He returned to further studies in geology in B. Through the early influence of Professor Archibald Liversidge , Mawson became a pioneer in the chemical aspects of geology and geochemistry. But the dominant influence was that of Professor Sir Tannatt Edgeworth David , foremost among workers in the geological sciences in Australia. In Mawson was appointed lecturer in mineralogy and petrology in the University of Adelaide.
He immediately became interested in the glacial geology of South Australia. Also, continuing his interest in radioactivity, he identified and first described the mineral davidite, containing titanium and uranium, in specimens from the region now known as Radium Hill. That deposit was the first major radioactive ore body discovered in Australia.
The major work of his early South Australian period was his investigation of the highly mineralized Precambrian rocks of the Barrier Range, extending from the northern Flinders Ranges through Broken Hill, New South Wales. The country is a complex of metamorphosed, igneous and sedimentary rocks with varying degrees of mineralization. This investigation led to publication of his 'Geological investigations in the Broken Hill area'; he had previously submitted the substance of this work to the University of Adelaide D.
Mawson approached him with a view to making the round trip to Antarctica on the Nimrod. His idea was to see an existing continental ice-cap and to become acquainted with glaciation and its geological consequences.
This interested him because in his South Australian studies he was 'face-to-face with a great accumulation of glacial sediments of Precambrian age, the greatest thing of the kind recorded anywhere in the world'. After consulting with David, who had agreed to join the expedition, Shackleton telegraphed: 'You are appointed Physicist for the duration of the expedition'. Mawson accepted, and so began his long association with the Antarctic.
Although he recognized that Shackleton's prime aim of reaching the South Pole was considered essential to financing the expedition, he would have liked more opportunity offered to the scientists.
Nevertheless, the scientists' achievements proved to be considerable and Mawson had good opportunities for glaciological and geological investigations; he published significant accounts of his observations on the aurora and geomagnetism. Next summer David leader , A. Mackay and Mawson were the first to reach the vicinity of the South Magnetic Pole, manhauling their sledges miles km ; Mawson was responsible for the magnetic observations and the excellent cartographic work.
The return was difficult because of exhaustion and shortage of food. David, aged 50, suffered badly and at his request Mawson assumed leadership. The journey almost ended in disaster: having reached their main depot two days late and hearing a rocket distress signal fired from the Nimrod , Mawson, while rushing towards the ship, fell into a crevasse.
Help from the ship was required for his rescue. Shackleton's confidence in Mawson may be gauged from his instructions: should his own expedition to the South Pole not return in time, Mawson was to lead a search party.
David said in public tribute: 'Mawson was the real leader who was the soul of our expedition to the Magnetic Pole. We really have in him an Australian Nansen, of infinite resource, splendid physique, astonishing indifference to frost'. Mawson returned to Adelaide and his university post in but was still making reports on the expedition when his plans for further Antarctic work began to mature. Captain R. Scott was planning his second expedition and Mawson asked him for transport on the Terra Nova for himself and three others, to form an additional party of the expedition to be landed on the coast west of Cape Adare.
Mawson expounded the potential scientific value of the proposed work but Scott was not persuaded. Instead he invited Mawson to join his South Pole sledging party. This did not interest Mawson, who was dedicated to scientific exploration.
Mawson then approached Shackleton for help; he took over Mawson's plan as his own but failed to get adequate financial backing. Erebus—an ice-covered volcanic cone 11, feet high—for the first time. Among other notable achievements they observed, also for the first time, the shifting position of the magnetic pole. It was a thorough and successful introduction to the life and labor demanded of Antarctic scientists and explorers.
Mawson had earned an invitation to join Scott in his forthcoming voyage of discovery. In January the Australian and New Zealand Association for the Advancement of Science initiated a government-aided expedition under Mawson's leadership to survey the unknown and unmapped ice plateau west of the magnetic pole.
When the expedition sailed from Hobart, Tasmania, in December, Mawson had already earned the utmost affection and respect of his crew. During the course of the survey Mawson found himself, after the death of two companions, alone, without supplies, on foot, and a hundred miles from safety. His courage and ingenuity enabled him to survive a most terrible journey through blizzards and across frightening crevasses. At one stage the soles of his feet separated from the flesh.
The skeletal Mawson staggered back to base only to see the relief ship sailing away, marooning him, for a further twelve months, with the handful of men who had volunteered to wait for him.
The scientific success of the expedition did not pay the expenses and Mawson was saddled with worry and debts. He mapped the ancient landscapes of the Flinders Ranges and discovered the first notable deposit of uranium at Radium Hill.
The vast resources of the Antarctic were also apparent to him and he was a tireless lobbyist for Government sovereignty and control of the vast southern regions.
Eyewitness to the profligate slaughter of penguins and seals on Macquarie Island, he argued passionately for limits on the wildlife harvest and careful monitoring. In and he led two voyages, the British Australian and New Zealand Antarctic Research Expeditions, conducting oceanographic surveys but also making territorial claim to the empty coastline. Sir Douglas Mawson died on 14th October and was buried at St.
On the centenary of his birth, a bronze bust was erected in front of the University of Adelaide, flanked by granite boulders, one from Mawson Base, Antarctica, and the other from Mawson Valley in the Flinders Ranges, two regions where his endeavours placed his name upon the earth.
This entry was first published in S. However, he did not discard his geological specimens, which he dragged along in a half sled. When he eventually got back to Cape Denison the ship Aurora had left a few hours earlier. Mawson and five men who had remained behind to look for him wintered another year until early During the course of this expedition, Mawson and his party, and those at West Base, had explored large areas of the Antarctic coast, describing its geology, biology and meteorology, and more closely defining the location of the south magnetic pole.
On return to Adelaide, Mawson pursued his academic studies, taking further expeditions abroad, including a joint British, Australian and New Zealand expedition to the Antarctic in The work done by the expedition led to the formation of the Australian Antarctic Territory in
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