Report on geological fieldwork in the Sør Rondane Mountains, Eastern Dronning Maud Land, 2007-2008 (JARE-49)

The Sør Rondane Mountains field research party, part of the summer party of the 49th Japanese Antarctic Research Expedition (JARE-49), carried out geological field work in the central part of the Sør Rondane Mountains and improved international goodwill with Belgian, Indian and other national expeditions for 75 days from November 23, 2007 to February 5, 2008. The field party tried to access the Sør Rondane Mountains directly from Japan by using the Dronning Maud Land Air Network (DROMLAN), which is the first attempt at an Antarctic inland field survey just using an airplane through the 50 years of JARE history. This research expedition was linked together with the International Polar Year and also the first operation program of a research project of National Institute of Polar Research (No. P-5-1: leader, Y. Motoyoshi). This report gives the details on the operation planning and a summary of the fieldwork including logistics and weather report.