Dr Charles Barton from the Australian National University, the first and only person to reach both of the planet’s magnetic poles, will explain today how he achieved a feat dreamed about for 169 years since Sir James Ross first attempted it.
Dr Barton will speak at 9.00 am today at the Australian Academy of Science’s 2012 annual symposium on 100 years of Antarctic Science at the Shine Dome in Canberra.
Both North and South Magnetic Poles drift gradually from year to year at a rate varying from a few to tens of kilometres per year.
Superimposed on this, is a daily motion varying from 10km to hundreds of kilometres depending on the state of magnetic disturbance produced by the sun.
“As the poles are in continuous motion, it is not possible to get an exact spot measurement of a pole's position, or claim that you have been there,” says Dr Barton.
“I've been very fortunate in having the opportunity to visit both Polar Regions.”
“The first journey to the North Magnetic Pole by James Ross in 1831 and that of Douglas Mawson, Edgeworth David, and Alistair Mackay to the South Magnetic Pole in 1909 were both astonishing epics.”
While Ross succeeded in reaching the north in 1831, he was thwarted in 1840 in reaching the south when his path was barred by the Transantarctic Mountains.
In 1994, Dr Barton reached the North Magnetic Pole with Larry Newitt and the Canadian Geological Survey when they reached within 3.0 km of the Pole - the closest ever recorded.
In 2000, he reached within 1.6 km of the South Magnetic Pole with Don McIntyre in a private expedition sponsored by Dick Smith Foods.
But Dr Barton’s amazing story started in 1985 when an invitation by entrepreneur Dick Smith to be the 'magnetician' aboard his inaugural Australian tourist flight over Antarctica, triggered Charles Barton’s interest.
He developed a novel, low-cost technique for locating the South Magnetic Pole at sea, which was used successfully by his team to get to within 11 km of the pole. On that expedition, he missed out on travelling to the South Pole due to medical reasons, but he finally got his chance in the year 2000.
Dr Barton will describe his experiences and the techniques he used for locating the South Pole at the Academy’s symposium today, which will also see the launch of the new publication Still no Mawson: Frank Stillwell’s Antarctic diaries 1911-1913 at 12.30pm.
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