Geomagnetism

The main objectives are: 1. installation of an Italian geomagnetic observatory in Antarctica; 2. ground geomagnetic survey of the Terra Nova Bay area; 3. remote geomagnetic stations for studies of induction phenomena from magnetovariations magmatic rocks; 4. magnetic properties of Antarctic rocks and paleomagnetism studies. The objectives have been reached: the summer geomagnetic observatory was quickly assembled at point 9 of the base planimetric map and began its activity (point 1); for point (2), 7 transects with an average width of 5 km and length varying from a min. of 15 km (BL 1/2) to a max. of 100 km (BZ 1/2) for a total of 274 stations on 430 km of profile were created, and the results compared with the aeromagnetic data of German colleagues; for point (3), three remote geomagnetic stations have been installed at Mount Nansen, Calfee Nunatak and Capsize Glacier respectively and data were collected from 31-12-87 until 10-02-88 when they were removed; finally (point 4), 1312 magnetic susceptibility measurements were collected on igneous, metamorphic, volcanic and sedimentary rocks in different areas of Victoria Land. As for the paleomagnetic survey, it has been carried out a paleomagnetic sampling on volcanic rocks in collaboration with the Volcanism and Geothermal line. This activity was addressed by the investigation on the 10 sites around Mount Melbourne, and with a collection of 43 oriented samples to study at laboratory in Italy.