but it was
an enormous advance over candles, and it meant power in the
barns and in village workshops. The harnessing of the Volga
had brought comfort to the people of these remote villages
as well as power to industry.
The third thing I noticed was the change in housing. The
smallest and most remote villages had scarcely been affected;
the cabins in those places had not changed much in style.
THE SOVIET UNION 199
But in the larger villages and especially near towns tar paper
and metal roofs were replacing the thatch and bark of old.
Perhaps a third of the cottages had modern roofs and a few
in the most prosperous villages were brick. More conspicuous
in every large settlement were the new sheds in the shape of
an H or a T, which I supposed were for cattle owned by the
State. In most cases these sheds supplemented older thatched
sheds.
In the larger villages there were also schools or halls and
occasionally a church- As far as I could make out, many of
the latter were abandoned; some may have been continuing
with a much reduced activity. One we passed on the ground
was a ruin. I remarked on this, and my companion replied:
"Of course, what would you expect?" But he did add: "A few
are now being restored/ 7 and this was indeed true.
Outside the villages were cemeteries in which the graves
were individually fenced in the Russian fashion; some were
painted blue and some had crosses on them. More had plain
tombstones; the choice was apparently optional. I also saw this
mixture in a cemetery outside Moscow, but there the most
ardent party members had added grave markers shaped like
obelisks, surmounted by a vertical pointer and star the whole
painted bright scarlet. They certainly brighten up a graveyard.
I avoided getting into discussions about such controversial
subjects as politics, religion, and economics, and so did not
discuss the organization of life in the country, but from what
I could see the villages were where they had always been,
neither growing nor diminishing very much. The towns and
cities had grown enormously, but in the villages the difference
was one of organization. What had been called a village
was now a collective farm with a different arrangement of
ownership and payments.
The unending procession of villages on the seemingly in-
finite plain appeared to explain a great deal about Russia, for
2oo I G Y : The Year of the Xeiv Moons
suddenly I realized that most of the people governing the
U.S.S.R. today must have grown up in such surrounding as
this. I thought that their isolation had much to do with their
suspicion; their poverty with their toughness; and their hard-
ship with their crudity. For centuries these villagers had little
to thank the world for. Until 1861 they had been landless
serfs. Governments were represented only by tax collectors.
Shops and industry had scarcely existed for them. Foreign af-
fairs meant but the recruiting and often the loss of their men
at war. The nobility and the wealthy were envied and hated
where they were known, but in these remote plains the owners
of great estates and their castles were as scarce as they are in
Saskatchewan. The Church gave solace to the aged, but it
failed to educate the young or to mitigate the hardships of
life on this earth.
We in the West have been so horrified by the many excesses
of the revolution and so often frightened by the threats to
peace made by its leaders that we do not realize that the
revolution was essentially a Western movement. Its creed was
written by a German living in England; Marx never visited
Russia. In 1917 its first leader, Lenin, was brought back to
Russia by the Germans from years in exile. His aim was a com-
plete industrial and political revolution along lines developed
in the West but going much further. As we passed the hydro-
electric developments, my colleagues recited Lenin's creed in
his own words: "Soviet power is socialism plus electrification
of the Russian State." In Russia today this desire for Western
ways is apparent everywhere. It is a sincere compliment to us,
if a wry and undesired one.
The Western influence is not the only non-Russian one in
the Soviet Union. Anyone who has seen the Moisiev Folk
Dancers is aware that there are Soviet people other than Rus-
sians. Indeed the performances which I have seen of the Moi-
siev, Romanian, and Chinese folk dance troupes suggest that
THE SOVIET UNION 201
no Russians, Romanians, or Chinese ever dance, only Byelo-
russians, Ukrainians, Poles, Uzbeks, Moldavians, Bessarabians,
Bulgars, Tartars, Mongols, Tibetans, and other border folk.
It seems probable that the directors of all these troupes have
been trained in the same school for the same propaganda pur-
poses.
Not only does one see these national minorities on the stage,
but one meets them when travelling; and I discovered how
strongly these people feel when I flew from Moscow for a
week-end to Tiflis, capital of the Georgian Republic, now mag-
nanimously enough called by its Georgian name, Tbilisi. I
had not been there five minutes when the Georgians made it
quite clear even through the filter of a Russian Intourist in-
terpreter that they were not Russians, never had been Rus-
sians, and did not like to be mistaken for Russians. With con-
siderable hauteur they explained that the Georgian kingdom
had been founded six centuries before Russia existed, that
they had been converted to Christianity and had developed
a written language with its own exotic alphabet five centuries
before the Russians had become acquainted with either, and
that they had only joined Russia a hundred and fifty years
ago to save themselves from the Persians.
I went to Georgia because I had been baulked in an attempt
to go to Samarkhand and Bokhara. Intourist had told me flatly
that because of the crisis which then existed in Jordan and
Lebanon all of Turkestan was closed except for Tashkent and
that it would be quite impossible for me to go to Samarkhand.
I gathered that Tashkent had little historic interest and less
charm, and was not a place the discriminating traveller
would choose to spend a week-end. I had, therefore, settled
for Georgia. The week-end in Georgia came in a neat de luxe
package at $30 a day, which included an interpreter and a car
to drive up into the Caucasus* It was a very rewarding $6o*s
worth.
I G Y : The Year of the New Moons
a Friday morning early in August my interpreter drove
; to Moscow airport and dutifully stood waving until the
J-104 took off. She had been instructed to see me safely on
r way to Georgia, and her mission could not be considered
:ornplished until I was airborne.
Fhe interior of the jet had all the stuffed opulence and com-
t of a Victorian Pullman car, and my travelling compan-
i$, to judge from the script of the newspapers they were
ding, were almost all Georgians. They are an exceptionally
idsome people: the women tall, serene, and dark; the men
h a fine, swashbuckling air, well fitted to be the prototypes
:he Caucasian race.
Until we reached the Caucasus the land was but an unre-
rkable pattern of hazy green and yellow squares cut by
sams, so I gave my undivided attention to my lunch:
iar and biscuits, chicken with tomatoes and rice, wine,
ndy, and tea. The meal took on the element of the Mad
i Party when the woman sitting across the aisle from me
;hed her finger tips in the dregs of her tea.
Two hours and 1,100 miles later I looked down from 33,000
t on the great peaks of Elbruz and Kasbek, the tallest
un tains of Europe, 18,000 feet of craggy magnificence,
rhe descent to the airfield at Tiflis was hair-raising, a suc-
>ion of tilted glimpses of wild chasms and inhospitable
sides that appeared through breaks in the great thunder-
ds that puffed and mounded all around us. Eventually, the
>t found a hole in the clouds that suited him and down we
it to slam to a stop with smoking tires at the exact end of
indersized concrete runway.
leveral seismologists, one of whom had been at the Toronto
stings, met me with an Intourist car and interpreter, and
rther we toured the sights of the town: various old forts
ancient churches, a university with large new dormitories,
jampagne factory, and a fine amusement park reached by
THE SOVIET UNION 203
an ancient funicular railway. All the churches there, unlike
those in Moscow, were full of people morning, afternoon, and
night. They were not shy in showing their devotion but got
down on their knees and waved their arms in exhortation be-
fore silver ikons and elaborate altars. Alone in the evening
I sought out the academy at which Stalin had trained for the
priesthood. It slightly resembles a Greek temple and is now
a museum devoted to Stalin's life. Many of the men in Tbilisi
wore Georgian jackets cut in the style worn by Stalin, but ev-
eryone else was in drab, Western dress, except a few Kurdish
women dressed in yellow, orange, scarlet, or pale-green skirts
and blouses. With scarves in their hair and many bangles, they
looked like gypsies strayed from some opera.
My hotel, in which I had been granted a suite, was like
a Moorish palace with poor plumbing, but the restaurant was
excellent, with good food and wine. The atmosphere was bois-
terous and the company lively; corks popped, toasts rang out,
and waiters streaked through the room with meat sizzling on
skewers, filling the air with smoke and the smell of good food.
On my first appearance in the dining room, I was hailed with
delight by an ancient man who still had some remnants of
English left to him from a trip he had made many years before
to the United States. He dragged me over to his table to have
a drink. His companions, brawny, uninhibited types with
gargantuan appetites, did not share my new-found friend's en-
thusiasm for me and one stormily refused to drink with me.
I eased gently away and promptly became involved with a
company every bit as intriguing as the one I had just left. It
was a group of Americans, led by an earnest old gentleman
who told me that he was a close personal friend of John Foster
Dulles and that he was leading a peace mission through Rus-
sia. I found this a very entertaining idea and suggested that
we should drink to the success of their mission. They were
politely shocked when I offered them a glass of wine and,
204 I G Y : The Year of the New Moons
like the Georgians before them., refused to drink with me. I re-
gretted that to make the best use of my stay in Georgia and
to enjoy the excellent red Haranschara, I had to become a
solitary drinker.
Sadly I retreated upstairs to the Moorish splendour of my
suite. I pulled back the faded velvet curtains from the tall win-
dows of my sitting room and looked by moonlight into the
gardens and the graveyard of the cathedral set with cypresses
and hibiscus plants. Whatever my lack of appeal as a drinking
companion, at least I could take comfort from the thought
that my rebuffs had taken place in a corner of the world I
had long hoped to see. Southward over the mountains of Ar-
menia and Ararat lay Persia; to the west, past the orange
groves of the Circassian shore, lay Byzantium; while eastward,
past the oil fields of Baku and the Caspian Sea, were the fabled
cities of Turkestan.
My nostalgia was for the romantic Orient described by the
adventurers who had opened it to Western eyes stories which
glossed over the cruelty, the disease, the poverty, and the stag-
nation of those lands. The inhabitants, whose experience was
more bitter, looked on Western progress as a dream. Now
awakened, they were pursuing this dream. They gratefully fol-
lowed Communism, not for its ideology, but for the lead it had
given them and for the path it promised, through science, to
a better life.
Next morning, when the geophysicists of the Georgian
Academy of Science took me to see their library, their seismo-
graphs, and their maps, and discussed with me their work on
drought and irrigation, we felt for a time that we were follow-
ing the same path. For the moment it did not matter that
we came from different beginnings and were pursuing different
ends.
The building in which the Academy was housed was new
but already beginning to show signs of disintegration, for the
THE SOVIET UNION 205
parquet floor had shrunk, the railings were loose, and the con-
crete poor; on the other hand, the instruments were ade-
quate and the library and the scientific work excellent. On fine
maps of the region they had plotted the locations of all the
many earthquakes, and they followed the changing centres of
seismic activity with care. They knew that earthquakes occur
more frequently at some places than at others, and they had
discovered that the locations at which earthquakes occur most
frequently move about. Recently the worst areas had been
Socchi, Mount Ararat, and a line along the Caucasus Moun-
tains. All this they duly reported to the World Data Centre in
Moscow for international exchange.
The library, as I said, was excellent, and I noticed Nature,
Proceedings of the Royal Society, American Journal of Science,
Annales de Geophysique and many other well-known Western
journals. Their own publications were printed in both Russian
and Georgian. I admired the handsome antique script of the
latter so much that they gave me copies of each edition.
At noon when I returned to the director's office to make my
formal farewells, a sight confronted me such as I have never
seen before in a geophysical laboratory. A table was spread
with bowls of peaches, plums, pears, nectarines, apricots, and
great bunches of grapes, and bottles of champagne and
brandy. We sat down and toasted one another, our countries,
our friends, and our work with the greatest gaiety and en-
thusiasm, nor would they let me leave until I had sampled
every one of their delicious local fruits and much of their ex-
cellent wine* Their system beats coffee breaks.
With my three attendant seismologists and the interpreter,
I climbed heavily into the car, supplied with my de luxe ticket,
and rolled off toward the Caucasus Mountains. For many years
there has been a military highway that stretches across the
heart of the mountains between Tbilisi and Ordjonikidze, and
we drove up this road to the pass. Overcome by the unac-
206 I G Y : The Year of the New Moons
customed laboratory supplies, I slept peacefully for an hour
and did not waken until we reached Mtskheta, the ancient
capital of Georgia. According to tradition this city, now only
a small town nestling at the foot of the hills, takes its name
from a grandson of a great-grandson of Noah. Mount Ararat,
suitably enough, lies 200 miles to the south. Certainly it is a
very old town, for it was known to Alexander the Great, Pom-
pey, Trajan, and many other invaders who at one time or other
conquered the country.
We went through the cathedral, first built in A.D. 330 when
the Georgians were converted to Christianity. Its fortified
walls bear evidence of its long history of invasion, for they
show signs of repeated damage and rebuilding. A few artisans
were rather casually cleaning off the plaster and restoring the
ancient frescoes and mosaics in the interior.
We continued on our way up the narrow fertile valleys to
the bare slopes of the mountains, the country becoming in-
creasingly more rugged and beautiful as we climbed. Alongside
the road ran a telegraph line which, they told me, was the old
line that once linked Britain with India. Our way wound up
through little villages entirely built of stone and tile, with here
and there an ancient watch-tower. The fine, handsome resi-
dents were diligent but unhurried; the old men stopped work-
ing on the roads to watch us pass, and the handsome girls set
down loads of hay and faggots that they were carrying on
their backs down the mountain and tossed free their thick
black braids of hair.
We stopped for supper in one of the villages. On the out-
skirts a group of children were encamped, Young Communist
Pioneers, the Soviet equivalent of Boy Scouts. The inn and
its ivied porch were crowded with local people, but we sat in
a pavilion in the garden and dined surrounded by the sight
and fragrance of flowers and blue wood-smoke drifting up the
sunset hillside. It was a festive ending to my week-end in
THE SOVIET UNION 207
Georgia. We started with sliced tomatoes covered with fresh
mint, parsley, onions, peppers, and herbs, and a cool drink
made of tangerines; then hot bread in flat slabs, thick and
crusty from a stone oven and spread with salty goat's cheese
instead of butter; next, mutton soup with tomatoes, spices,
and rice from Azerbaijan, washed down with white Tetra
wine. After a pause the cook came running through the inn
door and across the court, brandishing smoking fillets of veal
on two long skewers. The next time he appeared he bore a
great platter of broiled chickens, surrounded by potatoes and
cucumbers and more wine, a sweet red KinsmarhulL The feast
ended with a compote of stewed cherries and plums and cups
of black Turkish coffee.
Early next morning I flew back to Moscow, well content
with my trip. I had met a charming and individual people
and seen the beauty of their country. My brief examination of
their rugged and magnificent mountains had confirmed my
own belief that the Caucasus, like the Carpathians and the
Rockies, are made predominantly of sedimentary rocks and
thus differed fundamentally from the Apennines or the Sierra
Nevada, which are composed of volcanic and plutonic rocks.
The Caucasus had their birth in the ocean, the Apennines
and the Sierra Nevada in the heat of the earth's interior. Such
volcanism as there has been in the Caucasus is incidental.
During another break in the Moscow meetings, I went to
see Leningrad. Several kind Moscow geophysicists escorted me
to the Red Arrow Express. They boarded the train and saw
me safely ensconced in a comfortable two-berth sleeping car.
As there was plenty of time, I asked them to sit down, and
they gladly helped me polish off my remaining Scotch whiskey.
As the train pulled out, they left me in the capable hands of
interpreter Orichenko and an engineer. The porteress on our
car brought us caviar sandwiches. These finished, we slept
peacefully in this, the crack Russian express. For those not
208 IGY : The Year of the New Moons
familiar with the colour of the Soviet scene, I might remark
that the Red Arrow is the only blue train in the U.S.S.R.; the
others are green.
More geophysicists met me in Leningrad with a Zim car,
and after installing me in the old Astoria Hotel, insisted
that we tour the city before seeing any institutes. This was
not because they were holding back, for later I had long for-
mal tours of institutes, but because Leningradians love their
city. It was founded by Peter the Great. Peter was a giant in
stature, 6 feet 7 inches tall and possessed of demonic energy.
When he came to the throne, Russia was a backward and semi-
Asiatic autocracy. Forty years later when he died his kingdom
was even more surely an autocracy, but the elements of West-
ern education, industry, and military strength had been intro-
duced. He had broken the power of the orthodox church and
made it subservient to the czars.
In 1702 this formidable man captured the coast of the
Gulf of Finland from the Swedes and started the building
of this western European city. With his own hands he built a
hut and a rowboat with which to explore the delta of the Neva
and choose the sites for his city, for his shipyards, and for the
great fortress of St. Peter and St. Paul. Proudly they showed
me all these and many other relics of Peter which are venerated
and carefully preserved today. Although the name of the city
has been changed to Leningrad, it is still the city of Peter
and the czars to its inhabitants. The scientists often used the
czarist names for bridges and parks rather than the new and
colourless revolutionary names.
It is indeed a beautiful city, built like Paris on the banks of
a river, in much the same grand style, at the same time, and
by many of the same western European architects. The in-
habitants' affection for the city does not stem from enthu-
siasm for the great writers and revolutionaries who fought the
czars in the last century. They were scarcely mentioned. Nor
THE SOVIET UNION 209
is it associated with the Great October Revolution of 1917
of which Leningrad was the scene. True, the Aurora was
pointed out to me as the cruiser from which the first shot was
fired, but I was not taken aboard. We visited the Smolni
School for Daughters of the Nobility, in which Lenin had de-
clared the revolution. They pointed out the Kirov factory, in
which he was shot, and we watched the naval vessels moored
in the river and dressed with flags to celebrate Red Navy Day.
All these struck me as casual references to local sights of no
more intrinsic interest than the occasional battle scars from
the German siege. What fascinated the Russian mind were
the great monuments left by the later czars during the two
centuries of autocratic tyranny when they tried the impossible
feat of changing Russia to a Western state while retaining a
completely dictatorial form of government over an enslaved
population.
The whole mockery was exemplified by Peter's fortress in
the Neva River. Two tremendous walls, one within the other,
ring a whole island and enclose a rough greensward on which
stand the golden-spired cathedral, the Russian mint, and a
blacksmith's shop. In the cathedral are buried Peter and his
successors. In the mint they still coin money. In the black-
smith's shop political prisoners of the czars were manacled
for transportation to Siberia. The walls of the fortress are lined
with cells. These three buildings mark the keys to czarist
control: a subservient church, ruinous taxation, and brutal op-
pression.
The gates to the fortress and the doors to the prisons have
been symbolically removed, but all else has been refurbished,
gilded, and put on display for tourists.
Sunday we devoted to the Peterhof, summer palace of the
czars, founded beside the Baltic Sea by Peter, captured and
destroyed in 1942 by the Germans, but now completely rebuilt
in replica of the original plans of Le Blanc. My colleagues in-
210 IGY : The Year of the New Moons
troduced me to the chief engineer who described the plumbing
of the 129 fountains which he had just finished rebuilding. He
mentioned that 160 pounds of pure gold had been used to gild
the hundreds of statues in the gardens. The rebuilding of such
a palace had nothing to do with Communist doctrine. It
was pure nationalism.
We toured the Winter Palace, designed by Rastrelli for
Peter's daughter, the Empress Elizabeth. It is now a museum
of the czars, full of their relics and particularly the relics of
Peter: his tools, clothes, maps, and the mechanical gadgets
in which he revelled.
We saw the moated Micaelovski Palace, built as a safeguard
by the Emperor Paul when he feared revolt. His fear was in-
deed justified because he was strangled in the palace a week
after its completion in 1801. His executioners were his per-
sonal Semenovsky guards, the governor of his palace, and his
own son, Alexander I.
We spent an all-too-brief afternoon in I/Hermitage, gen-
erally acknowledged to be the greatest collection of Western
art in the world. I marvelled at the gallery of thirty-six Rem-
brandts, the little-known Leonardos, the many rooms each
devoted to one of the greatest French, Flemish, or Italian mas-
ters. I discovered that my hosts, although scientists, not
guides, were thoroughly familiar with many of the paintings
and their artists. L'Hermitage was built a century ago by
Nicolas I, successor to Alexander and inaugurator of the for-
mal police state in Russia.
Pent-up antagonism against the czars exploded in the bomb
which in 1881 killed his son, Alexander II. "The Cathedral
Built on Blood" now marks the spot of the assassination. Its
sombre bulk, topped by multi-coloured bulbous domes, blocks
what had once been a main street as effectively as horror at
the murder blocked any chance of reform.
After I had seen these palaces, after I had been taken to
THE SOVIET UNION 211
one terminus of the subway and had had to get out to admire
every one of the ten stations before being picked up again at
the other end, and after I had been scolded by an old woman
gardener for walking on the grass to take photographs of a
well-kept park, I began to appreciate the affection the people
of Leningrad have for their city. I found myself stopping to
pick up a cigarette butt I had carelessly thrown away on the
sidewalk.
The institutes were very proud of their old czarist tradition,
but even more so of the progress they had made. As the di-
rector of the All-Union Geological Institute pointed out to me
during the six hours I spent with him: "This is the old Geo-
logical Survey of Russia founded in the last century, and our
headquarters are still in the original building. Of course, we
have expanded a great deal. Whereas there were one hundred
geologists, there are now ten thousand in Russia; or counting
hydrogeologists and geophysicists, twenty-two thousand."
I visited several of these institutes. They were engaged in
training young geologists to prospect for oil in Siberia or for
metals in European Russia, to develop new techniques, and
so on. Their buildings were rather shabby, but their equipment
was adequate and their libraries splendid, all catalogued in two
alphabets, roman and Cyrillic. These shabby buildings were
crowded with a bright and eager lot of students, and always
there were anywhere from four to twenty scientists to show
me the laboratories and discuss their work. At the Arctic In-
stitute I talked with P. A. Gordienko, G. M. Nikolski, and
Ya. Ya. Hakkel, all of whom had been recently in the Antarc-
tic or the Arctic. They told me of the latest findings by the
stations drifting in the Arctic Sea, of the discoveries by the
research ship Ob between Greenland and Spitsbergen and
their interpretation of the geology of the ocean floor based on
soundings.
In all these institutes the scientists were very generous with
212 IGY : The Year of the New Moons
their time. Many showed me their work and went to great
pains to explain it. Mine Deminitskaya, for example, had been
considering the geology of the whole earth at once. She had
made maps and sections of the crust so as to study it in three
dimensions to a depth of 50 miles. I found her studies of some
fundamental aspects of geology very exciting. She had brought
her own translator, of whom she was very proud her sixteen-
year-old son, kept out of school for the day. He had great
ability and translated our technical conversation fluently both
ways. In Russia some pupils are much better taught than oth-
ers, for the children I was shortly to meet on the Trans-Siberian
Railway had no such abilities, or at least did not show them.
The Soviet scientists were as enthusiastic about developing
their vast country and as excited about scientific discovery as
are North Americans. Being well treated in material ways and
much better off than they had ever been before, and having
a strong and successful government which satisfied their na-
tional pride, they were content.
In only two respects did they seem to be at any great disad-
vantage, but both were vital. Since, in effect, they all worked
for the same state monopoly, they were frightened of doing
the wrong thing, afraid of the boss, and inclined to be secre-
tive and cautious, contrary to their natural impetuosity and
warmth. Also, their studies of the earth had given them a great
curiosity about other lands, which the state would rarely per-
mit them to satisfy. It was difficult for them to get an internal
passport to travel within the Soviet Union and virtually im-
possible to get permission to travel outside unless they were
bolstered with the excuse of an international meeting or an
invitation to lecture. For such opportunities some of them
asked my help.
The Soviet State may be likened to an adolescent. From
the point of view of older and more mature nations, it is
sloppy in appearance, secretive in behaviour, unpredictable,
THE SOVIET UNION 213
sensitive, and brash. It is also inclined to show off, which is
annoying when, on occasion, it happens to be right. But we
must remember that the Soviet Union is experiencing the
jubilation of youth, the satisfaction of newly won prosperity,
the sense of importance, and the enjoyment of relative free-
dom, while to other members of its bloc it has the appeal of
a cocky leader. Fortunately, even as it flexes its muscles, the
Soviet Union shows signs of a growing maturity; and nothing
is better calculated to hasten a more co-operative and cautious
attitude than the emergence of an even more populous rival in
the east.
CHAPTER 18
EARTHQUAKES
The study of earthquakes is called seismology. This is another
subject which has been stimulated by military developments
since the instruments which detect earthquakes can, under
favourable circumstances, also detect large explosions. Great
efforts are therefore being made to improve the sensitivity of
the instruments and the methods of interpreting the results
so that shocks caused by earthquakes and shocks caused by
man-made explosions can be differentiated.
Of all the vibrations which shake the earth, the largest
and the most numerous are earthquakes, but volcanic erup-
tions, large explosions, storms, and winds can also cause char-
acteristic, if minor, disturbances.
The earth is not immobile. Cracks, or faults, form in its
upper parts. The slipping motion of one side of a fault relative
to the other gives rise to an earthquake. Whenever a slip hap-
pens, the ground is shaken and waves of vibration spread
outwards and downwards in all directions. A single slip may
move as much as 50 feet and cause tremendous havoc in the
surrounding countryside. If the focus of the earthquake is deep
EARTHQUAKES 215
within the earth, it will be less noticeable. Every year thou-
sands of earthquakes shake the whole earth. The great majority
are imperceptible and can only be recorded with instruments
called seismographs. All those of any consequence are now re-
corded.
Ideally, a seismograph should not rest on the ground, but
should be set in space ready to record the passage of vi-
brations beneath it. This is not practical, so the principle of
inertia is employed.
Anyone who has ever been swinging on an old farm gate
when others have shaken the fence will recall that the gate
does not at once respond to the movements of the fence.
Seismographs use this principle. A pen or electrical recorder
is attached to a large weight suspended like a gate, or deli-
cately balanced on springs. When the ground starts to move,
the weight does not respond quickly and the pen can trace
a graph of the movement of the earth.
When seismographs were first invented, it was discovered
that pulses were produced not only by waves coming directly
from the earthquake but also by other waves, which have
bounced around and been reflected inside the earth. For ex-
ample, fifteen minutes after an earthquake occurs in Japan, the
first direct wave may be recorded in California, but after
twenty-five minutes another pulse may be produced by a wave
which has gone from Japan to the core of the earth and been
reflected back from there to California. Thus, seismograph
records contain many pulses, large and small, set against a
background of irrelevant noises due to wind, waves, and hu-
man disturbances such as traffic. It is the task of the seismolo-
gist to pick out the pulses from the noise. By studying records
obtained at many places from many earthquakes, seismolo-
gists have been able to interpret the significance of the suc-
cessive pulses and piece together the results to add to our
216 I G Y : The Year of the New Moons
knowledge of the nature of the earth's interior. In this manner
the thickness of the crust has been measured and the depth to
the hot, liquid core has been determined.
Like gravity, seismology was a rather marginal activity of
the IGY. There were several reasons for this. In the first place,
unlike the weather, severe earthquakes are not a universal
complaint. They are of crucial interest only in regions that
suffer from them, and large ones occur infrequently and in a
scattered fashion. In the second place, there already existed
a world-wide network of six hundred seismological stations re-
cording continuously; they already sent their reports regularly
to Cambridge and Strasbourg, and they were simply requested
to make special efforts to submit complete reports punctually
to the World Data Centres in Washington, Moscow, and
Strasbourg. To simplify and speed these reports, a special tele-
graphic code, "Seismo," was developed and published. To sup-
plement the information from existing stations, new stations
were established in out-of-the-way places, especially in Ant-
arctica and the Arctic. All countries were asked to undertake
any special programs they could to measure the thickness and
nature of the crust and to investigate the effect of wind and
storms, which at stations near the sea produce continuous
small vibrations known as microseisms. These are disliked by
seismologists because they hide the pulses due to small earth-
quakes. In Patagonia microseisms are so severe and continuous
that a seismological station opened at Punta Arenas by the
Chileans was closed when it was found to record microseisms
nearly all the time.
On the other hand, microseisms may be useful in meteorol-
ogy, as J. MacDowall suggests in this report: "At Halley Bay,
Antarctica, microseisms were only active during three summer
months, particularly during on-shore winds. It was therefore
concluded that the microseisms originated at the ice front and
EARTHQUAKES 217
that the cover of sea ice damped out this movement for three
quarters of the year and stifled microseismic activity/'
Crustal investigations are by their nature local, and ordinary
explosive charges can be used to supplement the records ob-
tained from earthquakes and speed the investigations.
It was on such work that the Tuimasi expedition was em-
ployed when I visited it on the Volga plains. By firing ex-
plosives at some camps and recording the echoes at other dis-
tant ones, they were plotting the echoes received from deep
within the earth's crust and upper mantle to depths of 60
miles. Other countries were engaged in similar investigations.
Parties from the Carnegie Institution of Washington co-
operated with local scientists in investigating the Colorado
plateau and the Andes in Bolivia, Chile, and Peru. The re-
moval by blasting of Ripple Rock, an obstruction to naviga-
tion between the mainland of British Columbia and Van-
couver Island, was recorded across the Rocky Mountains
by Canadian Government parties and in Alberta by oil-
company parties. Three large explosions of between 50 and
100 tons each were fired during construction of hydroelectric
projects in the Snowy Mountains of Australia. Records ob-
tained at distances as great as 200 miles were interpreted to
mean that the crust was 23 miles thick in that region. New
Zealand seismologists were very active, using explosions to
measure crustal thicknesses in their islands and using natural
earthquake waves to estimate crustal thicknesses in Antarctica.
They concluded that the larger, or eastern part, of Antarctica
was a true continent and not just an archipelago.
American parties measured the thickness of the layers be-
neath the ocean floors in the Pacific and Atlantic, and with
the help of Argentine, Brazilian, and Chilean vessels ex-
plored the Scotia Sea, Drake Passage, and the coastal seas of
South America. American and British parties co-operated in
2i 8 IGY : The Year of the New Moons
coastal studies in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. French
and Italian parties worked in the Mediterranean. Russian par-
ties explored the floors of the sea of Ockotsk and the Kurile
Trench.
It is now well established that the crust of continents varies
in thickness between 20 and 40 miles, but that beneath the
oceans the crust is onlv about 3 miles thick. The crust is com-
*
posed of rocks with which we are familiar. They are lighter
than those of the solid mantle beneath.
In the closing years of the last century John Milne started
the first world-wide network of seismological stations by writ-
ing privately to friends all over the world. During the IGY seis-
mologists relied for most of their data upon the great network
of six hundred stations which had subsequently developed, but
they became very conscious of its limitations. The operators of
these stations had installed whatever instruments they had
been able to make, buy 7 or borrow, with the result that there
was a remarkable diversity of types. Obviously it would be of
great advantage to have a uniform network of modern instru-
ments, both to find out more about the inside of the earth and
to enable even small nuclear explosions to be detected. There
was not time during the IGY to introduce a complete new net-
work nor even to agree upon the most suitable instruments to
use, but some progress was made.
Maurice Ewing of Columbia University installed his own
sets of uniform seismographs at twenty stations scattered
about the world, and the Communist countries had already
settled upon two standard designs that they installed at all
their stations. The ingenious proposal was made that seismo-
graphs of special design should be placed on the sea floor. At
present they are habitually installed in underground vaults to
protect them from the noise of buffeting winds and the rumble
of traffic, but the deepest vault cannot duplicate the quiet of
the cold, still depths of the sea. The problem of an economical
EARTHQUAKES 219
method of recovering records from the sea floor has still to be
perfected.
Also under active consideration was the replacement of the
old method of visual examination and measurement of records
with some technique involving the use of computers to exam-
ine the records more quickly and efficiently.
Inherent in all these proposals were two questions: who
would pay for the new and expensive installations, and would
the world's seismological network by international agreement
also form part of a system for detecting nuclear explosions.
Thus, the close of the IGY saw unprecedented activity and
interest in new methods for seismology; a start had even been
made on the design of lunar seismographs to be placed on the
moon by rockets. Old fashioned as the existing system of seis-
mographs now appears, it has nevertheless disclosed a great
deal of useful information about the earth's interior and it has
shown that most of the world's greatest earthquakes occur
along one of two very definite zones. The chief of these, which
has been called the continental fracture system, lies in the
shape of an inverted T folded about the earth. The stem encir-
cles the Pacific Ocean from Antarctica to Indonesia through
the Andes, the Cordillera of North America,, and East Asia.
The cross of the T extends from the Alpine mountains of the
Mediterranean through the Himalayas, Indonesia, and the
Melanesian Islands to New Zealand. The system is scalloped
into a series of great arcs of which the Aleutian Islands, Japan,
and the Himalayas are examples. The earthquakes lie at
depths of up to 450 miles on downward extensions of these
arcuate fractures. Along this system are also found most of the
world's greatest volcanoes. Most of them are composed largely
of a rock called andesite after the Andes Mountains. It is gen-
erally agreed that volcanoes are fed by lava rising along these
faults. Faults and earthquakes show that the earth to at least
the depth of the deepest earthquakes breaks in a brittle way.
220 I G Y : The Year of the New Moons
The only way to harmonize this behaviour with flow in the
mantle is to suppose that pressures producing earthquakes
build up much quicker than those producing flow, and that
like pitch or ice the earth fractures under rapid forces but flows
under the pressure of slower ones.
During the IGY several nations took the opportunity to re-
fine their knowledge of the distribution of earthquakes. Maps
were prepared of Ecuador, Colombia, and Mexico, for exam-
ple, showing the location of all known earthquakes and of
large faults. These maps suggest which regions future earth-
quakes are most likely to affect.
In the course of American preparations for the IGY, Mau-
rice Ewing and Bruce C. Heezen made the remarkable discov-
er}' that another continuous major belt of earthquakes and
volcanoes exists under the sea, and that these are associated
with a great submarine ridge. Some parts of the ridge, like Ice-
land, the Azores, the Carlsberg ridge in the Indian Ocean, and
the Hawaiian Islands, had been known for a long time, and
had been recognized to be seismically active. But no one had
realized that they are all part of the same system and that it
constitutes the greatest mountain range on earth. The tracing
of this vast system was diligently pursued, and the discovery
that it is continuous was one of the most notable achievements
of the IGY.
The mid-ocean ridge lies in the centre of the oceans midway
between continents* The main ridge extends from the Arctic
Sea right down the Atlantic Ocean and south of Africa into
the Indian Ocean, thence south of Australia into the Pacific,
where it forms several branches. This mid-ocean fracture sys-
tem is different from the continental system. The lavas of its
volcanoes are basalts and have a different chemical composi-
tion, with more iron and magnesium and less silicon than the
andesites of the continental fracture system. Earthquakes
along the mid-ocean ridge occur to depths only one tenth as
222 I G Y : The Year of the New Moons
great as on the continental margin, for they are never deeper
than 45 miles. There are no scalloped island arcs like the Aleu-
tians or Japan. The discovery of this second great fracture sys-
tem has given impetus to the search for the cause of volcanism,
earthquakes, and the building of mountains.
It was not part of the program of the IGY to try to formulate
new theories for the behaviour of the solid earth, but the work
done during the IGY made evident the need for revision of
existing notions and provided bench-marks to measure future
changes against. The discovery of the greatest mountain sys-
tem on earth hidden beneath the oceans demonstrated how
little we really know about our home, how much better we
need to co-ordinate our studies.
The many theories of the way mountains are built may be
divided into four groups. These represent different ways of
looking at the earth.
The oldest theory, said to be due to Newton, has been cham-
pioned by Sir Harold Jeffreys and may be regarded as deriving
from a photographic image of the earth. The earth, like a
photograph, retains a hard sharp image. It may be torn or
crumpled, but it doesn't flow. According to this view, the earth
is strong and brittle. Traditionally, it was once hotter and is
still cooling and hence getting slightly smaller. This contrac-
tion of a rigid earth is held to cause wrinkling of the surface,
as does drying in an apple, but in the earth the wrinkles are
called mountains. A. E. Scheidegger showed that this process
could give rise to scalloped fractures and other details of the
continental mountains and island arcs, and in this respect the
theory provides a more complete explanation of mountain-
building of the continental type than any other theory. Unfor-
tunately, it was advanced before the discovery of the mid-
ocean ridges and it has not been extended to explain them, nor
is it compatible with the idea that the earth is recoiling from
J
4
.1
224 IGY : The Year of the New Moons
ice loads and adjusting to changes in its rate of rotation by a
slow process of plastic flow.
A second very different view about the earth was advanced
about 1910 by A. Wegener. His view of the earth is like a
painting by Picasso in which faces have been turned around
or heads displaced relative to bodies. Wegener thought that the
surface of the earth had been moved about and displaced by
drifting of the continents. In particular he noticed that the
continents had the same profile on opposite sides of the Atlan-
tic Ocean and that the shores of the Red Sea were nearly paral-
lel, and he suggested that these lands had been pulled apart in
these places. No explanation was offered of the cause of these
movements, and the idea of drift was not at all acceptable to
the proponents of a strong earth. In the last few years, how-
ever, the apparent flow after ice loading, the shifting of the
poles suggested by the different directions of magnetization of
old rocks, and the apparently tropical aspects of some fossils
from polar regions have again revived ideas of extensive move-
ments. Some geophysicists support this idea of continents
drifting about, but others hold that the relative position of the
continents has remained fixed and that only the crust as a
whole has been displaced relative to the poles of the earth, or,
looking at the question in another way, that the axis of rota-
tion has moved about relative to the earth as a whole.
A third theory was proposed by the Dutch geodesist F. A.
Vening Meinesz. His view of the earth, like a painting by his
compatriot Van Gogh, is one of swirling motion. He believes
that the mantle of the earth below the crust is like pitch and
that it is flowing in very slow convection currents which push
up mountains. At present many geophysicists and geologists
are rather attracted by this idea, but so far no one lias devel-
oped it far enough to explain in any detail the structures found
In mountains. Nevertheless, with this theory it may be possible
to explain the existence of two kinds of mountains, for the con-
EARTHQUAKES 225
tinental mountains would have been pushed together where
slow converging currents meet and descend, and mid-ocean
ridges would have been raised and pulled apart where rising
currents upwell and separate. Some features suggest this, but
again no one has been able to fill in the details*
We have already mentioned the most recent proposal of
Dicke and Heezen that the earth may be expanding. This view
can only be likened to an abstract painting of the earth. I don't
know whether any anarchist in the last century drew pictures
in which everything was exploding. If not, it would seem an
appropriate theme for the avant-garde of the nuclear age to try.
Such a painting would show what this school of geophysicists
thinks may be happening to the universe and the earth. In any
case, it is not a very fast expansion; a rate of increase of only
one fiftieth of an inch a year would have added 1,000 miles to
the earth's waist line since the oldest rocks were formed three
billion years ago.
To be frank, all of these theories, like diverse schools of art,
have their good points and their weaknesses, and no one is yet
quite sure where the truth lies. Probably it is more complex
than any of the theories suggest. Deep convection currents and
mobility of the poles relative to the earth's surface may cause
blocks in the more brittle crust and upper mantle to move and
Jostle. The earth at the same time could be expanding. Moun-
tains and continents may in part be formed by the extrusion
of lava and its conversion to crustal matter. That may indeed
be the origin of the whole crust a scum squeezed from within
the earth and reconstituted by the long-continued action of the
weather and by mountain-building.
A major handicap in these speculations is that we do not
know much about the mantle. No one knows with certainty
whether any samples of it reach the surface unaltered. So im-
portant is this question that at the close of the IGY a group of
American scientists proposed that a hole be drilled through the
226 I G Y : The Year of the New Moons
crust and into the mantle to obtain a sample. With samples of
the mantle we may be able to understand why its melting pro-
duces different kinds of lava in different places, and we may be
able to discover whether it is likely to be capable of flow or
not.
The project has been called the Mohole after the Mohoro-
vicic discontinuity, as the boundary between the crust and
mantle is called in honour of the Jugoslav seismologist who
first found evidence of it in earthquake records. Because the
crust under the oceans is so much thinner than under the con-
tinents, the drilling must be done on the floor of the deep
ocean. In April 1961 a short preliminary hole, 601 feet deep,
was successfully drilled off the Pacific coast of Mexico, but it
will be some years before all the engineering difficulties can be
overcome and a really deep hole is put down to the mantle.
In the meantime, some geochemists think, though they can-
not yet prove, that they have discovered samples of the mantle
in diamond pipes. There two rare materials are found which
have not melted and flowed like lava but which seem to have
been shot up from the depths of the earth as solid fragments in
volcanic explosions. These substances are the peculiar rock ec-
logite and the mineral diamond. Both are formed as a result of
very high pressures, and they may be samples of the mantle.
Is it not strange that the only substance from the dark inte-
rior of the earth which most people ever see is the brilliant
diamond?
CHAPTER 19
CHINA, TAIWAN,
AND JAPAN
SEPTEMBER 1958
I had plenty of time for reflection as I left Moscow, for I
spent the next eight days and nights in a lower berth on the
Moscow-Peking Express of the Soviet State Railway. For
nearly a week the train followed the line of the famous old
Trans-Siberian Railroad. No one on board admitted that he
could understand or speak a word of English or French, but
Georgi Khimish, an engineer, his wife, and son, with whom I
shared the compartment as far as Omsk, were kind and polite.
At intervals we smiled at each other, made signs, or laughed
over the Russian lessons they set for me, but the result hardly
amounted to conversation. When their places were taken by a
rather starchy Air Force officer and his family, silence fell on
our compartment. Any desire I had for conversation had to
find expression in the few Russian words I had culled from a
phrase book to order my meals from the plump and cheerful
waitress in the dining car.
Most of the passengers were Army and Air Force officers and
their families. They paid no attention to me, or I to them, but
228 IGY : The Year of the New Moons
when they all got off on the sixth day, as we were approaching
the Chinese frontier, the train suddenly seemed deserted and
empty, Siberia is barren and desolate enough, save for the large
cities artificially created beside steel bridges that carried our
train over the wide and turgid rivers, but at least Siberia has a
few stunted trees, whereas the windswept hills of the north
Manchurian border are bald-headed prairie. The departure of
the officers, resplendent in dress uniform, epaulettes and med-
als, left me to speculate why so many officers chose so bleak a
spot for their destination. The only clues vouchsafed to me
and to the handful of Chinese students remaining on the train
were a few empty sidings and half -concealed spur lines, a col-
lection of gasoline tanks, and a large power station. Nothing
was to be seen but the hills, the sky, and the herds of cattle,
the same now as they were to Genghis Khan's advancing
hordes.
The formalities at the border, which anywhere else would
have seemed tedious and lengthy, excited me in this desolate
spot, for they effected an abrupt transition from a remote but
unmistakably European outpost into an Oriental station full
of Chinese. By the time we reached Peking two days later, I
had mastered chop-sticks and learned the Chinese for the three
phrases handy in any country: "Please, thank you, and good
day/' A welcoming party of scientists from the Academia Sin-
ica met me at the station. Being discerning and considerate
people, they offered me a bath, lunch, and a chance to catch
my breath before discussing what I would like to see of Chi-
nese geophysics.
A few months earlier they had received my letter asking if I
might return to Canada through China and see what they were
doing in the IGY. My visit had been prompted partly by sheer
curiosity and a desire to travel, and partly because the rival
Academy in Taipeh had applied to join the IUGG as the rep-
resentative of all China. The executive of the IUGG had
CHINA, TAIWAN, AND JAPAN 229
agreed that I should attempt to discover the facts of the situa-
tion before any action was taken. No doubt the men in Peking
were aware of this, although they never mentioned it. They
were determined to prove that they controlled Chinese geo-
physics and were doing a good job of promoting scientific
work. That this was the case did not greatly surprise me. For
the past few generations we have been so accustomed to the
spectacle of a backward and prostrate China that it is easy to
forget that they can make a good claim to have developed the
foundations of science.
Certainly this is true in geophysics, for their chronicles con-
tain accounts of 8,165 earthquakes since 1189 B.C.; no other
country has comparable records. In A.D. 132 Chung Hung in-
vented the first seismoscope to register the occurrence of earth-
quakes and indicate the direction to the centre of the disturb-
ance, and he also produced an anemoscope for measuring wind
direction and speed. About A.D. 233 a Chinese named Yuan
discovered the magnetic compass and soon afterwards
mounted this instrument on a cart, along with another resem-
bling a speedometer, for the purpose of executing a road survey
of China. By A.D. 1424 the Ming Emperors had equipped all
the districts of China with rain-gauges. The flow of rivers and
all floods were recorded systematically. These developments,
together with the invention of paper in the first century AJX,
of printing with movable type in the eighth century, of the
first clock with accurate escapement mechanism, and of explo-
sives (essential in seismic methods of prospecting), helped
lay the foundations of geophysics. This has not been forgotten
by the modern Chinese, for during my travels I frequently saw
models of the early instruments in museums.
This was all ancient history. What I had come to see was the
state of geophysics in 1958, and I wanted to be sure that what
I saw was genuine. The scientists told me that they had ar-
ranged a tour which would take me to universities and insti-
230 I G Y : The Year of the New Moons
tutes in Peking, Shanghai, Nanking, Hanchow, and Canton. I
welcomed the chance to see Peking, and I had no objection to
visiting Canton, since I was to leave from nearby Hong Kong.
But at the risk of a rebuff I told my hosts that I did not think
there were great opportunities for geophysics in the other cities
and that I thought the trip included too much sight-seeing. I
gently explained that since my sole object was to see geophys-
ics, I should prefer to go to the west, to Sian and Lanchow,
where there was more geophysics and less mud. After all, I was
a physicist, not a farmer. This proposal they accepted with the
utmost calm, and without any demur they changed all their
plans to accommodate my wishes.
When we had safely negotiated these preliminaries over
countless cups of tea, we set about an examination of geophysi-
cal installations in Peking. It started with a formal dinner with
Dn Li-shan Pei, the secretary-general of the Academia Sinica,
a formidable man, austere, cold, and of a commanding pres-
ence. He spoke no English and was most reserved, so that I
discovered nothing about him except that he was an agricul-
turist and hence probably of peasant stock. He seemed a dog-
matic Marxist, although we did not discuss such matters. He
was very conscious of his power and proud of the grandeur of
his country's history and civilization, but I felt that he was ig-
norant of the West, distrusted it greatly, and felt a strong re-
sentment of the indignities inflicted on China in the past. His
two chief concerns were to see that I had a good dinner of roast
Peking duck, and to make it plain that the Academia Sinica of
Peking was willing to co-operate with international bodies in
scientific matters, provided that such bodies had already shown
that they would have no dealings with any Chinese organiza-
tions not under the control of Peking. He did not ask me to
agree with his views, and I did not debate them.
The next day, I started out to visit universities, observato-
ries, and Government institutes, and I shall briefly describe a
CHINA, TAIWAN, AND JAPAN 231
few which were typical of all. The Institute of Geophysics
and Meteorology of the Academia Sinica in Peking is the head-
quarters for most geophysical work in China. It is located amid
many other institutes in a newly developed region of Peking.
The main building, which was still surrounded by temporary
huts, was a solid, three-story one and well equipped. Like most
institutes which I was to see, it had an excellent library. This
one had been started many years before but now, according to
the count I made in the reading room, subscribed to about four
hundred scientific journals, mostly standard Western ones. I
noticed, for example, recent issues of all the well-known geo-
physical journals from Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Japan,
Sweden, and the United States.
I had talks in English with the director, Dr. Chin-chan
Chao; the vice-director, Dr. Tsung-chi Chen; and the chief
seismologist, Dr. Shan-pang Lee. All had studied in Europe or
the United States. I had already met another research worker
from this institute, Dr. Cheng-yi Fu, a graduate of McGill
University and the California Institute of Technology. He was
the only Chinese scientist whom I met in Russia. I did so be-
cause the Soviet scientists, when it was known that I was go-
ing from Moscow to Peking, suggested that I call on him in the
Moscow Seismological Station.
All the men I have mentioned are well known in the West.
They publish books and technical papers. They are competent
scientists, and there is no question that they are in charge of
the technical work which they displayed to me with such en-
thusiasm. For example, Dr. Lee showed me the instruments he
had designed. I went through the workshop where they are
built, and I saw the results of their use in maps charting the
areas subject to earthquakes of varying intensity and fre-
quency. An account of this work has been published and re-
viewed favourably in the Bulletin of the American Seismo-
logical Society.
232 IGY : The Year of the New Moons
These men are leaders among China's few experienced geo-
physicists. They held similar posts under previous govern-
ments, but their work is appreciated by the present regime and
they are being supported to a far greater extent than was ever
possible before. It should be emphasized that this support is
generous and is not merely a consequence of the advantages
offered by peace after years of civil war and invasion. Every-
where scientists have new buildings, many assistants, Gov-
ernment cars for transport, and above all, excellent libraries.
Of course, they don't have freedom, as we understand the
word; but their programs were sensible and useful, they had
probably had a say in determining what they were to be, and
they certainly felt that what they were doing was good for
China.
They told me that they now operated almost two dozen seis-
mological stations and would soon be increasing the number.
While in China I visited four such stations. Before the revolu-
tion, I believe, there had only been two in the whole of China,
and I have subsequently discussed these changes with the late
Father P. Lejay, s. j. f who was director of one of them.
The Central Geophysical Observatory of China is located in
the foothills near Peking, 10 miles from the town of Chufan.
There I entered the vaults and saw twelve seismographs oper-
ating. All were of Chinese manufacture, but nine were based
on Soviet designs. I also visited three large, non-magnetic
buildings housing a magnetic observatory under development.
I looked at the sun through a solar-flare patrol telescope, which
had been made in the German Democratic Republic and
which was being used to carry out part of the IGY program. I
was told that five seismologists at the observatory examine the
records from all twenty-three Chinese seismograph stations,
and that cosmic-ray observations, which I did not see, had
been started.
While in Peking, I visited several other institutes and uni-
Czech scientists observing earth tides in a mine 4,000 feet be-
neath the earth's surface.
Magnetic surveyor in the field for
the Royal Thai Survey Department.
A Soviet observer adjusts a seismograph at
Pullcovo Obsenatory at Leningrad, U.S.S.R.
Inside the great crater of Mount Vesuvius,
which is being filled in by eruptions from
the small active cone.
Professor Lloyd V. Berkner, who suggested
holding the International Geophysical Year,
is shown at Little America I, sitting on top
of a radio mast which he had erected in
1929. By 1958 the lower 65 feet of the mast
had been buried in snow.
Young Soviet scientist observing solar radia-
tion at Arctic drif ting-ice station NP-6.
Professor Sydney Chapman, president of the Comite* Special de
TAnne*e Internationale Ge"ophysique (CSAIGj with academi-
cian I. P. Bardin, chief of the U.S.S.R.-IGY Committee.
The author discussing geophysical and geological maps with
Soviet scientists and engineers at the Tumasi Deep-Sounding
Seismic Expedition of the Ministry of Geology, U.S.S.R.
staBWtfi x ;*
C^&.A. < x v
dfctf
Drifting ice station NP-6 on the Arctic pack ice.
* *#*^*^+S*^ ""*
J *^ J^^^r ' ' ^^^^^^Bn ' ^<2^Hr ^tUMG *
*-*r .^^^^ .riflr ? *^m ,mfiL.
Ice-coring on Blue Glacier, Olympic Mountains, U.S A.
Henrietta Glacier^ Ellesniere Island, North-
west Territories* Canada, flowing from in-
terior ice fields toward Lake Hazen.
A series of valley glaciers in the mountains
of Ellesmere Island. The six tongues of the
valley glaciers are separated from the larger
glaciers by a mountain ridge.
..C^. Labrador breaking a passage through spring ice. The
dark pattern is of melted water lying on the surface of the frozen
sea ice.
This tunnel built under the Greenland ice cap by U. S. Army
engineers, is part of living quarters suitable for year-round occu-
pancy. Rooms and buildings have been built from snow 7 ice,
wood, and corrugated steel. The tunnel shown here has a self-
supporting snow roof.
R. W. Mason, glaciologist, examining the
walls of a crevasse in McCall Glacier,
Alaska.
CHINA,, TAIWAN, AND JAPAN 233
versities. One of them was the Institute of Geological Pros-
pecting on the outskirts of Peking, a brand new institution still
surrounded by the remnants of vegetable fields. It had been
formed in 1952 out of the old department of geology of Peking
University. On the campus I visited six large new buildings
and many small temporary ones, and saw two more large ones
under construction. Geophysical prospecting is one of six de-
partments and is taught in adequately equipped laboratories. I
saw a truck equipped for electrical prospecting, chemical and
spectroscopic laboratories, a teaching museum and workshops,
but the library had not yet been built. I was met by the vice-
president, C.-T. Chung, and by Professors L.-H. Shu., F.-L.
Yuan, and Kai Chow. They explained that within the past
six years they and about twenty-five other experienced profes-
sors had trained technicians and five hundred inexperienced
colleagues and started to teach a five-year college course to six
thousand students. They had had to collect equipment and
translate text-books. Most of the staff and students were away,
on seventeen field parties, by means of which the students
combined field experience in the summer with lectures and
laboratory work in the winter.
In spite of this tremendous load placed on so few experi-
enced professors, they said that they had been able to under-
take some research and had published two works. Obviously,
the literature now emanating from China does not reflect the
full state of activity there.
After my ten days in Peking, I set off for the west with my
interpreter Mr. Yu-san Tien. In order to see everything at as
close range as possible, I travelled entirely by train and by au-
tomobile, spending five more days and nights in sleepers. I ate
nothing but Chinese food, becoming quite proficient with
chop-sticks.
To give some idea of the extent of this journey from Mos-
cow, back and forth through China, and on to Hong Kong, let
234 I G Y : The Year of the New Moons
me translate into North American terms. It was as if I had
travelled from Hudson Bay to Alaska and back again, then
crossed into another country near Winnipeg, and on down
south to Tampico, Mexico. The side trip to Lanchow would
have taken me from St. Louis into the mountains at Denver
and back.
Lanchow is an ancient walled town that in past centuries
was regarded as lying on the utmost fringe of the old Chinese
Empire, an outpost on the old Silk Route to the West: dusty,
windswept, cold, and rigorous. Only fifteen years before I ar-
rived in Lanchow, Mr. Tien, my interpreter, had had to walk
for fifteen days, his luggage loaded on an oxcart, to reach Lan-
chow from Paochi. Now the railway bores through a mountain
range, by way of 187 tunnels, to reach Lanchow, and it extends
beyond, crossing the Gobi Desert and the Altai Mountains to
complete the link with Alma-Alta and Moscow.
The old town has burst through its walls and sprawls over
the surrounding countryside in a chaos of construction, noise,
and dust. Day and night the building goes on, under flood-
lights and to the accompaniment of hearty music blared forth
from loud-speakers hitched to the street lights. The population
has increased eight times in the last ten years, from 100,000 to
800,000. I visited the branch of the Academia Sinica and the
new university. They are most impressive displays of ideal-
ism and practicality: a library designed to house a million
books, the Multilithed copies of original texts open only to the
student who has command of the Western languages in which
some of them are written; a curriculum specializing in land use,
reclamation of deserts, irrigation schemes, and meteorology;
laboratories equipped with good but simple instruments.
Outside of Lanchow I was taken through a large oil refinery
which was nearing completion, and I was told that the oil
came from "the west/' The Tsaidam depression near Lake
Koko Nor between Lanchow, Sinkiang, and Tibet is the prob-
CHINA, TAIWAN, AND JAPAN 235
able source, for it is said to be a veiy rich and productive area.
All in all I was agreeably surprised by what I saw in China.
The Government clearly believes in and supports education
and science. The many scientists from the old regime who
have remained, although overworked, have never before had so
much support, and they are enthusiastic at the material prog-
ress being made in China,
The students are selected by examination, and many are
given scholarships. They are polite, well disciplined, enthusias-
tic, and hard-working, even though they spend a great deal of
time on political activities. As part of their program they have
to take some physical exercise and do some practical work, but
as far as I could make out the basis of their education in sci-
ence and languages is sound. It would be foolish to believe
otherwise.
From Canton I took the short train journey to the border
and said good-bye to Mr. Tien, my constant companion of the
past month. I had come to like him, to appreciate the good
care he took of me, and to enjoy his company, although in
most respects we were opposites. For him, with his hard up-
bringing, life was as serious and as clear in its purpose as a
burial service. For me, the trip was like a visit to a theatre,
where amid a feast of colour and sound, and in a spirit of gaiety
and humour, I could nevertheless look for the playwright's un-
derlying serious message. We got on well because we both fully
enjoyed each day's investigation of the new China, he display-
ing it with pride and I examining it in fascination,
I then flew on to Taipeh, where I was warmly greeted as a
guest of the other Academia Sinica. I was taken to the head-
quarters of the academy in a peaceful village 10 miles south of
Taipeh. It is housed in four or five small, new brick buildings,
all devoted to the social sciences and the humanities, except a
chemistry building, which was still under construction. There
were no physics or geology buildings there. A museum was de-
236 IGY : The Year of the New Moons
voted to displays of ancient Chinese writing on pieces of wood,
of auguries on bone, and of the costumes and arts of the 18,-
coo Malay aborigines of Taiwan. There was a small library de-
voted to similar subjects. I was shown a locked door behind
which I was told that copies of recent publications from China
were stored. They were said to be reserved for intelligence pur-
poses and not to be available to others.
In Taipeh I visited the headquarters of an active and compe-
tent meteorological service. Here they plotted the paths of hur-
ricanes and prepared weather maps, using data broadcast from
the mainland. Five radiosonde stations were said to be oper-
ated. At this building there was also a seismological station
equipped with three Weichert, three Omori, and some other
Japanese instruments. Since there are many severe earthquakes
in Taiwan, the director of the station needed new modern in-
struments to supplement those left by the Japanese, but the
necessary $50,000 was not forthcoming. He told me that there
was no magnetic observatory in Taiwan.
On the roof of the city hall I saw a regular IGY Moonwatch
station equipped to track artificial satellites.
At the National Taiwan University I gave a lecture, speak-
ing very slowly in English and showing slides. The professor
of geology was an enthusiastic man, but his library contained
far fewer periodicals than did those on the mainland. There
was still much evidence of Japanese influence, and very little
new equipment In the department of physics the elderly pro-
fessor asked me whether I could ask the National Bureau of
Standards to replace his ionospheric sounder, since it was the
oldest instrument in the Western world and he was trying to
co-operate in the IGY program. It was still manually oper-
ated, I duly delivered the message when next I was in the
United States, and I must agree that their reasons for with-
holding the new equipment are only too sound; he obviously
CHINA, TAIWAN, AND JAPAN 237
did not have the capacity to cope with anything more compli-
cated.
I was driven to Miaoli, where I met the Chinese geophysi-
cists and geologists in charge of prospecting to extend an oil
field there. These men had been trained in the United States,
and with modern equipment were obtaining good seismic rec-
ords. I believe that two seismic crews were operating and that
this was the chief effort in prospecting on the island.
I felt very sorry for the scientists in Taiwan. They are few in
number, and some of them seemed to be dejected and home-
sick. It is a myth that all the best Chinese scientists escaped
to Taiwan. This is simply not so; most of them are still on the
mainland. The chief difference between the two groups is in
the degree of support they receive.
To my mind, the mainland Chinese are now undergoing an
awakening comparable in our history to the Renaissance.
When I was in China I felt that they were looking back to the
civilization of their magnificent past, which grew and enriched
itself without a break for 2,700 years until it was overwhelmed
by the Mongols in A.D. 1270. From that point the cultural and
intellectual life of China slowed down until their civilization,
once far in advance of the West, fell far behind. The dark ages
had descended upon them as they did upon the West after
Rome fell to the Vandals. Just as in the West the old learning
returned, enriched, in the wake of a new invader, so it hap-
pened in China. We of the West are to China what the Moors
and the Arabs were to medieval Europe. The Westerners have
pushed their way into China, and under the pressure China is
reasserting herself and reviving in improved form the sciences
she founded. In this process the Communist revolution is but
one phase. Were not the Chinese Boxers just as terrifying
when they tried in 1900, with some success, to kill every Chris-
tian convert and every foreigner in China? Were not Sun Yat-
238 IGY : The Year of the New Moons
sen and Chiang Kai-shek just as anxious to resurrect their
country's greatness when they overthrew the Manchu Empire
and fought the Japanese invaders? To regard the Communist
capture of China as an isolated phenomena is to give undue
credit to a foreign and fallacious dogma and to underestimate
the rabid feeling of nationalism that is one of the chief sup-
ports of the government in China.
The Communist revolution in China has caused untold suf-
fering, misery, and death; but one is entitled to ask whether
any country has ever lifted itself from centuries of poverty,
sloth, ignorance, incompetence, graft, and foreign self-seeking,
without bloodshed. The pattern of revolution has always
passed from the idealist and the intellectual to the extremist,
and so it has in China.
Now China is racing to make up the time she has lost and
catch up with the West. Some of us have expressed the fear
that the scientific education stressed in Communist countries
will produce nations of robots. To my mind this is nonsense
and a direct negation of our noted belief in the power of edu-
cation. It was abundantly clear to me that the Chinese scien-
tists had done their best to re-establish contact with the West
through the IGY.
In science, as Sir Eric Ashby has pointed out, "truth is not
something final, revealed, sacrosanct; it is tentative, constantly
being modified, enlarged, adjusted to new knowledge." Com-
munist dogmatism and the free spirit of scientific enquiry can-
not long exist together. One will destroy the other, and I wel-
come the spread of sound scientific education in Communist
countries, for I am sure that free thought will prevail. At the
moment, in China as in Russia, the gullible can embrace Com-
munism as the partner of nationalism, and the sceptical can
tolerate it, confident that the worst features will be and indeed
have already been modified. In the meantime, its success and
its sense of urgency have inspired many with John Ruskin's
CHINA, TAIWAN, AND JAPAN 239
"idea of self-denial for the sake of posterity, of practicing pres-
ent economy for the sake of debtors yet unknown, of planting
forests that our descendants may live under their shade, or of
raising cities for future nations to inhabit"
I saw much in China to admire. I wandered through beauti-
ful old temples and palaces that are now being restored and
opened to the public. I liked the theatres and the food, and the
quiet, polite, and good-humoured Chinese people among
whom I constantly mingled as a solitary Western traveller. It is
very rude and quite wrong to liken the Chinese people with
ants on an anthill on the grounds that they suffer under a Com-
munist dictatorship. Was not the old empire equally dictato-
rial? It was simply less efficient. I sympathized with the gar-
gantuan efforts the Chinese are making to reorganize the life
of their nation and improve the lot of the people. Some of
these efforts have been misunderstood in the West by reason
of insufficient knowledge or special pleading. The commune
system is a case in point. As I saw it on travelling through the
countryside, it is not a matter of rehousing people in barracks,
but of reorganizing village life. A moment's reflection will
make clear the impossibility of rehousing in barracks a popu-
lation three times that of the United States. The peasants, in-
stead of each working his own plot to pay the landlord, have
been formed into groups to work much larger tracts, and they
have established communal dining halls and day nurseries to
economize on labour. The uprooting caused untold misery, but
now everybody works, some enthusiastically and some because
they have to. Whether willingly or unwillingly, the activity is
prodigious, and because of it new railways, new factories, new
dams, new universities, and new cities are sprouting up all
over China.
There is no doubt that this material progress is spurring
widespread national enthusiasm. We would do well to remem-
ber how different life in China has been from life in the West.
240 IGY : The Year of the New Moons
Conditions in a commune, which might seem poor, dictatorial
and unpleasant to us or to the wealthy Chinese who have
been displaced, mean security for peasants who before faced
only poverty, famine, disease, and civil war. Now, after a dec-
ade of peace and strong government, material progress is be-
ing achieved.
In the process, many grievous hardships and injustices
have been inflicted, but we can be confident that the Chinese
will gradually moderate the present system. In the meantime,
it would be salutary for us in the West to admit that a mod-
ern, awakened China does exist and that since China is the
oldest, most populous, and second-largest country on earth,
it is a power to be reckoned with. Soviet scientists are aware
of Chinese progress, and regard it with mixed feelings of ad-
miration and fear. We may have reason to fear it, too, but
we cannot dispose of it by shutting our eyes and refusing to
recognize that it is there.
The fervour of nationalism that has effected these accom-
plishments is spurred on by periodic outbursts of anti-Western
hate-fests. I was engulfed in anti-Western parades on vari-
ous occasions. In every case, each column was led by one or
two shouting, sweating Communists, but most of the march-
ers clearly regarded the whole thing as an excuse for a good
junket. It was ironic to stand on the kerb, as the parades swept
past, and realize that the political philosophy which these
anti-Western marchers supposedly professed had been devel-
oped by a refugee German working in the reading room of the
British Museum. The resurgent modern China is the child of
Western culture, and we cannot disown her just because we
regard her as a changeling.
So ended my investigation of Chinese science. Two Chinas,
two academies, each claiming to represent the whole and
neither having intercourse with the other. This great rift in
Chinese science affects not only science in China, but in the
CHINA, TAIWAN, AND JAPAN 241
world as a whole. One cannot do global research by studying
only three quarters of the earth, any more than one can settle
the affairs of the world by pretending that one quarter of it
does not exist. As a scientist, I was disturbed to discover
that the Government of Taiwan, which is the government of
China recognized by my country, does so much less to sup-
port academic and scientific work than does the People's Re-
public of China, which we choose to ignore.
I went on from Taiwan to pursue my round of calls on uni-
versities, institutes, and historic sites in Japan. The plane was
late, but even at two in the morning Professor Chuji Tsuboi,
of Tokyo University, and Dr. Tatzuso Obayashi, a former
graduate student of mine, were waiting to meet me, smiling
and cheerful.
Through Japan I went, shepherded by my old and warm
friend, Tats Obayashi, being proudly introduced to all that
was best in Japanese science and culture, and staying in the
quiet, exquisite, little Japanese hotels. And it never stopped
raining. Whether we were visiting institutes, contemplating
stone gardens, or rushing through the countryside in a train,
the rain sluiced down. Typhoon Ida was sweeping in from the
Pacific, bringing with her the heaviest rainfall recorded in
Tokyo's modern history, seventeen inches altogether, twelve of
which fell in one day.
In the country, rain washed the rice fields to freshest green,
and wind blew damask patterns through the waving grain.
The villages, each a close cluster of wooden huts about a larger
temple, did not need the wooden fire towers which rose as ob-
servation posts above the black-tile roofs. Between high dikes
swift torrents, opalescent with the splash of falling drops,
poured back the water to the ocean. We were shut in by
clouds above and by steep and dark mountains rising into the
mist on every side.
In the Ryoanji Temple at Dajun-Zan, the stone garden was
242 IGY : The Year of the New Moons
so wet it looked like a sea set with islands. The rain splat-
tered on the pebbles, rattled on the tin-roof gutters, and
gurgled as it ran away in streams under the pavilion where
we sat for the tea ceremony. The coloured umbrellas of the
visitors, as they mounted the mossy steps between stone lan-
terns and laurel bushes, looked like irridescent bubbles
bobbing on the flood green, blue, pink, yellow, and black.
In the city the rain sluiced off the roofs, blew in gusts around
the street corners, flooded through the streets, drowned cars
in the lower gullies, and poured into basements everywhere.
At the Imperial Hotel servants held back the flood with
carpets and sand bags as long as they could, but eventually
the water cascaded down the stairs and turned the cocktail
lounges in the basement into swimming pools, short-circuited
the generators, drowned out the kitchen, and sent all the
guests early to bed by candlelight, with a cold supper to com-
fort them amid the trembling, gurgling, swishing sounds of
the buffeted hotel.
Typhoons, floods, storms, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions,
tsunami waves racing in from the sea, and even the rising
sun on the national flag are reminders enough to the Japanese
of the importance of the elements, and their awareness of the
natural world may explain their active part in the IGY. Their
scientific work is of the highest standard, and they entered into
every program with enthusiasm, even dispatching an expedi-
tion to Antarctica.
I had long discussions in the Earthquake Research Institute
and in departments of the University of Tokyo and Kyoto. I
visited many well-known scientists, some of whom I had met
before, and I admired the skill with which, on small budgets,
they keep in the forefront of scientific work.
On my last day it cleared, and at the airport I had the good
fortune to see the President of India arrive for a state visit.
From the roof of the new Hameda airport we saw the Im-
CHINA, TAIWAN, AND JAPAN 243
perial Guard, in their cream uniforms and with their brass
band blowing furiously, drawn up on one side, and on the
other, the diplomats and government officials in black morning
coats with yellow chrysanthemum boutonnieres. A great pink
Constellation settled down neatly on the runway beside them.
Turbaned Indian aides, tall and slim, with their swords and
buttons glistening, emerged, followed by the President in his
white Indian cap and coat. Together he and Emperor Hirohito
walked arm in arm to inspect the honour guard and to climb
into the Emperor's maroon Pierce Arrow. As the rulers of these
ancient nations left the modern scene, the full moon rose from
the Pacific and the orange glow of sunset bathed the airport.
I wondered if the full moon had in fact replaced the rising
sun as a gentler symbol of the new Japan.
CHAPTER 20
THE OCEANS
The oceans cover 70.8 per cent of the earth's surface and form
a single body so extensive on this planet and so unusual in
the universe that impartial space travellers observing the earth
for the first time would certainly christen it "The Water/*
Most people's knowledge of the oceans is limited to a
familiarity with their general shape, as shown in atlases, and
a vague notion that they are deep and contain most of the
world's water. Many are not even aware of the outstanding
mysteries which the seas present. What is the origin and his-
tory of the great basins in which the oceans lie? Where and
at what rates do currents flow, especially the deep ones by
which sea water circulates within those basins? What are the
processes of exchange of heat and moisture between sea, air,
glaciers, and land which regulate the climate and make the
world habitable?
Inasmuch as the oceans contain 97 per cent of the world's
water, they are the greatest reservoirs of moisture and of heat
on the surface of the earth. Until we know more about the
currents that carry warm water towards the poles and bring
cooler water to the tropics, we cannot expect to forecast the
THE OCEANS 245
world's weather correctly or to exploit ocean fisheries to full
advantage. The surface currents, such as the Gulf Stream,
which produce these moderating effects are relatively well
known, but the deeper currents, which are equally important,
have been little studied. Submarine ridges and sills exercise
strong controls upon deep currents, and the shape of the ocean
basins affects all currents.
The history of the exploration of the sea floors is brief and
simple, and it can truthfully be said that the enormous task
of studying these cradles of the sea was first faced in an ade-
quate manner during the IGY. This is less surprising when one
realizes that the job of making accurate maps of most of
the land surface was only started during the Second World
War and has not yet been completed.
Throughout the centuries of great geographical discovery
no one knew or investigated the shape of ocean basins be-
yond the shallow continental shelves. To sound any great
depth by the traditional method of lowering a weight on the
end of a hemp line was not practicable because the ropes
broke and were lost. It was not until 1840 that Captain
James Ross made the first soundings at depths of over a mile.
Shortly afterwards, a cheaper and more practical method
was introduced by Captain Matthew F. Maury, a United
States and Confederate Naval officer of great enthusiasm and
scientific ability. He made soundings by dropping a cannon
ball to which was attached a length of twine. He measured the
rate at which the twine was paid out and assumed that the shot
had reached bottom at the moment when the rate be-
came slower. Having noted this depth, he cut the twine and
cannon ball away. In 1855, from data thus collected, he made
the first hydrographic chart of the north Atlantic.
A few years later, proposals to lay trans-Atlantic cables
made a knowledge of the ocean floor important and gave
these investigations great impetus. On Christmas day, 1872,
246 I G Y : The Year of the New Moons
the British ship Challenger set sail on the first great ocean-
ographic expedition to explore the world's oceans and particu-
larly to investigate the nature of their floors. A hundred other
oceanographic expeditions have followed. The world's navies
and hydrographic services, working out from civilized coasts,
have made charts, but progress was slow, for the efforts were
unequal to the task. By 1914 only eighteen hundred soundings
had been made in the deep parts of the north Atlantic and
fewer elsewhere. The greatest depth that had been found was
31,600 feet in a trench close to Guam. The floor was con-
sidered to be everywhere gently sloping and covered with a
thick layer of clay and ooze, as fine organic remains are called,
which had slowly settled from the sea. Only three ships had
been built specifically for oceanographic research: Nansen's
From, Peary's Roosevelt, and Scott's Discovery. One general
bathymetrical chart of the oceans had been published by an
international institute in Monaco (established by Prince Rai-
nier's grandfather), but these charts were admitted to include
"the widest generalizations." Some progress was made be-
tween the two World Wars, but the failure to recognize the
continuity of the mid-ocean ridge until 1956 is one indication
of our continuing ignorance about the little-travelled parts of
the ocean. Real progress awaited the development of new tools
with which to explore the oceans, and the availability of funds
for expeditions to exploit these tools.
The first need was for good charts, which require precise
measurements of depth, latitude, and longitude. Since about
1920 scientists have been able to measure depth by sending
sound signals into the water and timing the echoes received
from the bottom. This is known as echo-sounding and can be
used to determine depth accurately within a few feet. Before
this development, a ship's position at sea could only be deter-
mined by sun or star observations, accurate to the nearest mile
or
o
O
o
o
ro
248 I G Y : The Year of the New Moons
or so but not good enough for exact mapping. It is now possi-
ble to achieve greater precision by using radio and radar de-
vices on ships and coastal installations. This equipment is ex-
pensive, however, and was not available in many parts of the
Indian Ocean and of the Southern Ocean, which surrounds
Antarctica, until after the IGY was over.
During the IGY the Soviet vessel Vityaz, operating in the
Pacific, carried out systematic charting, by echo-sounding, of
the deepest trenches in the Pacific Ocean, On January 23,
1960, shortly after the close of the IGY, two men, Lieutenant
D. Walsh of the United States Navy and J. Piccard, sank to
the bottom of the Mariana Deep in the western Pacific to the
greatest depth known, 36,800 feet, in the bathysphere Trieste.
There they spent thirty minutes before releasing ballast and
floating back to the surface. This special submarine, invented
by the Swiss professor, Auguste Piccard, consists of a strong
steel sphere, 6 feet in diameter, made buoyant by having at-
tached to it a large tank full of gasoline. The depth reported
by the Trieste was 1,000 feet greater than the depth measured
by the Vityaz using echo-sounding. Why the Trieste seemed
to exceed that depth by so large an amount has yet to be ex-
plained.
In addition to improvements in the fundamental task of
making good charts, the last fifteen years have witnessed the
development of many devices for exploring the nature of the
sea floors. As an extension of echo-sounding to determine wa-
ter depths, Maurice Ewing in 1938 demonstrated that firing
small explosive charges produced echoes that indicated the
thickness of sedimentary beds, lavas, and crust lying below the
ocean floor. The method, which at first involved exploding
single charges, has been widely applied. During the IGY it was
extended by the development of a whole series of "sparkers,"
"bloopers/' and "thumpers/* These devices, which are towed
behind vessels, emit loud bangs periodically. Just as echoes
THE OCEANS 249
from weak signals can be used to plot a continuous profile of
the surface of the ocean floor, so the stronger signals from these
loud bangs can be used to plot continuously the beds lying be-
neath the ocean floor, even to depths of thousands of feet. Now
a ship can cruise at a steady speed, mapping the stratigraphy
of the ocean floor thousands of feet below, for as long a time
as the crew can stand the racket of several loud explosions a
minute close behind the ship.
But echoes do not provide samples, and to obtain them
dredges and coring devices have been developed. The Chal-
lenger expedition used dredges, but they only skimmed the up-
permost layer. In 1936 C. S. Piggott of the Carnegie Institu-
tion devised a double-coring tube that could be lowered to
the bottom and the inner tube fired as from a gun into the
floor. Rapid improvements followed. B. Kullenberg of Sweden,
and Soviet inventors, showed that in many places the oozes
on the ocean floor are so soft that a heavily weighted tube of
appropriate design can penetrate as much as 80 or 100 feet
when dropped into the ocean floor. Cores up to that length
can be recovered, but 100 feet seems to be the limit for free-
falling corers. Thousands of such cores have been collected
in the last few years.
We have mentioned the Mohole project by which it is
hoped to drill through the crust under the ocean floor to the
mantle. The project, which is sponsored by the United States
National Science Foundation, will take several years to
complete. The first short experimental holes, made in the
spring of 1961, penetrated 601 feet into the floor of the ocean
off Lower California. The deepest core pierced 557 feet of clays
and oozes deposited about 25,000,000 years ago and then
drilled 44 feet into a layer of basalt lava of unknown age. Since
the rate of sedimentation on the ocean floor is slow, these
cores and the much longer ones that are planned should re-
veal much about the history of the oceans. They may also
250 IGY : The Year of the New Moons
help to determine the age and origin of the oceans and to
decide whether the continents have drifted about or not.
Much of the floor of the ocean basins consists of great, flat,
smooth plains. It had been taken for granted that the floors
were smothered in a carpet of ooze, which had slowly sifted
down through the sea since the beginning of time. Unex-
pectedly, coring not only showed that the rate was wrong but
disclosed layers of coarse sand hundreds of miles from the near-
est land. How did sand reach places where there should be
only ooze? In 1952 M. Ewing suggested that on the steep
slopes of the continental shelves, where the land suddenly
drops away to the ocean floors 3 miles below, lie great deposits
of mud and sand brought down by the world's rivers. These
pile up higher and higher until an earthquake shakes their
uneasy balance and sends them hurtling down the slopes in
muddy turbidity currents that flow at express speeds far over
the ocean floors. It has now been established that as these
currents settle they deposit layers of sand that they have car-
ried hundreds of miles from land. These great but rare rivers,
or landslides, of mud flowing under the sea also explain the
peculiar damage some earthquakes inflict on submarine ca-
bles. For years cable companies have puzzled over the fact
that cables have not only snapped close to the site of an earth-
quake, but also sometimes three or four hours later and hun-
dreds of miles away other cables have been broken, frayed, or
buried in mud. Now they blame these engulfing slides of
muddy water.
These vast slumps that cause turbidity currents also cause
the disastrous seismic waves, or tsunamis, that accompany
some large earthquakes. The last such earthquake in Chile,
in May 1960, not only killed thousands of people and did vast
damage on land in Chile, but also gave rise to a seismic wave
that overwhelmed the coasts of Chile and travelled across the
Pacific to drown a hundred and fifty people on the Japanese
THE OCEANS 251
coasts when it reached there sixteen hours later. A great wall
of mud, released by the earthquake, tumbled down the sub-
marine coast of Chile to the deep sea floor, having the same
effect on the Pacific Ocean as a large boulder sent crashing
into a pond.
All during the IGY scientists continued coring tracing the
turbidity currents, sampling the floor of the sea, solving some
riddles, propounding others. One of the intriguing questions
raised concerns the origin of a layer of volcanic ash which
J. L. Worzel of Columbia University traced at an average depth
of about 50 feet below the bottom of the Pacific Ocean over
a vast area off the coast of Mexico, Central America, and
Peru. The presence of the bed was first noticed on seismic
soundings, and then investigated by corers made of lengths
of three-inch water-pipe dropped into the bottom. The ash,
which is from four inches to a foot thick, seems all to be from
the same layer. Worzel believes it to be due to a single volcanic
eruption about eighty thousand years ago. This sounds
straightforward enough until one realizes that the area cov-
ered is so large that the eruption which produced it must have
been five thousand times larger than the great volcanic ex-
plosion of 1883 at Krakatoa in Indonesia. This seems improb-
able. No volcanic crater of such dimensions has been reported,
and the ash-bed must remain an enigma until it can be investi-
gated further.
Of great economic interest was the discovery that parts of
the Pacific Ocean floor are strewn with nodules of manganese
and other useful metals. Proposals have been made to dredge
these commercially.
Another recently developed device measures the rate at
which the earth loses heat. Compared with outer space, the
earth is a warm body, but it is losing heat continuously. To
measure this small loss, a thermal probe was developed by
Sir Edward Bullard and during the IGY measurements of
252 IGY : The Year of the New Moons
heat flow were made in about a hundred places in the deep
oceans. In general, the heat loss is the same over oceans as over
continents; but below the mid-ocean ridges the earth seems to
be warmer than elsewhere, and it is losing heat faster there.
The development and application of devices for exploring
the ocean floors did not attract much interest from govern-
ment or industry until recently, and most of the credit for
them goes to universities. Columbia, Cambridge, California,
and Goteborg have all played important roles. Expeditions
equipped with these new devices, as well as more conventional
instruments, have been recently sent out from Denmark,
Great Britain, the Soviet Union, Sweden, and the United
States to continue the notable pre-war work of Holland and
Germany. The discoveries which they have made have so
revolutionized ideas about the ocean bottoms that individual
governments and UNESCO are now becoming interested,
realizing, as they do, the importance of the economic and mili-
tary aspects of such surveys.
The vigorous program of international exploration of the
sea instituted during the IGY has stirred great interest in the
oceans, and a Special Committee on Oceanic Research has
been established to co-ordinate the work. The Indian Ocean
is the least known, and it is perhaps the most productive ocean
biologically. Between 1959 and 1963 forty ships carrying sci-
entists from twenty countries will be participating in the In-
ternational Indian Ocean Expedition, at the end of which this
may be the best known ocean.
The most remarkable of these recent discoveries is the evi-
dence of the continuity of the mid-ocean ridge. It had long
been known that remote islands were peaks on submarine
ridges, but it was not realized that the ridges were continuous.
In the Southern Ocean, during the IGY, American, West
European, and Soviet ships filled many gaps in our knowledge
and showed that the ridges are indeed joined. In the Arctic
THE OCEANS 253
Ocean, Russian and American soundings through the ice, and
recent continuous profiles obtained by the submarines Nauti-
lus and Skate, traced the northern extension past Spitsbergen
across the Arctic basin to the Lena delta. The Indian Ocean
branch was traced into the Gulf of Aden, the Red Sea, and
the African rift valleys. The main ridge stretches for 40,000
miles, and with branches it may be 60,000 miles long- Like the
course of the Nautilus of Jules Verne, the mid-ocean ridge
extends 20,000 leagues under the sea, and it is by far the great-
est mountain range on earth.
Not only is it the largest; it is the highest mountain system.
At Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea, on Hawaii, the ridge rises to
33,000 feet from the ocean floor, and elsewhere it is rarely less
than 10,000 feet high. It rises, steep and rugged, from the sur-
rounding flat plain of the sea floor. Along most of Its length
there runs a central rift valley, or valleys, which like the rift
valleys of Africa are shaken by earthquakes and are marked
by magnetic disturbances. Earthquakes most frequently occur
directly beneath these rifts. Active volcanoes rise along the
ridge, and from time to time their growing cones break the
surface of the sea as new islands. Perhaps the ridge is a crack
opening as the earth expands and its crust is pulled apart.
Lavas, gushing up from the earth's hot interior, fill the crack
and overflow onto the surface. Slow viscous currents in the
deep mantle, rising beneath the ridge, may account for the
greater heat flow over the ridge. If P. A. M. Dirac is correct
in his suggestion that the earth has slowly expanded during
its long history, these ridges are the cicatrices that mark where
the earth's surface has split under the pressure of its swelling.
They have the properties that one would expect to find in
such scars, and lend plausibility to Dirac's theory. But, then,
by what mechanism were the continental mountains built?
To date, mountains have been thought to result from contrac-
tion of the earth. The solution to this quandary eludes us still
254 I G Y : The Year of the New Moons
because, whether the earth is contracting or expanding, the
rate is so slow that our instruments cannot detect any change.
Scientists also have been impressed by the possibility of
yielding and flow within the earth, which could go on whether
the earth is expanding or contracting or remains constant in
volume.
During the IGY R. G. Mason and V. Vacquier carried out
air-borne magnetic surveys of a branch of the mid-ocean ridge
that reaches the coast of Lower California, and of some great
cliffs, or scarps, associated with it which, it had been recently
discovered by H. W. Menard, extend for 2,000 miles toward
the Hawaiian Islands. By studying the displacement of mag-
netic anomalies, Mason and Vacquier concluded that there had
been a horizontal movement of 800 miles along one fracture
and lesser movements along others. The scarps do not ap-
pear to be actively moving now, but no one knows how old
they are.
How to interpret these fascinating and unsuspected observa-
tions poses a great puzzle for earth scientists. Many answers
have been proposed, but most of them cannot account for all
the evidence. At the present time the idea that convection
currents circulate in the mantle seems to be the most promis-
ing. H. H. Hess and R. S. Dietz have recently restated this old
idea of F. A. Vening Meinesz of Holland and Arthur Holmes
of Edinburgh. They suggest that rising currents lift the mid-
ocean ridges and bring heat to the surface. There the currents
part to form rifts and earthquakes along the central line of
the mid-ocean ridges. Lava can then pour out to pile up vol-
canoes. The rate of movement in the enormously viscous rock
(solid to all intents) is only about an inch a year. According
to this view, the two sides of the Atlantic Ocean, once joined,
have been moving steadily apart for the past 200,000,000
years. Rising currents lift up the mid-Atlantic ridge; and Ice-
land, the Azores, and Tristan da Cunha are the tops of vol-
THE OCEANS 255
canoes along the ridge. As the currents have moved apart,
the Atlantic Ocean has been opened and new floors exposed.
No sediments over 200,000,000 years old should be found
there, a fact that it is hoped will be verified by drilling. On
the westward-flowing current, the Americas have drifted stead-
ily, borne like rafts upon the viscid mantle.
In the Pacific Ocean there are similar currents flowing out
from the mid-ocean ridge. The eastward-flowing one reaches
the west coast of the Americas and there both currents flow
inwards again towards the centre of the earth like the convec-
tion currents in a pot of boiling water or like eddies in a
stream. This action forms the great trenches off the coast of
Chile, Peru, and Central America. In these trenches, where
the mantle goes down, the sediments on the ocean floor are
scraped off and piled up, like scum over a whirlpool, and added
to the mighty Andes and the Cordillera. Near the surface the
motion is not steady, but moves in jerks, jolting the earth
with quakes from California to Chile.
"We must now consider whether these currents have not
always flowed in the mantle, pulling continents apart here,
pushing them together there, and always turning over the
ocean floors so as to scrape off the surface layers against the
growing continents. A careful study of S. K. Runcorn's and
P. M. S. Blackett's work on palaeomagnetism might enable
us to trace the earlier positions and orientations of continents,
but a complete re-examination of world geology is needed.
Once I liked the view of the earth propounded by the
North American geologists and Jeffreys that the earth's interior
is solid and crisp like the image in a photograph, but now I
appreciate the greater scope and challenge offered by the
swirling vision of convection currents that makes the earth
look more like a painting by Van Gogh. The discoveries made
on the ocean floors and in palaeomagnetism seem to demand
this change in view to a picture of a more mobile earth.
x^ x jsSSSSSSSsSSa
I I I I III
THE OCEANS 257
The seas T which fill the ocean basins, hiding their dark
floors from view, themselves provide other mysteries no less
challenging. As soon as ocean navigation began, sailors real-
ized that currents flowed in the surface of the sea. The most
famous of these, the Gulf Stream, was mapped by Benjamin
Franklin- Recognition of the Humboldt Current off Chile
and Peru, of the Kuroshio Current off Japan, and of the equa-
torial currents followed, until a picture of the regular move-
ments of the surface currents of the oceans was completed.
Many of the surface currents follow the direction of prevailing
winds, but currents in general are formed and directed by
four main factors: gravity, wind, the rotation of the earth, and
the shape of the ocean basins.
The rotation of the earth and the prevailing winds cause
the currents to be most intense close to the western sides of
oceans. Thus, the Gulf Stream, moving at 3 to 5 knots off
the coast of Florida, is much faster than any current off the
opposite European shore. Investigation has also shown that
whereas the western edge of the Gulf Stream is sharp enough,
even if it snakes about rather unsteadily, the eastern edge is
ill defined. Indeed, the whole Atlantic circulation is somewhat
like the rotation of a large merry-go-round, with its centre in
the Sargasso Sea.
The study of surface currents is comparatively simple, but
deep currents are much more elusive and our knowledge of
them is still far from complete. The methods developed for
the plotting of air currents have not simplified our task here
because, unfortunately, the problems are quite dissimilar. In
the transparent and rapidly moving atmosphere the com-
ponents are well mixed and constant, but the wind currents
can easily be traced by releasing balloons and watching the
direction and rate of their progress. The seas, however, are
opaque, and until 1956 no means of observing their currents
directly had been devised. But the components of the sea are
258 I G Y : The Year of the New Moons
not well mixed, and currents retain their separate identity for
great distances, as anyone knows who has seen the waters of
the Amazon, and other great rivers, staining the sea miles off
the coast. The traditional method of tracking the path of an
ocean current flowing far beneath the surface involved taking
thousands of samples of ocean water by lowering bottles on
long wire lines. By linking together the points from which
identical samples had been drawn, the paths of deep currents
were plotted. But this labour yielded no information on the
rate at which the currents flowed.
The currents in the sea tend to form separate layers flowing
in different directions, each layer denser than the one above
it. Very cold water and very salty water constitute the heaviest
layers. The very cold water generated off Antarctica could be
traced along the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean as far north
as the Bay of Biscay; at shallower depths warm tropical waters
flowed south, toward Antarctica. If it were possible to devise
a float so sensitive to pressure that it could maintain itself
at a predetermined depth, it would be born along in one of
these layers in the depths of the sea. In 1956 J. C. Swallow,
of the British National Institute of Oceanography, succeeded
in developing such a float. It was equipped with sound trans-
mitters by which surface ships could track its course. During
the IGY the American research vessel Atlantis, of Woods Hole
Oceanographic Institution, and the Discovery II, from the
British National Institute, on a cruise off the United States
coast demonstrated by means of this device that a strong south-
westward current flows at a depth of two miles below the Gulf
Stream, in the opposite direction, at a rate of as much as a
third of a knot. Another co-operative voyage by British,
French, and Norwegian vessels some 400 miles off the west
coast of Spain and Portugal revealed a current flowing at a
rate of one or two miles a day, at a depth of about 4,000 feet,
260 I G Y : The Year of the New Moons
counter to the surface current. These floats have also shown
that submarine currents do not flow smoothly but contain
eddies which move much faster than the average flow and
which may be the cause of sand ripples photographed on the
ocean floor.
Exploration has recently revealed a very complex system
of currents along the equator in the Pacific Ocean. In 1948
an American oceanographer, T. Cromwell, noticed that some
deep-fishing lines were carried east against the westward flow
of the surface current. Subsequently, the Cromwell Current
has been found to lie at depths of between 100 and 800 feet,
to be 250 miles wide, and to move eastward with velocities
of up to 3.5 knots. It is located exactly along the equator and
directly beneath the South Equatorial Current, which flows
in the opposite direction. The Cromwell Current has a flow
over a thousand times that of the Mississippi River. To date
it has been traced for 3,500 miles from the Galapagos Islands
to the International Date Line, but it may cross the whole
Pacific Ocean and be 6,500 miles long.
Beneath the Cromwell Current flows another 7 weaker, west-
ward current. Thus, there are three currents, one above the
other, flowing in alternate directions. The full story is even
more complex, for two more currents flow beside them. On
the surface, beside the South Equatorial Current, lies the
North Equatorial Current, which, as expected, flows in the
opposite direction. Beneath it, in turn, a fifth current flows
counter to it, as the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, us-
ing Swallow floats, has shown.
These currents follow the equator because of the rotation
of the earth. Rotation, along with the difference in tempera-
ture between the equator and the poles, creates the trade
winds, blowing from northeast and southeast toward the
equator. These winds peel away the surface water at the equa-
tor, causing an upsurge of cooler, deep water. And these fac-
THE OCEANS 261
tors, in some indirect manner not yet fully understood, give
rise to complex patterns of currents and counter-currents.
The rise of the deep water has another effect. The warm,
sunlit surface waters of the tropical seas form a vast incubator
for all sorts of marine life, which could not be supported were
it not for the constant supply of phosphates and other nutri-
ents welling up from the depths. Beneath this area, teeming
with life, lies a submarine cemetery in the form of a low
ridge of fossils. According to marine palaeontologists, these
fossils form an equatorial ridge 900 feet high and 360 miles
wide which extends right across the Pacific Ocean.
Finally, in the Southern Ocean there has long been known
to exist a sharp dividing line between the bitterly cold waters
that surround Antarctica and the somewhat wanner waters
of the other oceans. It has generally been supposed that this
line marks the place at which the cold Antarctic water sinks
to the bottom before flowing north. The line is called the
Antarctic Convergence. During the IGY the many ships navi-
gating to Antarctica added greatly to our knowledge of the
Convergence, which may be much more complex than had
been thought. Here again investigation has only served to
reveal the immensity of the problem.
Sailors and harbour masters long ago found that since tides
are closely related to the phases of the moon, careful observa-
tion for a few months at any particular spot would enable
them to predict tides there. A few harbours installed perma-
nent tide-gauges, and over the years these have indicated that
on the average sea level is slowly rising. Compared with tides,
which are measured in feet or tens of feet, the long-range
changes in sea level of a few inches a century are slight There
used to be so few tide-gauges that it was difficult to obtain
accurate measurements, but during the IGY many maritime
powers installed them. A good number of gauges are needed
because any one of them may be rendered unreliable by
262
I G Y : The Year of the New Moons
changes in the pattern of the weather or by movements as-
sociated with earthquakes or the settling of the land. A par-
ticular effort was made to put gauges on remote islands where
they would be subject to fewer disturbing influences. The nu-
Antarciic Convergence
Position of the Antarctic Convergence, where the cold
Antarctic waters appear to sink beneath warmer waters
from the north. Notice its close relation to the zone of
strongest westerly winds.
merous additional gauges installed during the IGY showed
that in many places the average level of the sea was higher
at some seasons than at others. For example, in July 1958
at Bermuda, sea level was observed to be 9 inches higher
THE OCEANS 263
than in August. Such changes seem to be largely due to the
transport of great masses of water about the earth by winds.
They may also be partly due to the heating and expansion
of sea water during summer. It should be possible to relate
such changes to minute alterations in the earth's rotation.
To obtain information with which to discriminate between
the effects of temperature and wind, some tidal stations during
the IGY recorded the temperatures of the sea water below the
gauges to depths of 1,000 feet. Such an installation on Pitcairn
Island was tended by a descendant of a mutineer from H.M.S,
Bounty.
During the last war the many landing operations on beaches
aroused a great interest in waves, and it was discovered that
several types could be distinguished. There are waves caused
by local winds; there are swells of longer wave-length which
have travelled thousands of miles from their origin in distant
storms; there are surges, long-period waves, like the seiches,
which cause rapid changes of a few feet in the level of the
water in the Great Lakes; and there are tsunami, or seismic
waves, caused by displacement of the ocean floor by submarine
flows triggered by earthquakes. At many places special gauges
were installed to record these phenomena.
In addition, the IGY saw many miscellaneous projects in
oceanography. Photographs were taken of the ocean floor.
New fish and invertebrates were discovered at great depths.
The carbon-dioxide content of deep ocean waters was studied,
for it is important to know whether it is increasing as a result
of the burning of coal and petroleum.
Samples of carbon-i4, obtained from the depths, were used
to time the circulation of water in the oceans. California
oceanographers found that deep water from latitude 10 north
in the Pacific had not been at the surface for nineteen hun-
dred years but that farther south, at latitude 45 south in
the same longitude, the deep water had been at the surface
264 I G Y : The Year of the New Moons
thirteen hundred years ago. Since both these were, supposedly,
samples from the current that sinks from the surface along
the Antarctic Convergence and flows slowly northward, we can
gauge the rate at which the waters flow. It would appear that
the bottom current in the Pacific flows northward at a rate of
about 8 miles a year.
The rate of flow and counter-flow of the oceans dictates
the quantity of life in the sea. Without upwelling currents,
the surface waters, in which light and warmth can support
abundant life, would soon be eaten bare of their dissolved
nutrients- Thus, the best fisheries are located where warm
surface waters and cold rising currents mingle. In some areas,
such as along the coast of Peru, under certain conditions
of the winds the fertilizing currents fail. In those years the
fisheries fail, the sea birds die, and there is famine in the sea.
CHAPTER 21
HAWAII
AND NEW ZEALAND
NOVEMBER 1958
On October 29, 1958, a month after returning from China,
I left home again to join an inspection team from the United
States National Academy of Sciences on board a military
air-transport plane bound for a six weeks* tour of bases in
Antarctica.
On the way there, and again coming back, our party stopped
in Hawaii and inspected geophysical activities. On the island
of Oahu at a point only a few miles' drive along the pictur-
esque coast from Waikiki Beach and Diamond Head we
visited a solar radio telescope run by physicists of the Uni-
versity of Hawaii, but the main IGY bases are on the largest
islands, Maui and Hawaii. On Maui, in the great extinct
crater of Haleakala there is a meteorological station and a
large observatory for tracking satellites. While some of the
party visited it, others flew the 200 miles to Hilo, on Hawaii,
whence we drove nearly to the top of the great active volcano
Mauna Loa.
266 IGY : The Year of the New Moons
Hawaii is really a multiple island made up of five separate
volcanoes on an older part of the mid-ocean ridge. Mauna
Loa and Mauna Kea, rising to 13,600 and 13,825 feet respec-
tively, are the dominant peaks, the latter being the tallest
mountain on earth if one measures its height from its base on
the ocean floor 20,000 feet below sea level. Mauna Loa erupts
at times, but Kilauea, one of the smaller peaks, has more nu-
merous and spectacular eruptions, the last starting in Decem-
ber 1959 and continuing into 1960. There is a permanent
volcano observatory there.
The road we followed climbed steadily for 40 miles. At first
we passed fields of sugar and other crops by the edge of the
road, then miles of tropical forests which gradually thinned
out Rocks showed through the moss. Over them sparse
trees reached out their branches trying to close the open wood-
lands, but they seemed unable to maintain the effort and as we
rose they grew more stunted and faded, till only bushes and
tussocks of grass lined the hollows in the rock. Suddenly we
passed on to a recent flow of lava and from there to the top
the road ran over a lifeless slag-heap. There was nothing but
crusts of lava, solidified in tortuous whorls, where the viscid,
seething mass had frozen. The black, shiny surface was
scarred to reddish dust and clinkers where the road had been
roughly scraped over the martian landscape. We bumped and
jolted up and over this wilderness while the air grew chilly
and the sun overhead more and more blinding.
At 11,150 feet, the road stopped in front of three huts. We
stepped out, surprised at the surrounding stillness. A mist so
thin that it only accentuated the brilliance of the sun brought
a flurry of snowflakes sweeping up the mountainside. A grey
puff of cloud from the approaching squall whistled up the
slope, carrying the circle of a perfect rainbow like a halo on
its silver head.
From the tropical airport we had driven to the snowline.
HAWAII AND NEW ZEALAND 267
It was windy and cold, and in spite of the desolate beauty of
the scene, we were glad to enter one of the huts and be greeted
by the isolated inhabitants three American scientists.
This station, and much of the road leading to it, was built
as part of a special program of weather studies initiated by
the United States Weather Bureau. The research director of
the Weather Bureau, Harry Wexler, was one of our team and
he explained the program to us. The IGY had provided the
opportunity to build several new meteorological stations in
remote places, six in Antarctica, two on drifting stations on
the Arctic sea ice, and this one at a great elevation and far
from any mainland in the tropics. In addition to regular
weather observations, these stations were making special
studies of the radiation arriving from the sun and of the pro-
portion of that radiation reflected back into space, of the
amounts of ozone, of carbon dioxide, and of nuclear fall-out
in the atmosphere. The results at these remote sites, uncon-
taminated by industrial pollution^ provided calibration for
comparison with regular stations nearer to industry and to
nuclear-test sites, and gave some indications of the direction
and rapidity of circulation and mixing in the atmosphere.
For example, the quantity in the atmosphere of carbon dioxide
produced by burning fuels varies from day to day, through a
range of as much as 60 per cent in Europe, but at Mauna
Loa the range is only i per cent, and at Little America
only 0.3 per cent. The last two values provide a standard
against which the variations in settled regions can be checked.
At Mauna Loa we were shown the chemical apparatus for
measuring the quantities of different gases present in the at-
mosphere, and the optical instruments and balloons used for
sampling them at great heights. We also saw the mechanical
filters that sample the air for fall-out. Fans suck measured
volumes of air through filters, trapping the radioactive dust
blown into the air by nuclear explosions. By counting the
268 IGY : The Year of the AVvv Moons
radioactivity of the exposed filters, scientists are able to obtain
a measure of the nuclear radiation, or fall-out, which is con-
taminating the air. Outside we inspected the radiometers and
found that in spite of the cold we got more sunburned than
the sun-bathers on the beaches below. Because we were above
much of the atmosphere, we were unshielded and received
more solar radiation than anyone on the beaches at sea level.
It is known that the radiant heat from the sun is trapped
by the ozone, water vapour, and carbon dioxide in the earth's
atmosphere. Careful measurements of these constituents and
of the incoming and outgoing radiation at different localities
will make it possible to determine the relative importance of
these factors. When their roles are better understood and their
variations have been charted, we can hope to understand the
influence they have on changes in weather and climate and
thus make better forecasts.
When we came out after lunch, the storm had cleared and
we looked across the island of Hawaii to Mauna Kea, a giant
among mountains, and a very broad one, for the lava of which
it is built has flowed freely to give the slopes a gentle angle.
Although the eruptions of the Hawaiian and other volcanoes
on mid-ocean ridges are at times spectacular, hot basalt flows
freely and does not give rise to terrible explosions like those
that have killed tens of thousands of people around such
andesite volcanoes as Krakatoa or Mont Pel6e. Andesite, even
when hot, is a more viscid lava than basalt. As a result, pres-
sure builds up in these volcanoes and they are more likely to
explode. Thus, the andesite volcanoes of the continental frac-
ture system are more dangerous than the basalt volcanoes of
the remote ocean islands. Awesome and terrible as volcanic
eruptions may appear, neither kind is comparable in danger
to humans to the insidious hazards that would arise from
abundant radioactive fall-out.
CD
270 I G Y : The Year of the New Moons
From Hawaii we flew south to Canton Island on the
equator. This island is a ring of limestone built of coral on the
peak of an ancient volcano on the mid-ocean ridge, extinct
and now slowly subsiding. On this lonely atoll an airstrip had
been built during the war, and there we stopped to refuel. It
is so small that one can walk from the strip to the coral beach
and look amid the breakers for pieces of coral and the
shells of giant clams, but in the black and breathless midnight
of that visit good shells \vere hard to find.
It is difficult to imagine a greater contrast than that be-
tween Canton Island on the one hand and Hawaii, Fiji, and
New Zealand on the other. Whereas the others are mountain-
ous, lush, and tropical, Canton is a flat and lifeless desert with-
out vegetation or any supplies of natural fresh water. On the
equator the air currents rise straight up, and the moisture-
bringing winds of most tropical islands do not reach there. Ly-
ing in the equatorial doldrums, Canton is like a misplaced
fragment of the Sahara.
When we reached New Zealand, we paused. These islands
are remote and their people welcomed the influx of American
visitors en route to Antarctica. Very kindly the New Zealand-
ers offered to drive us through much of their pleasant land
so that we might visit universities and observatories and talk
to the scientists there.
I like to think of New Zealand as the youngest and smallest
of the continents. The thought that New Zealand is a con-
tinent in the first bloom of youth is a happy one. It is indeed
a perfect miniature, compounded of the best and fairest scen-
ery that the earth can offer. The only counterpart to which
I can liken it would be Switzerland and Italy, if they were
islands set in a remote ocean and inhabited by only two mil-
lion unhurried and uncrowded people.
The history of New Zealand is well summarized in the
inscription on a monument to the Maori people at Auckland,
HAWAII AND NEW ZEALAND 271
New Zealand, "The first known Maori to visit these shores
was Kupe, a Polynesian navigator, in the year 925. The first
settlement under Toi took place in 1350, when the ancestors
of the present Maori race arrived in the now historic canoes,
Tainui, Aruva, Mata-atua, Aotea, Tahitumu, Horoute, Toho-
maru, and others. In 1840 the Treaty of Waitangi was signed
whereby the Maoris accepted the sovereignty of the British
Crown and were thereby secure in all their rights and privileges
as British Subjects/ 7
It is only necessary to add that the first European to dis-
cover and explore the islands was Captain James Cook in
1775, and that the terms of the treaty have been observed.
North Island is the part like Italy. From semi-tropical plains
and sand beaches around Auckland, one drives south through
valleys of hot springs, past active volcanoes, and over upland
pastures, to Wellington, the capital. There a ferry, which is a
small ocean liner, takes one overnight to South Island. This is
like Switzerland. Along its western coast are forests, beautiful
fiords, and the snow-covered Southern Alps. From them, open
plains sweep to the towns and beaches along the eastern shore.
One of these towns, Christchurch, is the traditional point of
departure for the Antarctic.
Nothing is very large in New Zealand, but the scenery is
ever varying. The only constant feature is the sea, which laps
the beaches and the cliff-foot at the end of every road.
In this idyllic setting live an easy-going, athletic people. To
a truly remarkable degree their society is uniform and class-
less. No one appears to be wealthy, the hotels are few and not
luxurious, the shops are not distinguished. One of our hosts
said that there was only one really good restaurant in all New
Zealand, but I found the hotel meals excellent. On the other
hand, no one is illiterate and no one feels the pinch of pov-
erty. The universities may be poorly housed and lack facilities
for research, but their standards are high, their museums
272 I G Y : The Year of the New Moons
imaginative, and their libraries and bookstores both numerous
and good.
There may be few mansions and few large cars, but every-
one has a car, even if it is small and perhaps old. Everyone
either lives in the country or goes to it for long week-ends.
The New Zealanders are fully aware of the glory of their empty
land, and they revel in the ease with which they can drive to
the beaches for a swim, to the mountains for skiing and climb-
ing, to the streams for fishing or simply walk the open roads
through unspoiled country. The price they pay for these
pleasures is remoteness and strategic weakness, as was brought
home to them in the last war. They are dependent for their
livelihood on foreign trade, and as a result they are interested
in the affairs of the world and have excellent news services.
They rely largely on radio communication for knowledge of
the rest of the world.
On these islands, earthquakes and volcanoes are common-
place. Wellington, like San Francisco, has through it an active
fault on which there was a very large earthquake in 1855.
Auckland and Christchurch are both surrounded by extinct
craters. Their weather, blown from vast and empty oceans, is
variable and difficult to predict. The International Geophysi-
cal Year was thus received by New Zealanders with immense
interest, because it dealt with problems plain for them to see.
New Zealand carried on a large and vigorous IGY program
both on its home islands and on the nearest part of Antarctica.
Since that part also happens to be the easiest gateway to the
interior of the continent, many explorers Scott, Shackleton,
and the Americans since the first Byrd expedition have used
New Zealand as their jumping-off place. During the IGY the
Antarctic operations of New Zealand and the United States
were closely integrated on a most friendly and cordial basis.
By the time that I visited New Zealand, the IGY programs
were in a general way familiar to me. In an observatory at
HAWAII AND NEW ZEALAND 273
Wellington I was particularly interested to see a Danjon astro-
labe, an instrument used for making measurements of changes
in latitude and longitude. Designed by one of the leading
French scientists of the IGY, it eliminates inaccuracies due
to human judgement. Slight changes in latitude and longitude
are attributed to a slight wobbling of the earth upon its axis,
but we do not yet know whether the movements are progres-
sive. If they are, observations carried on over a period of time
should confirm this and show whether the poles of the earth
are moving relative to the earth as a whole or whether there
is in addition a relative motion between different parts of the
earth.
Because New Zealand is an isolated island, it is an obvious
place to look for evidence of continental drift. At the present
time we not only are not sure about the existence or rate of
these motions but we also do not know whether the continents
are growing. The evidence, I believe, suggests that they are.
Continents, like humans, go through an infant stage, then
youth, and in maturity, marriage and the union of several in-
dividuals into a family. The principal continents probably
all started over two billion years ago as separate islands. Vol-
canoes on the margins of these islands fed them with lava
from within the earth. The lava was eroded into sedimentary
rocks, and these were piled up into mountains, which after
long periods were levelled off. As the islands grew, they joined
together, forming compound units. If this view is correct,
the three centres from which North America developed
were cemented into the heart of the continent and worn down
to plains. These centres, which two billion years ago were three
separate volcanic islands, now form the bed-rock of large
areas lying north of Lake Superior, north of Great Slave Lake,
and under the plains of Montana and Wyoming. The bound-
aries, and indeed the very existence of these continental nuclei,
have only been ascertained in recent years by studies of the
274 I G Y : The Year of the New Moons
age of natural radioactive minerals, which act as clocks. After
these centres had been joined, the Appalachian Mountains
and, more recently, the Cordillera were added. At present the
continent is active and growing along its entire west coast and
along the Caribbean. Inexorably, but extremely slowly, the
land is being built out unto the Pacific and towards South
America. Like an egg that has cracked while being boiled so
that gouts of white ooze out upon the shell, so has the earth
cracked and exuded its continents. This opinion that the
continents are growing is supported by evidence that the
oceans and the atmosphere are also increasing through the
addition of steam and gases from volcanoes. New Zealand
may be a new continent in its first stage of growth.
This account may seem fanciful to some, for it is not what
the old school taught, but the wider shores of knowledge of
the universe which have been opened to our view through the
windows of physics are forcing a complete reorientation in
our ideas about the earth. In all, I think the simplest explana-
tion of the origin of our surroundings is that the earth, in its
youth, melted and then froze to a rather smooth surface,
without any atmosphere or oceans. That surface is now buried.
Everything above it crust, air, and oceans has been ex-
truded from within the earth by slow volcanic action, such as
we see today. The original surface may be the Mohorovicic
discontinuity, or it may be some shallower level within the
crust. Drilling the Mohole will help us to find out.
If the continents and the waters of the oceans are both
growing, then one would expect the seas to flood and submerge
the low plains of the continents. The fact that this has not
happened, except to a minor extent, is an argument for the
theory of an expanding earth, ff the mid-ocean ridges are
widening along their central cracks, the increase in the ocean
basins can provide room for the waters flowing from within.
If the continents are growing, then the large islands that
AWAII AND NEW ZEALAND 275
je them, like the West Indies, Madagascar, Greenland,
mesia, and the island chains along the Pacific shores of
, are all destined to become incorporated. Some of the is-
s, like Madagascar and Greenland, seem to have been
i as small independent continents, but in the vast history
te earth they would appear to have no long future as sepa-
entities. New Zealand, born a mere five hundred million
; ago, made of the stuff of continents, growing by con-
ital processes, far removed from other lands, is perhaps
; ned some day, a billion years after man's brief span, to
the race of giants the continents. Other remote islands,
Hawaii and Canton in the Pacific, or Iceland, the Azores,
Ascension in the Atlantic, lie on the mid-ocean ridge and
Qg to a different race, not destined to grow. They are
infant Herculeses, but scions of a separate pygmy stock,
basalt lavas of the mid-ocean ridge are not poured out
tdantly and hence do not constitute as rich a food on
h to grow as is provided by the more numerous andesite
inoes of the continents* If in future ages these basalt is-
s are carried into collision with continents, they will be
whelmed, and New Zealand would be welded on as an
tion. Thus, the ocean floors and their remote islands are
oung and forever being renewed, but the continents are
ikable and old and like froth floating forever down the
of time above the slowly churning eddies of the mantle,
lis is the story of the origin of mountains, islands, and
inents as I see it. It is still very uncertain. In the last
de so many new discoveries and new suggestions have
made that our old ideas have been thoroughly shaken,
new concepts have not yet crystallized. In science such
ids of uncertainty mark the eras of greatest progress, for
; in flux and contradictions waiting to be reconciled spur
to his mightiest efforts. From the present confusion we
confidently expect vast and enduring concepts to emerge.
CHAPTER 22
FALL-OUT
Nuclear Radiation was the name given to the IGY program
that dealt with radiation caused by the decay of nuclear or
atomic particles in air, water, or on land. The term was an
unfortunate and confusing choice. Nuclear radiation refers to
the radioactive isotopes of chemical elements produced in
nuclear explosions and has nothing to do with the electro-
magnetic radiation that comes as waves of heat and light from
the sun.
The radioactive isotopes included in the study of nuclear
radiation are formed in four ways. Some were formed at the
time of creation, along with the other elements; some are pro-
duced by cosmic-ray bombardment; some are made artificially
in nuclear reactors; and some are generated in atomic explo-
sions*
Let us consider first the radioactive elements formed at the
time of creation. About a dozen isotopes of different elements
in nature have been found to be feebly radioactive and to de-
cay very slowly into isotopes which are stable. The continued
existence of some of these radioactive isotopes in spite of
the fact that they are constantly wasting away is only pos-
FALL-OUT 277
sible because they decay very slowly. Nevertheless, the im-
plication is that they were formed at a not infinitely remote
time. In fact, the rate of decay suggests that that time was
about five billion years ago. This is now considered to be the
probable date of the creation of all the elements in the solar
system, although the elements in stars other than the sun and
in other galaxies may have been formed at different, un-
known, times. The solar system, including the earth, took
shape out of these elements at a slightly later date, about four
and a half billion years ago.
Of the dozen long-lived isotopes found in nature, five are
quantitatively important: uranium-238, uranium-235, tho-
rium-232, rubidium-87, and potassium-4o. These isotopes are
widely scattered in small concentrations and occur almost ev-
erywhere in rocks, soil, water, and air, and even in human
beings. None of these elements is dangerous to handle, and
because the atmosphere very effectively shields us from most
of the radiation emanating from outer space, over three quar-
ters of all the radiation which affects us comes, and always
has come, from these five isotopes. These isotopes are useful
for determining the time when rocks were deposited, and
they provide the chief clocks for our time scale of the earth.
One of them, potassium-4o, is the source of most of the
radiation that humans and other animals receive because
it is a constituent of their bodies. Uranium and thorium do
not occur in normal tissues in appreciable amounts, but ra-
dium, one of the elements formed by the decay of tissue, is
found in small quantities in bones. Another, radon gas, can
be detected in the air. At a conference in Utrecht in 1957,
L. Machta pointed out that radon is constantly generated by
rocks and that it has a half-life of only three and a half days.
As a consequence, some air over land may have five hundred
times as much radon as air that has spent a long time over
the sea, where no radon is being generated. Since radon de-
278 I G Y : The Year of the New Moons
cays and is not renewed in air masses over the oceans, radon,
he suggested, can be used to identify air masses and to trace
their history. However, the proposal has not been widely put
into practice.
The second kind of natural radiation is produced by the un-
stable isotopes produced by cosmic-ray bombardment. Cos-
mic rays are in themselves a form of radiation; in addition,
they can knock other atoms about, creating radioactive iso-
topes which decay at a later time. The following are the iso-
topes so far discovered, with their average duration:
Beryllium-io 2,700,000 years
Carbon-i4 5,600 years
SiIicon-32 700 years
Hydrogen-3 (Tritium) 12,5 years
Sodium-22 2. 6 years
Sulphur-35 87 days
Beryllium-7 53 days
Phosphorous-33 25 days
Phosphorous-32 14 days
Chlorine-39 i hour
The most important of the isotopes produced by cosmic rays
is carbon-i4. According to J. R. Arnold and E. A. Martell,
it causes only about one per cent of the feeble internal radio-
activity present in humans, of which potassium-4o is the chief
contributor. In the whole atmosphere and oceans and in living
matter there are about 100 tons of this isotope, mostly in the
form of carbon-dioxide gas dissolved in the oceans. There is
about one ton in the atmosphere. Next in importance among
the products of cosmic rays is tritium, as the highly radioac-
tive isotope, hydrogen-3, is called. Before atomic bombs were
exploded, there were only about 20 pounds of this on earth.
The fact that such a small quantity could be detected even
g*
O* ^
^i
8
IP
s.s
IIU
a.l g
m 'S'Sg
2^1^
I S o
Sl^f
04
I
pooM
ui
ui 09B9JOUT
28o IGY : The Year of the New Moons
though it is thoroughly mixed with the atmosphere is an in-
dication of the powerful nature of radioactive poisons.
Until 1932 all radioactivity was formed naturally, in one of
these two ways. In that year Frederic and Irene Joliot-Curie
produced the first artificial radioisotopes, but they were not
created in large numbers until the first nuclear explosion in
1945. The third kind of nuclear radiation, then, is that arti-
ficially created in controlled laboratory machines and in nu-
clear reactors. Many of the radioactive isotopes so formed, like
cobalt-6o, are useful for the treatment of disease and for in-
dustrial purposes. Some of them are suitable for release in the
sea or air as markers and can be used like a dye to tag bodies
of water or masses of air so that movements and rates of dis-
persion can be measured.
Had these three been the only kinds of nuclear radiation,
their study might not have been included in the IGY, but
there is a fourth kind that resulting from explosion of
nuclear bombs. The descent to earth of the abundant artificial
radioactive isotopes created in atomic explosions is known as
fall-out. The isotopes generally fall incorporated in clouds of
very fine dust.
Although fall-out was already under investigation, much
of the work was secret. During the IGY additional data were
collected, and these were made available to the public. In
spite of the political implications, no less than forty countries
announced that they would participate in the program, and
data from over half of them, including some results from
Communist countries, had reached World Data Centre A in
Washington by the end of 1959. The U.S.S.R. did not partici-
pate in this program.
The enormous controversy that has been associated with
discussions of fall-out is of course a result of the potentially
lethal effects of fall-out. But these can only be understood
and guarded against if the physical phenomena with which
FALL-OUT 281
fall-out is associated are understood. Fortunately, a study of
fall-out has revealed information of value about atmospheric
circulation.
After any nuclear explosion many tiny solid particles are
carried up into the atmosphere. This fine dust is radioactive,
for it contains about one hundred different radioactive isotopes
created during the explosion as products of nuclear fission.
Their relative abundance can tell much about the bomb that
was their source. If the explosion takes place on the ground,
the radioactive isotopes are more numerous than if it takes
place high in the air or over water. If the explosion is large,
such as that caused by a megaton H-bomb, a heavy fall-out
occurs near the site during the first few hours, but a fireball
carries the rest of the isotopes into the stratosphere, which
begins at a height of from 30,000 to 55,000 feet. Once in the
stratosphere, the particles are above the sources of rainfall.
At one time it was thought that they would remain there as
long as five years; this is now less certain. If, on the other
hand, the explosion is smaller, such as from a kiloton A-bomb,
then the fireball does not rise so high but remains in the lower
atmosphere, or troposphere. In this case the radioactive dust
is all brought down with rain and snow in a few months. Due
to the nature of tropospheric circulation, little of this fall-out
crosses the equator; most of it comes down in the hemisphere
in which the explosion takes place. Stratospheric fall-out is the
more important because, being generated by large explosions,
it is more abundant, and because it may reach all parts of
the world.
The IGY program concentrated on collecting data about
the fall-out due to small solid particles in various parts of the
world. This was done either by exposing sheets of gummed
paper to the air and measuring their radioactivity, or by pump-
ing measured volumes of air through suitable filters to trap
the tiny particles. The apparatus we saw in operation on
Sr -90 in the slrafcosphetfc (icrocuries per square mile)
Theoretical estimate of strontium-9o in the stratosphere (above 40,000
feet) based upon the assumption that half of the strontium-go will
fall out in five years and that there will be no more nuclear tests.
283
Mauna Loa was an example of the latter procedure. One un-
expected result of these studies has been a great increase in
our knowledge of the circulation of the upper air.
At first it was supposed that the main fall-out from large
explosions would settle down from the stratosphere very
slowly and at a uniform rate all over the world. But the fall-out,
it was discovered, settled much more rapidly than had been
envisaged. In particular, large and small Soviet test explosions
in mid-latitudes resulted in much heavier falls in the northern
than in the southern hemisphere. On the other hand, the fall-
out from large American and British explosions in the equa-
torial regions came down from the stratosphere at a slower
rate. It was then realized that in mid-latitudes mixing might
occur between the troposphere and stratosphere in the vicinity
of the strong currents known as jet-streams. Such mixing in
mid-latitudes would explain the faster rate of fall-out from
Soviet explosions in Siberia, and the absence of mixing over
the equator would account for the slower rate of fall-out there.
The matter was explored further in experiments conducted
during the last American tests. The metals tungsten and
rhodium were incorporated into the bombs to produce unu-
sual radioisotopes, and the particles tagged in this way con-
firmed the earlier theories. In this way bomb tests have been
used to improve our knowledge of circulation in the upper
atmosphere.
Other measurements have shown that as a result of nuclear
explosions the amount of carbon-i4 in the atmosphere has
doubled from one to two tons and the amount of tritium has
increased from 20 to 100 pounds. But the effects of these in-
creases are not yet serious; the total radiation so produced is
still far less than the radioactivity of natural uranium, tho-
rium, and potassium.
It is of interest to mention the possible effects of fall-out
on human beings. The particular danger of fall-out is that of
CO
LO
LO
0%
tn
Structure of upper atmosphere as revealed by fall-out. From small
explosions it drops locally and quickly. However, in high latitudes fall-
out from large explosions leaks down in the same hemisphere more
quickly than fall-out in equatorial regions.
286 IGY : The Year of the New Moons
about a hundred products of fission, four tend to be trapped
in the human body. Hence, they can easily become concen-
trated in sufficient amounts to produce dangerous radioactive
radiation within humans. Two of these radioactive isotopes,
iodine-i3i and barium-i4o, have short lives and can only be
dangerous for a few weeks or months after an explosion. Stron-
tium-go and cesium-137, however, collect in bones and flesh
respectively and remain dangerous for periods comparable with
the span of human life.
Fall-out is not entirely new; it is an addition to a natural
phenomenon that has always existed. We have to consider
separately the dangers to existing creatures and to future gen-
erations. We must also distinguish between the dangers of
the present situation, which is not generally regarded as seri-
ous, and the dangers that may arise if nuclear explosions and
atomic waste are allowed to continue to contaminate the air
and water. Natural radioactivity is not dangerous, but exposure
to massive doses of radiation, such as have been released in
a few accidents in nuclear physics laboratories, is quickly
lethal. Between these extremes is a very wide range, and we
have not yet had enough experience to fix the safety limits.
Natural radiation causes genetic changes by occasionally
damaging the very complex molecules through which charac-
teristics are transmitted. Most genetic changes, or mutations,
are harmful, and we know that natural radiation already
creates some imperfect offspring. But no one knows the ex-
tent to which these effects would be increased by increases in
radioactivity. If a certain increase in radioactivity would pro-
duce congenital defects in one birth in a million, or cancer
in one person in a million, then, some have argued, this is
not very important and the necessity of testing weapons for
defence purposes justifies the increaed suffering. Others em-
phasize that there are 2,500 million people in the world and
FALL-OUT 287
that to cause 2,500 more children to be deformed or 2,500
more people to suffer from cancer is intolerable.
Biologists are now hard at work on these problems, for
it is certain that we need additional information not only in
the event of other nuclear explosions, but also in order to be
able to control the hazards produced by natural radioactivity
and by the operation of nuclear reactors for peaceful uses.
In July 1959 a study by the New York Operations Office
of the United States Atomic Energy Commission was pub-
lished, comparing the effects of the existing level of fall-out
with natural radioactivity. The report states that "the maxi-
mum foreseeable dose from strontium-go in the New York
area is thereby estimated to be about 5 per cent of the dose
due to natural radioactivity." This does not sound like a very
serious increase, until one realizes that the distribution is not
uniform. J. L. Kulp has made extensive studies of the varia-
tions and concludes that whereas many children will be
subject to less than the average increase of 5 per cent, some
will be exposed to more, and a few to much more, as much
as double, or 200 per cent of the natural amount. According
to Kulp, even if no more atomic bombs are exploded, the dose
in most children will continue to increase until 1966, as they
absorb more and more of the strontium-go already formed.
After that time, the natural decay of strontium-go will ex-
ceed the amount eaten and absorbed. The present situation,
it would seem, is not alarming, but additional explosions
would be certain to increase the hazard, unless they were
confined below ground.
CHAPTER 23
ANTARCTICA
NOVEMBER 1958
The last outbound stage in my travels was from New
Zealand to Antarctica. It is a journey which only a few thou-
sand men and a dozen women have ever made. All of them
must have been impressed, for as the fields and gardens, the
forests and the towns of New Zealand fade behind, one leaves
the land of familiar things to enter scenes of icy splendour, of
grandeur and desolation, and of human endeavours unmatched
on earth.
Antarctica is unlike any other continent. Uninhabited and
virtually without life, it is still entirely in the ice age. Sepa-
rated from other lands by thousands of miles of sea and storm,
it is isolated and alone. It is the land of the absolute. No one
comes here casually. Every action must be planned; nothing
can be left to chance. It is a continent of extremes and of
contrasts where there is no middle way.
On November 6 we got up at dawn, had breakfast, and
drove through silent streets bathed in the golden misty light
of spring sunrise, to the airfield at Christchurch. Every house
was shut and dark, but in the wonderful New Zealand gardens
the walls and fences overflowed with roses and wistaria. In
ANTARCTICA 289
the low orange light the grass glistened, but in the shadows
it was white with drops of dew. At the airfield we clambered
up the steps to the plane, feeling clumsy, self-conscious, and
hot in mulduks and padded trousers, unbuttoned woollen
shirts and underwear, and carrying bags full of parkas and
mittens, sun glasses and scarves, which seemed so unneces-
sary at Christchurch but which would be vital at our destina-
tion. At the moment they served to remind us how long our
journey would be and how far removed from the ordinary
world was the polar continent.
Strapped in our seats and facing backwards in the United
States Navy's Super Constellation, sixty-five of us scientists,
Navy men, and newspaper correspondents saw the green
coasts and distant hills of South Island slip away in the sun-
light as we plunged into the decks of cloud that swirl over
the Southern Ocean. For many hours little was to be seen but
grey clouds, and through them glimpses of the dark and
churning ocean whose waves broke into plumes of flying foam
before and swathes of breaking surf behind. By radio we
learned that the weather ship at the halfway point was rolling
up to 55 degrees in 1 8-foot waves.
Then we saw the ice. At first I was not sure whether the
white patches might not be just the crests of breaking waves,
but soon bigger pieces of a blue-white colour were unmistak-
able. At the next break in the clouds, the whole sea was cov-
ered with pans of ice rocking slowly up and down as a steady
swell rolled past them. Finally the motion died away, and
the sea below was covered with an apparently motionless but
broken pack of ice, frozen last winter and now gradually thaw-
ing and breaking up under the continuous play of summer
sun and southern winds. From this thin skin upon the ocean
protruded a few much higher icebergs that had last year broken
off the Antarctic ice cliffs and glaciers and had drifted this
far to the north before being frozen in the pack.
290 IGY : The Year of the New Moons
Each winter the sea around Antarctica freezes for a distance
of hundreds of miles, and each spring the ice breaks up; some
of it drifts north and melts, but it never all thaws before being
caught and frozen again. Ships venturing to Antarctica must
always force their way through it.
As we approached the continent some seven hours and 2,000
miles after leaving New Zealand, the sky cleared. The sun's
reflection from the ice dazzled us, until we put on dark glasses.
Then we saw it in the distance the land of Antarctica as
white and brilliant as the sea ice, but standing up bold and
formidable in mighty cliffs and mountains. Our first sight-
ing was not of the mainland but of the inaccessible Balleny
Islands, mile-high volcanoes scintillating in the sun. We esti-
mated that they were between 30 and 50 miles away, but such
is the magnitude and clarity of the polar scene that, as we
later learned from the radar operator, our nearest approach
was 102 miles. They are outposts off Antarctica on the mid-
ocean ridge.
Soon afterwards we passed over Capes Adare and Hallet,
headlands of the coast, whose bold cliffs mark the corner
where the Ross Sea joins the Southern Ocean and whose black
rocks stem the flood of inland ice.
The whole continent is covered with a smooth sheet of ice
which floods and pours o 
