Scientist: Avinash Bisnath

SANAE IV: A warm outpost in the cold Gateway to Antarctica | Logistics | Ice sheet | Once there were forests Young Scientists Avinash Bisnath | Lizel Hugo | Tankiso Modise

After matriculating from Reservoir Hills Secondary School in Durban, Avinash Bisnath completed his Batchelor of Science and Honors degrees in Geology at the University of Durban Westville.

After graduating, he was employed as a shaft geologist with a mining company, but maintained a fascination for metamorphic and structural geology.

It was this interest that lead him to register for a Masters degree at the University of Durban Westville where he investigated the the Natal belt.

Millions of years ago the Natal belt was an extension of the Maud belt in Antarctica.

At a geo-congress in Stellenbosch, Avinash attended a presentation on Antarctic geology. This helped him to understand that by dating and determining the geochemistry of the rocks in the Maud belt and comparing them to those of the Natal belt, much could be about the evolution of Gondwana. On the strength of his research proposal, SANAP agreed to sponsor a research trip to the Antarctic.

Avinash spent the summer of 2001 in a tented camp close to SANAE IV, sampling rocks from an outcrop called Gjelsvikfjella. He also participated in a mapping and structural survey of a portion of the outcrop that was noew to science.

Working in Antarctica was often scary (he opened a crevasse on a skidoo), sometimes frustrating (he was confined to his one man tent for long stretches while waiting for storms to pass), but usually rewarding.

Avinash is in the process of writing up the results of the study for his doctoral degree at the University of Cape Town. His thesis should help to fill in some of the gaps in our understanding of earth dynamics and the evolution of the planet.

Avinash believes that an understanding of the past is the key to planning for the future. Geological surveys are of economic significance when one considers the potential mineral deposits in the Antarctic. But he also believes strongly in the preservation of Antarctica as a wilderness and research area and says that if he ever discovered a valuable mineral deposit he would be in a moral dilemma whether or not to declare it.