British Graham Land Expedition

The British Graham Land Expedition or abbreviated BGLE was a British Antarctic expedition, which was undertaken from 1934 to 1937 to geophysical and research purposes in Graham Land.

Objectives and preparation

It was planned to explore the west coast of Graham Lands and expand the knowledge of the entire region. In addition, they wanted to explore the suspected passage into the Weddell Sea, the future expeditions could serve as an alternative to the east of arrival, which had proved to be disastrous for Shackleton. Should not be neglected research in the fields of geology, glaciology, zoology, meteorology, ornithology and biology. The ten members of the expedition team had to cope with a relatively low sum, which was only possible because the entire staff was unpaid or reassigned by the Royal Navy. Two ships, the Penola and the Discovery II served to arrival sled dogs and an airplane were used on site.

Research

After two bases had been built, the research could begin. For example, the nearly 550 -mile coast was explored between the stations where fossils have been found and the first landing was made at the Alexander I Island. Another expedition explored the peninsula now known as Graham Land in East-West direction. The excursions of the aircraft were limited to a radius of 450 kilometers, but often prevented the weather conditions flights and landings, which is why the aircraft proved to be of little use for route finding and creating portfolios.

Results

The most important finding was that the passages between the Bellingshausen and Weddell Sea did not exist and the Graham Land was thus a peninsula and not an archipelago. Furthermore, almost the entire coastline was mapped, important geological facts were obtained, researched seals and birds and fossils found.