Antarctica in the IGY 
COME TOWARD THE END of this address and conclude 
I with what seems to me the most important role Antarc- 
tica has ever played in human affairs and one which I trust 
it will play for a long time. I refer to the International 
Geophysical Year. As you may know, the overall Interna- 
tional Geophysical Year program blankets the earth with 
several thousand stations manned by scientists from sixty- 
six different nations. Ihe program includes the study of 
the shape and structure of the earth, more precise meas- 
urements of longitude and latitude, the study of the earth’s 
heat and water budget (meteorology, oceanography, glaci- 
ology), and the physics and chemistry of the upper air, 
even to outer space. 
This is the most comprehensive scientific program ever 
undertaken by man. It is the first attempt at a total study 
of his environment. Every one of the geophysical sciences 
is global in character, by which I mean that data collected 
in any one part of the earth have relevance throughout the 
rest. None can be fully explored or understood on a pro- 
vincial basis. Antarctica as the earth’s last great empty 
quarter was destined to play a major role in such a univer- 
sal program. No field of geophysics can be understood 01 
complete without specific data available only from this vast 
continent and its surrounding oceans. 
The geophysical sciences touch all of man’s major activi- 
ties. Such fields as agriculture, transportation, and com- 
munication of all sorts are inseparably involved in them. 
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