Buffer Island

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Buffer Island
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Buffer Island
Location in Antarctica
Geography
Location Antarctica
Coordinates 69°10′S67°19′W / 69.167°S 67.317°W / -69.167; -67.317 Coordinates: 69°10′S67°19′W / 69.167°S 67.317°W / -69.167; -67.317
Administration
Administered under the Antarctic Treaty System
Demographics
PopulationUninhabited

Buffer Island is a mostly ice-covered island lying west of the Wordie Ice Shelf, 17 kilometres (9 nmi) northwest of Mount Balfour, Fallières Coast. The feature was photographed from aircraft by the Ronne Antarctic Research Expedition in 1947. Following survey by the Falklands Islands Dependencies Survey in 1958 it was named "Buffer Ice Rise" by the UK Antarctic Place-names Committee (UK-APC) because it obstructed the northwestward flow of the ice shelf in this vicinity. The UK-APC amended the name to Buffer Island following a general eastward recession of the Wordie Ice Front in about 1999, which disclosed the feature to be an island. [1]

Wordie Ice Shelf ice shelf in Antarctica

The Wordie Ice Shelf was a confluent glacier projecting as an ice shelf into the SE part of Marguerite Bay between Cape Berteaux and Mount Edgell, along the western coast of Antarctic Peninsula.

Mount Balfour is a bastion-like rocky mountain, 1,010 metres (3,310 ft) high, which lies at the mouth of Fleming Glacier, close to the junction with the Wordie Ice Shelf on the west side of the Antarctic Peninsula. First roughly surveyed in 1936 by the British Graham Land Expedition under Rymill, and resurveyed by the Falklands Islands Dependencies Survey in 1948. It was named for Henry Balfour, President of the Royal Geographical Society from 1936 to 1938.

Fallières Coast

The Fallières Coast is that portion of the west coast of the Antarctic Peninsula between the head of Bourgeois Fjord and Cape Jeremy and lies on Marguerite Bay and the Wordie Ice Shelf. On the south it is joined by Rymill Coast, and in the north by Loubet Coast. Fallières Coast was first explored in January 1909 by the French Antarctic Expedition under J.B. Charcot, who named it for Armand Fallières, then President of France.

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Veststraumen Glacier glacier in Antarctica

Veststraumen Glacier is a glacier about 45 miles long draining west along the south end of Kraul Mountains into Riiser-Larsen Ice Shelf. The glacier was seen in the course of a U.S. Navy LC-130 plane flight over the coast on November 5, 1967, and was plotted by the United States Geological Survey (USGS) from photographs obtained at that time. In 1969, the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names (US-ACAN) gave the name "Endurance Glacier" to this feature, but that naming was rescinded because UK Antarctic Place-Names Committee (UK-APC) gave the identical name to a small glacier on Elephant Island. The descriptive name "Veststraumen" appears on a 1972 Norsk Polarinstitutt map.

Cape Longing Refuge in Argentina

Cape Longing is a rocky cape on the east coast of Graham Land, Antarctica, forming the south end of a large ice-covered promontory which marks the west side of the south entrance to Prince Gustav Channel. It was discovered by the Swedish Antarctic Expedition under Otto Nordenskiöld in 1902, and so named by him because from the position of his winter hut on Snow Hill Island the cape lay in the direction of his "land of longing" which he was anxious to explore.

Forster Ice Piedmont is an ice piedmont lying landward of the Wordie Ice Shelf, along the west coast of the Antarctic Peninsula. It is formed by the confluence of Airy, Seller, Fleming and Prospect Glaciers and is about 25 miles (40 km) long from north to south and 12 miles (20 km) wide.

Hag Pike is a conspicuous rock column, 710 metres (2,330 ft) high, on the north side of the Wordie Ice Shelf near the west coast of the Antarctic Peninsula. Together with the mountain to the north, it forms the west side of the mouth of Hariot Glacier. Hag Pike was photographed from the air by the British Graham Land Expedition, 1937, and by the Ronne Antarctic Research Expedition, 1947. It was surveyed by the Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey, 1948–50, and 1958. The name by the UK Antarctic Place-Names Committee is descriptive, "hag" being the stump of a tree which remains after felling.

Aldea Island

Aldea Island is the central of the three Bugge Islands, off Wordie Ice Shelf, Fallières Coast, Antarctic Peninsula. The island was named Isla Aldea by the Chilean Antarctic Expedition, 1947, probably after Sargento Juan de Dios Aldea, of the Chilean Navy, one of the heroes of the naval battle of Iquique, May 21, 1879.

Confluence Cone is a small but conspicuous nunatak 4 nautical miles (7 km) southeast of Sickle Mountain, near the west coast of the Antarctic Peninsula. It was photographed from the air by the Ronne Antarctic Research Expedition in 1947. It was surveyed from the ground by the Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey in 1958, and so named by the UK Antarctic Place-Names Committee because of its position at the confluence of several glaciers which merge with Hariot Glacier to flow into the Wordie Ice Shelf.

Triune Peaks are three prominent, sharply pointed rock peaks, rising 12 nautical miles (22 km) northeast of Mount Balfour and overlooking Wordie Ice Shelf on the west coast of Antarctic Peninsula. First roughly surveyed from the ground by British Graham Land Expedition (BGLE), 1936-37. Photographed from the air by Ronne Antarctic Research Expedition (RARE), December 1947. Resurveyed from the ground by Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey (FIDS), November 1958. The United Kingdom Antarctic Place-Names Committee (UK-APC) name derives from the number of peaks in the group.

Pampero Pass is a snow pass at about 750 m, running north-south between Mount Edgell and Mistral Ridge in northwest Palmer Land. The pass provides a sledge route between Wordie Ice Shelf and Eureka Glacier. Named by the United Kingdom Antarctic Place-Names Committee (UK-APC) in association with other wind names in the area. Pampero is the cold wind that blows from the south Andes to the Atlantic Ocean.

Fielding Col is an east-west trending pass between the Baudin Peaks and Hag Pike in southern Graham Land, Antarctica. It provides the best known route leading inland to Morgan Upland between Neny Fjord and the Wordie Ice Shelf. It was named by the UK Antarctic Place-Names Committee after Harold M. Fielding, a British Antarctic Survey surveyor at Stonington Island, 1967–69.

Fleming Glacier is a broad glacier 25 nautical miles (46 km) long on the west side of the Antarctic Peninsula, flowing west-northwest and terminating in Forster Ice Piedmont to the east of the Wordie Ice Shelf. The glacier was charted by the British Graham Land Expedition (BGLE) under John Rymill, 1934–37, and was photographed from the air by the United States Antarctic Service on September 29, 1940. This hitherto unnamed feature was named by the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names in 1947 for Reverend W.L.S. Fleming, Dean of Trinity Hall, Cambridge University; also, chaplain, chief scientist, and geologist of the BGLE.

Moutonnée Lake is a sub-glacial lake that lies within Moutonnee Valley, marginal to the George VI Ice Shelf, 7 km (4.3 mi) south of Ablation Point indenting the east coast of Alexander Island, facing the west coast of Palmer Land, Antarctica. Following limnological and tidal studies by the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) from 1971, it was named by the United Kingdom Antarctic Place-Names Committee (UK-APC) from the presence of roche moutonnées on its shores. As with nearby Ablation and Hodgson Lakes, Moutonnée receives large masses of ice from the adjacent George VI Ice Shelf in George VI Sound, making life in the lake unsustainable. The site lies within Antarctic Specially Protected Area (ASPA) No.147.

Hariot Glacier is a glacier flowing northwest along the south side of Morgan Upland before turning west into the northern portion of the Wordie Ice Shelf, along the west coast of the Antarctic Peninsula. It was roughly surveyed by the British Graham Land Expedition, 1936–37, and the upper reaches were photographed from the air by the Ronne Antarctic Research Expedition, 1947. The glacier was surveyed from the ground by members of the Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey who travelled along it in December 1958, and it was named by the UK Antarctic Place-Names Committee after Thomas Hariot, an English mathematician who pioneered new methods of navigation under the patronage of Sir Walter Raleigh.

Miller Ice Rise is an ice rise nearly 2 nautical miles (4 km) long and 1 nautical mile (2 km) wide at the ice front (1974) of the Wordie Ice Shelf, 16 nautical miles (30 km) west-northwest of the Triune Peaks, in southern Marguerite Bay, Antarctica. It was surveyed by the Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey in 1948–49, and was photographed from the air by the U.S. Navy in 1966. The feature was named, in 1977, by the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names for Richard Miller, a U.S. Navy chief radioman at Palmer Station in the winter party of 1968.

Khamsin Pass is a pass at 750 metres (2,460 ft), running north-south between the Relay Hills and the Kinnear Mountains, southward of the Wordie Ice Shelf, Antarctic Peninsula. An important pass used by the British Graham Land Expedition, 1936–37, and subsequent parties, it allows easy access from the Wordie Ice Shelf into Palmer Land. It was named in 1977 by the UK Antarctic Place-Names Committee in association with other wind names in the area, Khamsin being the warm southerly wind in Egypt that comes from the Sahara.

Reynolds Ice Rise is a small ice rise lying 3 nautical miles (6 km) southeast of Wade Ice Rise in Wordie Ice Shelf, Fallières Coast. The ice rise was mapped from U.S. Landsat imagery, 1974-79. Named by the United Kingdom Antarctic Place-Names Committee (UK-APC) in 1987 after John M. Reynolds, British Antarctic Survey (BAS) glaciologist, 1978–83, who undertook a study of intensive calving of Wordie Ice Shelf from Landsat imagery.

Linchpin Ice Rise is a small ice rise northeast of Miller Ice Rise, situated near the ice front of Wordie Ice Shelf on the Fallières Coast of Antarctica. The feature was mapped from U.S. Landsat imagery, 1974–79, and was so named by the UK Antarctic Place-Names Committee because the ice rise plays a key role (linchpin) in maintaining the position of the ice front, as observed in 1979.

Ramírez Island (Antarctica)

Ramírez Island is the northernmost of the three Bugge Islands), lying off Wordie Ice Shelf in the south part of Marguerite Bay, Fallières Coast, Antarctica. The island was named "Isla Eleuterio Ramirez" by the Chilean Antarctic Expedition, 1947, possibly after a member of the expedition. A concise form of the original name has been approved.

Napier Island island in Antarctica previously hidden by the Napier Ice Rise

Napier Island is an island, 1.5 kilometres (0.8 nmi) long, in the southeastern part of Marguerite Bay, 22 kilometres (12 nmi) west-northwest of Mount Balfour on the Fallières Coast. Following survey and mapping as an ice rise in the Wordie Ice Shelf by the Falklands Islands Dependencies Survey in 1958, this feature was named Napier Ice Rise by the UK Antarctic Place-names Committee (UK-APC). The name was amended to Napier Island by the UK-APC after a general eastward recession of the Wordie Ice Front revealed it was an island. In association with the names of pioneers of navigation grouped in this area, it was named after John Napier (1550-1617), the Scottish mathematician who invented logarithms and published his first tables in 1614.

Wordie Bay is a bay which lies between Cape Berteaux and Mount Guernsey, to the west of the Wordie Ice Shelf, on the Fallières Coast of the Antarctic Peninsula. It was named by the UK Antarctic Place-names Committee in 1999 in association with the Wordie Ice Shelf.

References

  1. "Buffer Island". Geographic Names Information System . United States Geological Survey . Retrieved 2011-10-04.

PD-icon.svg This article incorporates  public domain material from the United States Geological Survey document "Buffer Island" (content from the Geographic Names Information System ).

United States Geological Survey scientific agency of the United States government

The United States Geological Survey is a scientific agency of the United States government. The scientists of the USGS study the landscape of the United States, its natural resources, and the natural hazards that threaten it. The organization has four major science disciplines, concerning biology, geography, geology, and hydrology. The USGS is a fact-finding research organization with no regulatory responsibility.

Geographic Names Information System geographical database

The Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) is a database that contains name and locative information about more than two million physical and cultural features located throughout the United States of America and its territories. It is a type of gazetteer. GNIS was developed by the United States Geological Survey in cooperation with the United States Board on Geographic Names (BGN) to promote the standardization of feature names.