German Greenland Expedition
In the end this venture would claim Wegener's life during a return trip from the Eismitte station together with expedition member Rasmus Villumsen.
It should be far enough to the south for the landing to be feasible as early as possible in the spring season, but also not too far from the northern latitudes, so that the temperature of the glaciers would be low enough.
The transport of so much equipment to establish the Western Station (German: Weststation) at the edge of the upper Qaamarujuk Glacier took 120 days.
The aerosledges, on which Wegener had initially laid great store, were a disappointment owing to the poor performance of their engines and because they tended to become bogged in deep snow.
They went to set up the Ice-Centre (German: Eismitte) station 400 km (250 mi) to the east in a central position on the Greenland Ice Sheet.
Both would be wintering at Eismitte camp, gathering meteorological data and measuring the thickness of the ice sheet by means of seismic readings after detonating explosives.
On 21 September Wegener finally left the Western Station accompanied by Loewe and 13 Greenlandic Inuit with fifteen sleds loaded with supplies pulled by 130 dogs.
Finally only Wegener, Loewe and dogsledge driver Rasmus Villumsen reached Eismitte at the end of October.
Research began in July 1930, carried out by a team of three led by Walther Kapp that had arrived on Ship Gertrud Rask of the Royal Greenland Trading Department.
Later, in early September the scientists moved north to the west coast of Jameson Land at 71°03′N 24°15′W / 71.050°N 24.250°W / 71.050; -24.250, assisted by Scoresbysund Greenlandic Inuit.
They built a wooden house where they established their Oststation wintering base, which their Greenlandic helpers named Tyskit Nunaat.
During that period of time a wealth of atmospheric and meteorological data were collected by the three stations throwing light on the climate conditions of Greenland.
[6] Wegener had put into practice the seismological methods developed by geophysicist Emil Wiechert of the University of Göttingen physics institute.
