Transcript for The Voyage of the Lee, segment 13 of 21
Operation Deep Sweep continues with caution. In spite of the problems encountered here in this icy wasteland, new discoveries are made. Initial interpretation of the data collected indicate, for instance, that the boundary where Australia ripped away from the Antarctic Continent millions of years ago has been found off Wilkes Land. The scar is known as the ocean continent boundary. And side-scan sonar images of the sea floor reveal that large ice gouges produced by giant tabular icebergs occur in water depths greater than fifteen hundred feet.
In the Ross Sea the Lee is able to travel close to the coastline of Victoria Land, closer than any seismic survey vessel has ever done before. For the first time scientists are able to map a deep sedimentary basin found there and discover that the sediments are over fifteen thousand feet thick.