The Convention on the Regulation of Antarctic Mineral Resource Activities (CRAMRA) was adopted in 1988. Of legitimate concern to all Antarctic scientists is CRAMRA's impact on the Antarctic environment and on the conduct of research; the treaty will have a positive effect on both.

The polar cusp ionosphere is an important part of near-Earth space which is best monitored by ground-based observations made in the remote polar regions. Antarctica seems certain to play a key role in its future exploration. The region is characterized by the direct entry of solar wind particles along magnetic field lines projecting to the dayside magnetopause (outer boundary of the magnetosphere). Thus the polar cusp ionosphere provides a splendid window for examining processes transferring solar wind mass and momentum to the magnetosphere. The review will emphasize this aspect of polar cusp ionosphere research, an area where the pace of recent work has been rapid. New results highlight the relevance of both the interplanetary magnetic field direction and changes in solar wind pressure for dynamic effects in the polar cusp ionosphere. These phenomena include surges in plasma flow, auroral activity, magnetic impulses and field-aligned (Birkeland) currents. Among the theoretical advances emerging just this past year are ones for the origin of plasma transport in the dayside polar ionosphere and for the source of the dayside Region 1 and cusp Birkeland currents.

Detailed redescriptions of the poorly known isopods Cymodocella tubicauda Pfeffer 1887 and Exosphaeroma gigas (Leach 1818) are presented in order to allow easier identification of these two species. Similarities to and differences from other species of the genus are discussed.

The survey concentrated on algal communities but also gathered information on mosses, lichens and microfauna. All 23 nunataks in the Rockefeller and Alexandra mountains (77°00′–78°30′S, 152°–154°W) were visited, including ones both with and without nutrient enrichment from bird colonies. Over 30 species of algae were recorded with Cyanobacteria and Chlorophyta dominant as in other regions of continental Antarctica. Diatoms were not found. The most frequent algae were Cyanothece aeruginosa, Gloeocapsa spp., Oscillatoriaceae, Nostoc sp., Pseudococcomyxa simplex, Stichococcus bacillaris, cf. Desmococcus vulgaris, Prasiola crispa and Prasiococcus calcarius. Although lichens were the most visually prominent vegetation, free-living algae occurred in the widespread ‘non-aquatic’ habitats as epilithic, chasmoendolithic and edaphic communities as well as being epiphytic on the sparse moss cushions. Aquatic habitats were few and there were only three small ponds on or adjacent to nunataks. On ablating ice, cryoconite ponds contained Homoeothrix cf. rivularis, recorded for the first time in Antarctica. Preliminary identifications show 23 species of lichens and six species of mosses. No mites and collembola were seen. Samples contained testate amoebae, ciliate protozoa, rotifers and tardigrades but no nematodes.

Numbers of micro-organisms in soils from Wilkes Land varied widely. Bacteria, yeasts and filamentous fungi occurred in all samples analysed and the numbers of bacteria was positively correlated with the numbers of yeasts, and with pH. Moss protonema and seven species of algae and cyanobacteria were also present and measurable amounts of chlorophylls a, b and c were extracted from some samples. Only a few sites, those with moist sandy or gravelly soils free of extensive moss or lichen cover, contained the single mite species recorded.

The occurrence and nature of weathered clasts in the CIROS-1 drill core from McMurdo Sound was recorded. These data showed both associations of weathered material with particular lithofacies and that certain lithologies were preferentially weathered. XRD analysis of weathering rinds from two lithostratigraphic core units suggest that such weathering data can provide evidence of terrestrial palaeoenvironmental conditions that may be otherwise unobtainable.

A terrestrial sequence on Livingston Island, South Shetland Islands, known as the Williams Point Beds contains a well-preserved, diverse fossil flora previously assigned a Triassic age. Because of their supposed age, volcanic provenance and evidence for active volcanism, the Williams Point Beds have occupied a unique position in Gondwana (pre-Jurassic) stratigraphy in the Antarctic Peninsula region. However, a large new collection of plant specimens obtained at Williams Point has yielded several species of angiosperm leaves, which are abundant and occur at all levels within the Williams Point Beds sequence. Thus, a Triassic age is no longer tenable. On the basis of the plants present and published radiometric ages for associated strata, the Williams Point Beds fossil flora is reassigned to the Cretaceous, and there is some evidence for a more restricted Albian–Cenomanian age. This revision of the age of the Williams Point Beds removes all direct evidence for an active Triassic volcanic arc in the Antarctic Peninsula region.

The central and western Transantarctic Mountains appear to be divided longitudinally by one or more terrane boundaries that separate two regions characterized by different Lower Palaeozoic successions. Re-examination of the upper Beardmore Glacier area and reinterpretation of its Early Palaeozoic stratigraphy emphasizes the strong similarity between it and the Byrd Group outcrops in the area between the Byrd and Nimrod glaciers. This similarity demonstrates that for several hundred kilometres the Cambrian succession of an inboard region is largely devoid of volcanic rocks but includes fossiliferous Lower Cambrian platformal limestones that are overlain unconformably by coarse basin-fill deposits. The latter probably include beds of Middle and perhaps early Late Cambrian age that were themselves deformed prior to the Devonian. Erratic blocks indicate that comparable successions may have been developed as far west as the Whichaway Nunataks. The inferred geological history of this part of the continental margin, which is commonly regarded as autochthonous, stands in contrast to that of more outboard regions where thick volcanic sequences occur in expanded stratigraphic sections that include shallow-marine Middle and Late Cambrian deposits. We consider that these regions, predominantly the Queen Maud and Theil mountains and the Neptune Range of the Pensacola Mountains, constitute one or more displaced crustal blocks. The boundary between them and the inboard sequence adjacent to the craton is probably a series of large strike-slip faults that may have been initiated during the Early Palaeozoic and have been active episodically since then.

A detailed profile of the ice fabric, the deuterium content and the sodium concentration of a 1.64 m long, first-year sea-ice core from Breid Bay, near Syowa station (Antarctica), is described. The core consists mainly of frazil ice (77%), a common feature observed in recent extended studies of the first-year sea-ice cover in the Weddell Sea area. Neither snow ice, nor platelet ice is present. The remainder of the core consists of congelation ice. The typical substructure of ice plates/brine lamellae occurs only at the bottom of the core. Otherwise fine-grained congelation ice is ‘sandwiched’ between layers of frazil. It lacks the intracrystalline substructure but shows a strong textural elongation and c-axis clustering in the horizontal plane. The evolution processes of the first-year sea-ice cover in Breid Bay are analysed. The dynamical component, demonstrated to play a major role in the eastern Weddell Sea, seems to be of minor importance in this area, where thermodynamics satisfactorily explains the isotopic, chemical and textural characteristics of the core. It is proposed that the topmost part of the core consists of frazil ice produced by wind- and wave-induced turbulence. Once a consolidated ice cover is provided, the growth proceeds at a slower rate, through congelation ice formation and frazil ice production, initiated by thermohaline convection processes in the water column. The lower alternate layers of fine grained congelation ice and frazil ice could result from cyclic thermal and salinity regimes at the ice-water interface, connected with the major meteorological events of the year.

Upper Jurassic–Lower Cretaceous anoxic mudstones and air-fall ashes of the Nordenskjöld Formation are exposed on the eastern coast of Graham Land. Deformation of the strata has a long history spanning dewatering and lithification and was probably produced in a strike-slip tectonic regime. Available evidence suggests the onset of deformation in the region was during Tithonian times. The strike-slip deformation provides further evidence of a plate boundary along the eastern margin of the peninsula during the break-up of Gondwana and the movement of the crustal blocks of West Antarctica. It may also be related to a change in the spreading history of the Weddell Sea region and be the cause of a major facies change from fine anoxic to coarse clastic sedimentation.

An Ekman analysis of the surface drainage winds over a sloping ice surface is reported. Ekman pumping by the boundary layer leads to the formation of an upper tropospheric cyclonic vortex above the summit of the ice sheet. The strength and distribution of upper level vorticity is determined by the shape of the underlying ice sheet. The calculation is verified by comparison with the results from a multi-level primitive equation model of flow above an axisymmetric ice sheet. Both models predict that the surface drainage flow will die out on a timescale of a few days, while the upper vortex is predicted to be considerably stronger than observed. Various mechanisms which could lead to the depletion of upper level vorticity, and hence to the retention of a substantial drainage flow, are discussed. It is concluded that disruption of the polar vortex by decaying mid-latitude cyclones, and the consequent export of cyclonic vorticity to lower latitudes, is the most probable mechanism.