The Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names (ACAN or US-ACAN) is an advisory committee of the United States Board on Geographic Names responsible for recommending commemorative names for features in Antarctica. [1]
The committee was established in 1943 as the Special Committee on Antarctic Names (SCAN). [2] It became the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names in 1947. [1] Fred G. Alberts was Secretary of the Committee from 1949 to 1980. [1]
By 1959, a structured nomenclature was reached, allowing for further exploration, structured mapping of the region and a unique naming system. A 1990 ACAN gazeeter of Antarctica listed 16,000 names. [2]
The United States does not recognise territorial boundaries within Antarctica, so ACAN assigns names to features anywhere within the continent, in consultation with other national nomenclature bodies where appropriate, as defined by the Antarctic Treaty System. [3] The research and staff support for the ACAN is provided by the United States Geological Survey. [4]
ACAN has a published policy on naming, based on priority of application, appropriateness, and the extent to which usage has become established. [5] The United States Secretary of the Interior is in charge of formally appointing the members of the committee. [1]
Mount Terror is an extinct volcano about 3,230 metres (10,600 ft) high on Ross Island, Antarctica, about 20 nautical miles eastward of Mount Erebus. Mount Terror was named in 1841 by polar explorer Sir James Clark Ross for his second ship, HMS Terror.
Thurston Island is a largely ice-covered, glacially dissected island, 135 nautical miles long and 55 nautical miles wide, lying between Amundsen Sea and Bellingshausen Sea a short way off the northwest end of Ellsworth Land, Antarctica. The island is separated from the mainland by Peacock Sound, which is occupied by the west portion of Abbot Ice Shelf.
The Byrd Glacier is a major glacier in Antarctica, about 136 km (85 mi) long and 24 km (15 mi) wide. It drains an extensive area of the Antarctic plateau, and flows eastward to discharge into the Ross Ice Shelf.
The Heritage Range is a major mountain range, 160 km (99 mi) long and 48 km (30 mi) wide, situated southward of Minnesota Glacier and forming the southern half of the Ellsworth Mountains in Antarctica. The range is complex, consisting of scattered ridges and peaks of moderate height, escarpments, hills and nunataks, with the various units of relief set off by numerous intervening glaciers.
The Cook Mountains is a group of mountains bounded by the Mulock and Darwin glaciers in Antarctica. They are south of the Worcester Range and north of the Darwin Mountains and the Britannia Range.
The UK Antarctic Place-Names Committee is a United Kingdom government committee, part of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, responsible for recommending names of geographical locations within the British Antarctic Territory (BAT) and the South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands (SGSSI). Such names are formally approved by the Commissioners of the BAT and SGSSI respectively and published in the BAT Gazetteer and the SGSSI Gazetteer maintained by the Committee. The BAT names are also published in the international Composite Gazetteer of Antarctica maintained by SCAR.
The Scott Mountains are a large number of isolated peaks lying south of Amundsen Bay in Enderby Land of East Antarctica, Antarctica. Discovered on 13 January 1930 by the British Australian New Zealand Antarctic Research Expedition (BANZARE) under Sir Douglas Mawson. He named the feature Scott Range after Captain Robert Falcon Scott, Royal Navy. The term mountains is considered more appropriate because of the isolation of its individual features.
Mount McClintock is the highest mountain in the Britannia Range in Antarctica, surmounting the south end of Forbes Ridge, 6 nautical miles east of Mount Olympus.
Mount Bird is a 1,765 metres (5,791 ft) high shield volcano standing about 7 nautical miles south of Cape Bird, the northern extremity of Ross Island. It was mapped by the British National Antarctic Expedition, 1901–04, under Robert Falcon Scott, and apparently named by them after Cape Bird.
The Ickes Mountains are a series of coastal mountains that extend west from Strauss Glacier for 15 nautical miles in Marie Byrd Land, Antarctica.
The New Zealand Geological Survey Antarctic Expedition (NZGSAE) describes a series of scientific explorations of the continent Antarctica. The expeditions were notably active throughout the 1950s and 1960s.
Rennick Glacier is a broad glacier, nearly 200 nautical miles long, which is one of the largest in Antarctica. It rises on the polar plateau westward of Mesa Range and is 20 to 30 nautical miles wide, narrowing to 10 nautical miles near the coast. It takes its name from Rennick Bay where the glacier reaches the sea.
The Willett Range is the range extending north from Mistake Peak and running for 20 nautical miles as a high shelf along the edge of the continental ice to the Mackay Glacier, in Victoria Land. The range is breached by several glaciers flowing east from the plateau.
Mount Aldrich is a massive, somewhat flat-topped mountain standing at the east side of Ragotzkie Glacier in the Britannia Range, Antarctica.
The Batterbee Mountains are a group of prominent mountains rising to 2,200 metres (7,200 ft), which forms part of the dissected edge of Dyer Plateau overlooking George VI Sound, on the west coast of Palmer Land. First seen and photographed from the air by Lincoln Ellsworth on 23 November 1935, they were charted from the ground in October 1936 by the British Graham Land Expedition (BGLE) under John Rymill, and named after Sir Harry Batterbee (1880–1976), Assistant Under-Secretary of State, Dominions Office, 1930–38, and Chairman of the Polar Committee in 1934, who gave help to the expedition.
The Demas Range is a range about 8 nautical miles long that forms the lower east margin of the Berry Glacier in Marie Byrd Land, Antarctica. The range trends north–south culminating in Mount Goorhigian, 1,115 metres (3,658 ft) high.
The Gonville and Caius Range is a range of peaks, 1,000 to 1,500 metres high, between Mackay Glacier and Debenham Glacier in Victoria Land, Antarctica.
Saint Johns Range is a crescent-shaped mountain range about 20 nautical miles long, in Victoria Land, Antarctica. It is bounded on the north by the Cotton Glacier, Miller Glacier and Debenham Glacier, and on the south by Victoria Valley and the Victoria Upper Glacier and Victoria Lower Glacier.
The Kent Plateau is an ice-covered plateau in the northern extreme of the Churchill Mountains of Antarctica.
This article incorporates public domain material from "Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names". Geographic Names Information System . United States Geological Survey.