Moon Island Research Articles

Monitoring shipborne visitors in Antarctica: a preliminary field study

ABSTRACTDuring every austral summer since the International Geophysical Year 1957–58 several thousand scientists and support staff have worked in Antarctica. A more recent development is the annual advent of 4000–5000 tourists, who now probably outnumber expedition members in the area covered by the Antarctic Treaty System. Most tourists come by ship, visiting coastal areas of the Antarctic Peninsula and the South Orkney and South Shetland islands that arc readily accessible beween November and March: smaller numbers visit the Ross Dependency and Adelie Land sectors. This article reviews Antarctic Treaty and International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) attitudes to tourism, and outlines a preliminary study of shipborne tourism between late December 1991 and March 1992 on Half Moon Island, South Shetland Islands. Within one month (January) a survey team from the Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge, recorded 14 visits by six tour ships, bringing more than 2000 tourists. In addition, attitudes and expectations of visitors were studied on five ships. Arising from this study, a programme of visitor monitoring is planned as a joint project between British, Chilean, and Argentine scientific institutions during the next five years. Objectives are to find ways of minimizing both short-term and long-term impacts of tourists and other visitors on breeding birds and other ecological communities, and to provide a factual basis for regulation under the Antarctic Treaty System.

The relation of the structural evolution of the Macouarie syncline to sedimentation in the moon island beach sub‐group, New South Wales

The Moon Island Beach Sub‐group is the top sub‐group of the Permian Newcastle Coal Measures. It crops out only along the coast near Newcastle; the geology has been detailed by over 200 bores which ...

Cyclic characteristics of sediment in the Moon Island beach subgroup, Newcastle coal measures, New South Wales

Cyclic characteristics of a sequence of Permian coal-measure sediments have been studied using Markov chain analysis on borehole data. Fining-upwards and oscillating sequences can be distinguished, and depositional regimes are proposed to explain the observed sequences. However, there is no clearly defined relationship of sequence type to tectonosedimentary environment. The relationship of the number of coal-defined and fining-upwards cycles to total thickness and mean cycle thickness is examined using linear regression. The relationships for coal-defined and fining-upwards cycles are essentially the same. Significant positive correlations are present between the number of cycles and total thickness and significant inverse relationships are present for the number of cycles and the mean cycle thickness.

Cyclic characteristics of sediments in the Moon Island Beach Subgroup, Newcastle Coal Measures, New South Wales

Cyclic characteristics of a sequence of Permian coal-measure sediments have been studied using Markov chain analysis on borehole data. Fining-upwards and oscillating sequences can be distinguished, and depositional regimes are proposed to explain the observed sequences. However, there is no clearly defined relationship of sequence type to tectonosedimentary environment. The relationship of the number of coal-defined and fining-upwards cycles to total thickness and mean cycle thickness is examined using linear regression. The relationships for coal-defined and fining-upwards cycles are essentially the same. Significant positive correlations are present between the number of cycles and total thickness and significant inverse relationships are present for the number of cycles and the mean cycle thickness.

Breeding of the Southern Black-backed Gull on Moon Island, New South Wales

Breeding of the Southern Black-backed Gull on Moon Island, New South Wales