Navy Electronics Laboratory events—the submerged voyage of USS "Nautilus" from the Pacific to the Atlantic, via the North Pole, in 1958, with NEL’s Dr. Waldo Lyon aboard as chief scientist and ice pilot. That same summer, the USS "Skate" cruised from the Atlantic to the North Pole and the central Arctic Ocean, surfacing 9 times through small holes in the ice cap. Dr. Eugene C. La Fond, head of NEL's Oceanography Branch, was chief scientist In March 1959, the "Skate" returned to the Arctic, under winter conditions, with Dr. Waldo Lyon as chief scientist, and for the first time, the nuclear submarine was
Quelccaya Ice Cap Quelccaya Ice Cap The Quelccaya Ice Cap is the second largest glaciated area in the tropics, after Coropuna. Located in the Cordillera Oriental section of the Andes mountains of Peru, the ice cap is at an average altitude of and spans an area of . As with the majority of the Earth's glaciers, the Quelccaya Ice cap has retreated significantly since it was first studied. Since 1978 the icecap has lost approximately 20% of its area, and the rate of retreat is increasing. Comparing pictures taken in 1963 and 1978, an annual retreat rate of was estimated. In the first