The British Antarctic Territory (BAT) is a sector of Antarctica claimed by the United Kingdom as one of its 14 British Overseas Territories, of which it is by far the largest by area. It comprises the region south of 60°S latitude and between longitudes 20°W and 80°W, forming a wedge shape that extends to the South Pole, overlapping the Antarctic claims of Argentina and Chile.
Thurston Island is an ice-covered, glacially dissected island, 215 km (134 mi) long, 90 km (56 mi) wide and 15,700 km2 (6,062 sq mi) in area, lying a short way off the northwest end of Ellsworth Land, Antarctica. It is the third largest island of Antarctica, after Alexander Island and Berkner Island.
Signy Research Station is an Antarctic research base on Signy Island, run by the British Antarctic Survey.
Anvers Island or Antwerp Island or Antwerpen Island or Isla Amberes is a high, mountainous island 61 km long, the largest in the Palmer Archipelago of Antarctica. It was discovered by John Biscoe in 1832 and named in 1898 by the Belgian Antarctic Expedition under Adrien de Gerlache after the province of Antwerp in Belgium. It lies south-west of Brabant Island at the south-western end of the group. The south-western coastline of the island forms part of the Southwest Anvers Island and Palmer Basin Antarctic Specially Managed Area. Cormorant Island, an Important Bird Area, lies 1 km off the south coast.
Brabant Island is the second largest island of the Palmer Archipelago within the British Antarctic Territory, lying between Anvers Island and Liège Island. Brabant Island is 59 km (37 mi) long north-south, 30 km (19 mi) wide, and rises to 2,520 m (8,268 ft) in Mount Parry. The interior of the island is occupied by two mountain ranges, Solvay Mountains in its southern part and Stribog Mountains in its central and northern parts.
Adelaide Island or Isla Adelaida or Isla Belgrano is a large, mainly ice-covered island, 139 kilometres (75 nmi) long and 37 kilometres (20 nmi) wide, lying at the north side of Marguerite Bay off the west coast of the Antarctic Peninsula. The Ginger Islands lie off the southern end. Mount Bodys is the easternmost mountain on Adelaide Island, rising to over 1,220 m. The island lies within the Argentine, British and Chilean Antarctic claims.
Arthur Harbour is a small harbour entered between Bonaparte Point and Amsler Island on the south-west coast of Anvers Island in the Palmer Archipelago of Antarctica.
Stonington Island is a rocky island lying 1.8 km (1.1 mi) northeast of Neny Island in the eastern part of Marguerite Bay off the west coast of Graham Land, Antarctica. It is 0.75 km (0.47 mi) long from north-west to south-east and 0.37 km (0.23 mi) wide, yielding an area of 20 ha. It was formerly connected by a drifted snow slope to Northeast Glacier on the mainland. Highest elevation is Anemometer Hill which rises to 25 m (82 ft).
Pine Island Glacier (PIG) is a large ice stream, and the fastest melting glacier in Antarctica, responsible for about 25% of Antarctica's ice loss. The glacier ice streams flow west-northwest along the south side of the Hudson Mountains into Pine Island Bay, Amundsen Sea, Antarctica. It was mapped by the United States Geological Survey (USGS) from surveys and United States Navy (USN) air photos, 1960–66, and named by the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names (US-ACAN) in association with Pine Island Bay.
A number of governments have set up permanent research stations in Antarctica and these bases are widely distributed. Unlike the drifting ice stations set up in the Arctic, the research stations of the Antarctic are constructed either on rock or on ice that is fixed in place.
The Teniente Luis Carvajal Villaroel Antarctic Base is a non-permanent seasonal Chilean Antarctic base located on the south-west tip of Adelaide Island, in Graham Land off the west coast of the Antarctic Peninsula in the Chilean region of Magallanes.
Snow Hill Island is an almost completely snowcapped island, 33 km (21 mi) long and 12 km (7.5 mi) wide, lying off the east coast of the Antarctic Peninsula. It is separated from James Ross Island to the north-east by Admiralty Sound and from Seymour Island to the north by Picnic Passage. It is one of several islands around the peninsula known as Graham Land, which is closer to South America than any other part of the Antarctic continent.
The Antarctic Place-names Commission was established by the Bulgarian Antarctic Institute in 1994, and since 2001 has been a body affiliated with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Bulgaria.
The British Antarctic Survey (BAS) is the United Kingdom's national Antarctic operation. It is part of the Natural Environment Research Council. With over 400 staff, BAS takes an active role in Antarctic affairs, operating five research stations, two ships and five aircraft in both polar regions, as well as addressing key global and regional issues. This involves joint research projects with over 40 UK universities and more than 120 national and international collaborations.
The Melchior Islands are a group of many low, ice-covered islands lying near the center of Dallmann Bay in the Palmer Archipelago, Antarctica. They were first seen but left unnamed by a German expedition under Eduard Dallmann, 1873–74. The islands were resighted and roughly charted by the Third French Antarctic Expedition under Jean-Baptiste Charcot, 1903–05. Charcot named what he believed to be the large easternmost island in the group "Île Melchior" after Vice Admiral Jules Melchior of the French Navy, but later surveys proved Charcot's Île Melchior to be two islands, now called Eta Island and Omega Island. The name Melchior Islands has since become established for the whole island group now described, of which Eta Island and Omega Island form the eastern part, while the Sigma Islands mark the northern limit of the islands. The group was roughly surveyed in 1927 by Discovery Investigations personnel in the RRS Discovery, and was resurveyed by Argentine expeditions in 1942 and 1943, and again in 1948.
Hale Glacier is a glacier about 6 nautical miles (11 km) long, located just east of Mount Simpson on Thurston Island, Antarctica, and flowing southwest to the Abbot Ice Shelf in Peacock Sound. It was delineated from air photos taken by U.S. Navy Squadron VX-6 in January 1960, and was named by the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names (US-ACAN) for Lieutenant Bill J. Hale, U.S. Navy, a helicopter pilot aboard USS Burton Island who made exploratory flights to Thurston Island in February 1960.
Mackenzie Glacier is a glacier 4 nautical miles (7 km) long flowing eastward from Mount Parry to join Malpighi Glacier at the east coast of Brabant Island, in the Palmer Archipelago, Antarctica. It was first roughly charted by the Belgian Antarctic Expedition, 1897–99, under Gerlache, was photographed by Hunting Aerosurveys Ltd in 1956–57, and was mapped from these photos in 1959. The glacier was named by the UK Antarctic Place-Names Committee for Scottish physician Sir James Mackenzie, a pioneer of studies of heart disease.
Rush Glacier is a glacier in Antarctica. Situated in southern Brabant Island, it is 4 nautical miles (7 km) long, draining the northwest slopes of Solvay Mountains and flowing west between Mount Aciar and Mount Sarnegor into the Buragara Cove of Dallmann Bay in the Palmer Archipelago. It was shown on an Argentine government chart in 1953, but not named. It was photographed by Hunting Aerosurveys Ltd in 1956-57, and mapped from these photos in 1959. The glacier was named by the United Kingdom Antarctic Place-Names Committee (UK-APC) for Benjamin Rush (1745–1813), a noted American physician and philanthropist, and a signatory of the Declaration of Independence.
