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

Victoria University of Wellington was established in 1897 by Act of Parliament, and was a former constituent college of the University of New Zealand. It is particularly well known for its programmes in law, the humanities, and some scientific disciplines, but offers a broad range of other courses...

. Its mission is to research "Antarctic climate history and processes, and their influence on the global climate system." Its current director is Professor Tim Naish

Tim Naish

Tim Naish is a New Zealand glaciologist. He is the Director of the Antarctic Research Centre, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. He has written about the collapse of Antarctica's Larsen B ice shelf. In 2002, between January 31 and March 7 the Larsen B ice shelf collapsed and broke up...

.

History

The ARC was established in 1972 as part of the Department of Geology at Victoria University. Its first director was Professor Peter Barrett

Peter Barrett

Peter Barrett is a British painter, illustrator, graphic designer and children's book author. He is best known for illustrating several James Herriot's books as well as for his detailed watercolour paintings of English wildlife and the countryside....

.

Research

Research conducted at ARC focuses on climate change

Climate change

Climate change is a significant and lasting change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns over periods ranging from decades to millions of years. It may be a change in average weather conditions or the distribution of events around that average...

, including the analysis of ocean floor sediment cores

Core sample

A core sample is a cylindrical section of a naturally occurring substance. Most core samples are obtained by drilling with special drills into the substance, for example sediment or rock, with a hollow steel tube called a core drill. The hole made for the core sample is called the "core hole". A...

 and ice cores, and glacial modeling

Ice sheet model

Ice sheet models use quantitative methods to simulate the evolution, dynamics and thermodynamics of ice sheets, such as the Greenland ice sheet, the Antarctic ice sheet or the large ice sheets on the northern hemisphere during the last glacial period...

. Researchers from ARC have studied different factors that impact polar ice, including CO2 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. The first expedition, which explored the McMurdo Dry Valleys

McMurdo Dry Valleys

The McMurdo Dry Valleys are a row of snow-free valleys in Antarctica located within Victoria Land west of McMurdo Sound. The region is one of the world's most extreme deserts, and includes many interesting features including Lake Vida and the Onyx River, Antarctica's longest river.-Climate:The Dry...

 was undertaken on December 30 1957, by Peter Webb and Barrie McKelvey

McKelvey Valley

McKelvey Valley is a valley between the western part of the Olympus Range and the Insel Range, in Victoria Land. It was named by the Victoria University of Wellington Antarctic Expedition for B.C. McKelvey, a geologist of Victoria University of Wellington, who, with P.N...

, 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.

Researchers that have been involved in VUWAEs include Harold Wellman

Harold Wellman

Harold Wellman DSc FRSNZ was a New Zealand geologist known for his work on plate tectonics.He is notable for his discovery of South Island's Alpine Fault. Wellman became a Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand in 1954, and was awarded the Hector Memorial Medal and Prize in 1957 and the McKay...

, who discovered the Alpine Fault

Alpine Fault

The Alpine Fault is a geological fault, more specifically known as a right-lateral strike-slip fault, that runs almost the entire length of New Zealand's South Island. It forms a transform boundary between the Pacific Plate and the Indo-Australian Plate. Earthquakes along the fault, and the...

.

Expedition reports have been digitised by the NZETC. (See http://www.nzetc.org/tm/scholarly/tei-corpus-VUWAnta.html.)