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Protecting mineral treasures of Antarctica's Larsemann Hills
Reflection of nearby hills can be seen on the calm surface of Lake Ferris in the evening. This view is looking northeast from a camp on Stornes Peninsula that was set up by researchers studying minerals in the Larsemann Hills in Antarctica.
In November 2003, Edward S. Grew, a research professor in the School of Earth and Climate Sciences at the University of Maine in Orono, and Christopher J. Carson, a senior Antarctic geoscientist with Geoscience Australia in Canberra, were part of a team of researchers that travelled to Antarctica's Larsemann Hills as part of a study to determine how abundant boron and phosphorus were in the area, and to suggest an explanation for why there might be an exceptional enrichment there. The trip began a decade-long research project that culminated in the 2014 designation of the area as an Antarctic Specially Protected Area (ASPA).
The Larsemann Hills are a 40-square-kilometer region of rocky islands and promontories on the eastern shore of Prydz Bay. Previous studies of the area suggested that boron and phosphorus were there in large quantities, which would be particularly exciting because the two elements are rarely found in more than trace amounts in highly deformed and metamorphosed rocks such as the granulite-facies metamorphic rocks exposed in the Larsemann Hills.
Fieldwork revealed an abundance of phosphate minerals including three new species, two of which have never been seen outside the Stornes Peninsula, and the discovery of a new boron mineral.
After their expedition, the researchers returned home and spent several years analyzing the mineral samples collected. As the new and rare minerals came to light, in 2004, the researchers raised the possibility of protecting this region with the Australian Antarctic Division, which acknowledged the importance of the area. In addition to protecting these important mineral finds, the area is noteworthy for the unique abundance and spectacular development of other minerals, many of which are rare globally and often found only as microscopic crystals at other locations. Additionally, non-mineralogical findings such as 4-million-year-old sediments containing abundant and well-preserved foraminifera, diatoms and mollusks that provide information on Antarcticas paleoenvironment also contributed to the area being declared an ASPA.
The National Science Foundation supported the preparation of the fieldwork and the lab work-up of samples after returning from the field (grant OPP 02-28842). The Australian Antarctic Division provided logistics support in travel to Antarctica and for activities while there in the field.
You can read the entire story about this expedition online in Earth magazine, "Protecting the mineral treasures of Antarctica's Larsemann Hills." (Date of Image: Jan. 3, 2004)
Credit: Edward S. Grew, University of Maine
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