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Other Drifting Ice Stations of the late 1970's to early 1980's |
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QSLnet/KGØYH page last updated 08 August 2009 1947Z |
Canadian scientists learned more about the high Arctic in two other projects called FRAM I and LOREX. LOREX, primarily a Canadian program, was manned by Canadians under the leadership of Dr. Hans Weber and Dr. Sweeney from Earth Physics Branch, Department of Energy, Mines and Resources, Ottawa. Dr. Michael Lewis, a marine geologist from the Bedford Institute of Oceanography in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia was also a leader of a portion of the program. George Hobson, of the Polar Continental Research program was in charge of logistics. They observed the Lomonosov Ridge, which is an underwater ridge between the Soviet Union and Greenland. LOREX was an acronym for Lomonosov Ridge Experiment. The scientific project was coordinated by the Canadian Department of Energy, Mines and Resources' Earth Physics Branch, while logistical support was provided by EMR's Polar Continental Shelf Project. FRAM I (named after polar explorer Nansen's R/V) was a multi-national program consisting of Canadian scientists and other scientists from Norway, Denmark and the United States Office of Naval Research as the initiator and primary organizer. The drifting ice station was established on March 11, 1979 in the Eurasian basin off the northeast coast of Greenland at 84º 24' N, 06º 50'W. Their mission was to study the Nansen-Gakkel Ridge which runs roughly in parallel with the Lomonosov Ridge. Dr. Robin Falconer, also of the Bedford Institute was the leader of the Canadian portion of that expedition. Both groups flew to the ice, made camp, and drifted for several months while conducting scientific research. I have seen numerous philatelically-documented covers from both expeditions, and plan to illustrate some from my collection in the near future. UPDATE: Hopefully I will win some more ice island covers, otherwise... As you may have read on other pages, my entire collection was sold without my permission by my ex-wife during pendency of our divorce, and converted to her own personal use. My "old" collection is now located right here, online! At least I have that. |