movie (215 kbytes) - Photographed 1/10/94 by M. Malin
This is an aerial view of one of eleven abrasion and weathering test sites in Southern Victoria Land, Antarctica. The site, located at 77 deg 36.2 min S, 160 deg 57.9 min E, at 1578 m (5180 ft) is in the Olympus Range between the Wright and Victoria ice-free valleys. In this sequence, light glints from three 1 m X 1 m X 1 m high aluminum racks can be seen, as well as the white plastic spacers of the 1.7 m tall sand collector assembly. Helicopters provide notoriously bumpy platforms for photography.
movie (193 kbytes) - Photographed 1/12/94 by M. Malin
Test racks of rock chips and part of sand collecting apparatus in Victoria Valley, Southern Victoria Land, Antarctica, at 77 deg 23.9 min S, 161 deg 52.0 min E, at 378 m (1240 ft). Part of the central Olympus Range (part of the Transantarctic Mountains) are seen in the background. This site is investigating the effects of wind-driven sand on natural materials exposed for long periods of time in the cold desert environment. The light rock on which the site has been established is the Vida Granite; the horizontal layers of dark rock are portions of the Ferrar Dolerite intruded into the granite.
movie (407 kbytes) - Photographed 1/10/94 by M. Malin
View across the central portion of the Victoria Valley, Southern Victoria Land, Antarctica. This scence shows Lake Vida, an ice covered, perennially frozen paternoster lake, centered at approximately 77 deg 23.5 min S, 161 deg 55 min E, at an altitude of 340 m (785 ft). Lake Vida is about 5.5 km long by just under 3 km at it widest. The sandy valley floor is seen east of the lake at the end of this sequence.