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ICE AND FIRE: A PHOTOGRAPHIC JOURNEY OF ANTARCTICA.

JOHN GAMBLE, PROFESSOR OF GEOLOGY, UNIVERSITY COLLEGE CORK WRITES ABOUT HIS EXHIBITION

"Antarctica is the driest, coldest and highest (on average) continent on Earth. At nearly 14 million square kilometers, it is almost twice the size of Australia. This photographic exhibition derives from 6 expeditions to “the ice” to locations from North Victoria Land, nearest Australia, to Marie Byrd Land (West Antarctica) at the base of the Antarctic Peninsula. Although it is largely covered in ice and snow, Antarctica contains one of Earth’s great mountain ranges, the Trans Antarctic Mountains, which extend over 3000 km and rise to 4892 m at Mount Vinson. This range is also the shoulder to one of Earth’s greatest rift valley systems, the West Antarctic Rift, that is similar in scale to the East African Rift on the African continent. Like the East Africa Rift, the West Antarctic Rift system is associated with active volcanism, and although many volcanoes are buried beneath ice, others, such as Mount Erebus, are exposed at the surface and are presently active. My research gave me the opportunity to visit these remote corners of the Earth.

This exhibition is compiled from my collection of photographs taken while on fieldwork in Antarctica through the 1980s and 1990s. It includes images of volcanoes, life in the field, shots of wildlife and a visit to the historic huts of Scott and Shackleton on Ross Island, that were the staging posts for historic exploration of the continent at the beginning of the 20^th century".

John Gamble is Professor in Geology at UCC since 2002. A graduate of Queen’s University of Belfast, John returned to Ireland in mid 2002 after 28 years in Australia and New Zealand. His research interests lie in the geochemistry of the deep Earth and in the processes that lead to volcanism at the surface. He has published more than 100 scientific papers and filled administrative rolls on international science panels and committees. He has the rare distinction of having 3 terrestrial landmarks named in his honour – Gamble Glacier and Gamble Cone in Antarctica and the Gamble Volcanic Complex a submarine volcano on the Tonga – Kermadec Island Arc in the SW Pacific.