The Antarctic Research Centre (ARC) is part of the School of Geography, Environment and Earth Sciences at

Victoria University of Wellington Victoria University of Wellington ( mi, Te Herenga Waka) is a university in Wellington, New Zealand. It was established in 1897 by Act of Parliament, and was a constituent college of the University of New Zealand. The university is well know ...

. Its mission is to research "

Antarctic climate The climate of Antarctica is the coldest on Earth. The continent is also extremely dry (it is a desert), averaging of precipitation per year. Snow rarely melts on most parts of the continent, and, after being compressed, becomes the glacier ic ...

history and processes, and their influence on the global climate system. The current director of the Antarctic Research Centre is Associate Professor Robert McKay.

Directors

* 1972 - 2007: Professor Peter Barrett * 2008 - 2016: Professor Tim Naish * 2017 - 2019: Professor Andrew Mackintosh * 2020 - Present: Professor Robert McKay

History

In December 1957, geology students Barrie McKelvey and Peter Webb along with biologist Ron Balham conducted an expedition to the then unexplored

McMurdo Dry Valleys The McMurdo Dry Valleys are a row of largely snow-free valleys in Antarctica, located within Victoria Land west of McMurdo Sound. The Dry Valleys experience extremely low humidity and surrounding mountains prevent the flow of ice from nearby ...

via the

Royal New Zealand Navy The Royal New Zealand Navy (RNZN; mi, Te Taua Moana o Aotearoa, , Sea Warriors of New Zealand) is the maritime arm of the New Zealand Defence Force. The fleet currently consists of nine ships. The Navy had its origins in the Naval Defence Act ...

Antarctic support ship HMNZS ''Endeavour''. This expedition formed the basic for the annual

Antarctic Expeditions, which continue to the present day. Since this first expedition, over 400 staff and students have travelled to the continent. The Antarctic Research Centre was established in 1972 as a part of the Department of Geology at Victoria University. The institutes first director was Professor Peter Barrett, who remained for 35 years before stepping down from the role in 2007. The centre won the New Zealand Prime Minister's Science Prize in 2020.

Research

Research conducted at ARC focuses on

climate change In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to E ...

, including the analysis of ocean floor sediment cores and

ice cores An ice core is a core sample that is typically removed from an ice sheet or a high mountain glacier. Since the ice forms from the incremental buildup of annual layers of snow, lower layers are older than upper ones, and an ice core contains ic ...

, and glacial modeling. Researchers from ARC have studied different factors that impact polar ice, including levels and oscillations in the Earth's orbit.

Antarctic Expeditions

The ARC conducts annual research explorations, known as the Victoria University of Wellington Antarctic Expeditions (VUWAE), into

Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean, it contains the geographic South Pole. Antarctica is the fifth-largest contine ...

. The first expedition, which explored the McMurdo Dry Valleys, was undertaken on December 30, 1957, by Peter Webb and Barrie McKelvey, two third-year geology students. Since then, students and staff have made annual expeditions to conduct research in areas such as glacial history and climate change. Expedition leaders have named a number of features in the area, including Eureka Spurs and Ghent Ridge. Researchers that have been involved in VUWAEs include Harold Wellman, who discovered the

Alpine Fault The Alpine Fault is a geological fault that runs almost the entire length of New Zealand's South Island (c. 480 km) and forms the boundary between the Pacific Plate and the Indo-Australian Plate. The Southern Alps have been uplifted on the f ...

. Expedition reports have been digitised by the

New Zealand Electronic Text Collection The New Zealand Electronic Text Collection (NZETC; mi, Te Pūhikotuhi o Aotearoa) is a freely accessible online archive of New Zealand and Pacific Islands texts and heritage materials that are held by the Victoria University of Wellington Library ...

References

"Home - Antarctic Research Centre." Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, 2010. http://www.victoria.ac.nz/antarctic/default.aspx. Retrieved 2011-10-22. "History - Antarctic Research Centre." Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, 2010. http://www.victoria.ac.nz/antarctic/about/history.aspx. Retrieved 2011-10-22. "Expedition Gallery - Antarctic Research Centre." Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, 2010. http://www.victoria.ac.nz/antarctic/about/history.aspx. Retrieved 2011-10-22. VUWAE Reunion Programme. Victoria University of Wellington, 2007. http://www.victoria.ac.nz/antarctic/pdf/VUWAE_Reunion_Programme.pdf The Evolution of Antarctic Research. Victoria University of Wellington, 2020. https://www.wgtn.ac.nz/science/about/news/the-evolution-of-antarctic-research Robert McKay, Victoria University of Wellington, 2020. https://people.wgtn.ac.nz/robert.mckay {{authority control Victoria University of Wellington Research institutes in New Zealand New Zealand and the Antarctic Antarctic research