Knowledge Bank

During summer 1962, a five-man party from the Institute of Polar Studies at The Ohio State University made a reconnaisance study for the Sukkertoppen Ice Cap in Greenland and the adjacent land area to the east. The purpose of the reconnaisance was to evaluate the research potential of this area in terms of an extended and interdisciplinary investigation of a temperate ice cap and its environs. The results of these reconnaisance studies are preliminary and are presented primarily to make them available to interested parties. Loewe presents a brief account of the physical setting and weather conditions in the field area. Colin Bull made a gravity traverse across the ice cap and was accompanied by Fritz Loewe and Henry Brecher. The results of this work have been prepared by Dr. Bull. Jack McCormick and Samuel Treves constituted a second field party investigating, respectively, the botanical and geological aspects of the land area east of the ice cap. McCormick compiled a preliminary list of flora in the Tasersiaq area, air temperature observations, detailed descriptions of vegetation in selected sites and suggestions for further studies of the natural history in this area. Treves has prepared a preliminary report on the geology of the Tasersiaq area. Treves also made some general observations in the course of his geological studies of bedrock. The short section included on glacial geology is a very general description of some of the glacial geology observed.