Blog 5 February 2009

The day started in the famous Torres del Paine national park in southern Chile. Though it is my intention not to write a travel guide, but to concentrate on the need for and use of arctic and glacial research, and where possible to relate the findings to the situation in the Netherlands, I can't resist recommending this park to you.

After a flight of about half an hour - with many thanks to the Chilean air force - we landed near the Tyndall glacier, an outlet glacier of the South Patagonian Ice Field. After Antarctica and Greenland, this is the third biggest ice mass in the world. Like 80% of the world's glaciers, Tyndall glacier is receding fast, and in the rock bed on which it rested until recently unique fossil remains of the ichthyosaurus have been found. Fossil remains of this dolphin-like reptile have been found all over the world, but they are around 180 million years old. Those found here are only 120 million years old, so the ichthyosaurus was still around long after scientists once thought it had become extinct. The theory Professor Wolfgang Stinnesbeck and his enthusiastic team from the University of Heidelberg are trying to prove is that climate change led to the extinction of the ichthyosaurus in tropical and temperate regions, but that the species continued to survive for tens of millions of years in the coldest region of the world.

This afternoon, we visited INACH, the Chilean Antarctic institute. We discussed the history of the Antarctic Treaty, to which the Netherlands is the only fully-fledged party without a permanent base on Antarctica. We were also informed about the wide range of activities in which INACH is involved. They vary from giving lessons about Antarctica at nursery schools to monitoring the environmental impact of human activities on Antarctica.

Now follows - much earlier than we originally expected - part two of our trip, and we take our leave of our Chilean hosts and hostesses with a cocktail in the infamous Shackleton Bar and a wonderful dinner at Hotel Nogueiras , to continue our journey under the auspices of BAS, the British Antarctic Survey, which is responsible for our flight to Rothera Station and our programme on Antarctica. Since the weather is the all-decisive factor for flights to and from Antarctica, we have just heard that our departure is planned for 01.30 instead of 10.00, the highly civilised time in our original schedule. But that gives us an extra eight hours on Antarctica, which makes the early flight well worthwhile.

Till tomorrow from Rothera

Willem-Alexander