Following the completion of an expedition to the inaccessible Dome A, Chinese scientists plan to kick off another expedition to the Antarctica inland, heading for the Grove Mountains in 2005 and 2006. According to a briefing by officials from the State Oceanography Bureau, the expedition will collect meteoroids, map geological terrains, and study ice cover evolutions (glacier terrains, core elements of cosmos genesis, and paleontology) over the Grove Mountains, some 460 km distant from China?痵 Zhong Shan Station.
China started its expeditions to the Grove Mountains as early as in 1996. Chinese scientists had made three comprehensive expeditions to the area in the past decade. China?痵 22nd expedition team will implement the latest expedition to the Grove Mountains. The expedition team is made up of the scientists selected from 11 research institutes, including Institute of Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, part of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Institute of Geomechanics under the Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences, and Chinese Antarctica Center of Surveying and Mapping. So far the team has completed the organizing and member selection processes. The team plans to start its journey heading for the Antarctica in November 2005, aboard the Snow Dragon, a polar expedition boat. |
