Coal Rock ( 83°29′S50°38′W / 83.483°S 50.633°W ) is a prominent nunatak lying 4 nautical miles (7 km) southeast of Fierle Peak at the south end of the Forrestal Range, Pensacola Mountains. It was mapped by the United States Geological Survey (USGS) from surveys and from U.S. Navy air photos, 1956–66, and named by Dwight L. Schmidt, USGS geologist for two beds of graphitic coal that are well exposed on the nunatak. [1] [2] [3]
Coal Rock exposes about 200 meters (660 ft) of the Permian Pecora Formation. At Coal Rock, it consists of gray to tan weathering, thin-bedded, fine-grained, quartzose and feldspathic sandstone that contains many thin interbeds of carbonaceous and pyritic siltstone and shale. The sandstone is commonly cross-bedded and forms ledges. Two beds of graphitic coal, each about 1 meter (3.3 ft) thick, are exposed at Coal Rock. These coal beds contain plant fossils including a glossopterid paleoflora of Permian age. [3]
The Ellsworth Mountains are the highest mountain ranges in Antarctica, forming a 350 km (217 mi) long and 48 km (30 mi) wide chain of mountains in a north to south configuration on the western margin of the Ronne Ice Shelf in Marie Byrd Land. They are bisected by Minnesota Glacier to form the Sentinel Range to the north and the Heritage Range to the south. The former is by far the higher and more spectacular with Mount Vinson constituting the highest point on the continent. The mountains are located within the Chilean Antarctic territorial claim but outside of the Argentinian and British ones.
Alexandra Mountains is a group of low, separated mountains in the north portion of Edward VII Peninsula, just southwest of Sulzberger Bay in Marie Byrd Land, Antarctica. Discovered in January–February 1902 by the British National Antarctic Expedition during an exploratory cruise of the Discovery along the Ross Ice Shelf. Named for Alexandra, then Queen of the United Kingdom.
The Wisconsin Range is a major mountain range of the Horlick Mountains in Antarctica, comprising the Wisconsin Plateau and numerous glaciers, ridges and peaks bounded by the Reedy Glacier, Shimizu Ice Stream, Horlick Ice Stream and the interior ice plateau.
The Ohio Range is a mountain range in the Transantarctic Mountains of Antarctica. It is about 48 km (30 mi) long and 16 km (10 mi) wide, extending WSW-ENE from Eldridge Peak to Mirsky Ledge. The range forms the northeast end of the Horlick Mountains and consists primarily of a large snow-topped plateau with steep northern cliffs and several flat-topped ridges and mountains. The highest point is the summit of Mount Schopf.
The Pensacola Mountains are a large group of mountain ranges of the Transantarctic Mountains System, located in the Queen Elizabeth Land region of Antarctica.
The Forrestal Range is a largely snow-covered mountain range, about 105 km (65 mi) long, standing east of Dufek Massif and the Neptune Range in the Pensacola Mountains of Antarctica. Discovered and photographed on 13 January 1956 on a transcontinental patrol plane flight of U.S. Navy Operation Deep Freeze I from McMurdo Sound to the vicinity of the Weddell Sea and return.
The Neptune Range is a mountain range, 112 km (70 mi) long, lying WSW of Forrestal Range in the central part of the Pensacola Mountains in Antarctica. The range is composed of Washington Escarpment with its associated ridges, valleys and peaks, the Iroquois Plateau, and the Schmidt and Williams Hills. It was discovered and photographed on 13 January 1956 on a US Navy transcontinental plane flight from McMurdo Sound to Weddell Sea and return.
The Usarp Mountains are a major Antarctic mountain range, lying west of the Rennick Glacier and trending north to south for about 190 kilometres (118 mi). The feature is bounded to the north by Pryor Glacier and the Wilson Hills.
Wilson Hills is a group of scattered hills, nunataks and ridges that extend NW-SE for about 110 kilometres (68 mi) between Matusevich Glacier and Pryor Glacier in Antarctica. They were discovered by Lieutenant Harry Pennell, Royal Navy, on the Terra Nova Expedition in February 1911 during Robert Falcon Scott's last expedition, and named after Edward Adrian Wilson, a zoologist with the expedition, who perished with Scott on the return journey from the South Pole.
Aztec Mountain is a small pyramidal mountain over 2,000 metres (6,600 ft) high, just southwest of Maya Mountain and west of Beacon Valley in Victoria Land. It was so named by the New Zealand Geological Survey Antarctic Expedition (1958–59) because its shape resembles the pyramidal ceremonial platforms used by the Aztec and Maya civilizations.
Coal Nunatak is a flat-topped rock mass with steep cliffs facing south, standing 2 nautical miles (4 km) southwest of Corner Cliffs on the southeast corner of Alexander Island, Antarctica. Lincoln Ellsworth first noted it from the air on November 23, 1935, and mapped it from photos obtained on that flight by W.L.G. Joerg. Observed from the northwest, only the summit protrudes above the coastal ice, and it was uncertain whether this was a peak on Alexander Island or an island in George VI Sound. Its true nature was determined by the Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey (FIDS) who visited and surveyed this nunatak in 1949. So named by FIDS for exposures of thin lenses of coal occur there.
Coalsack Bluff is a small rock bluff standing at the northern limits of Walcott Neve, 6 nautical miles (11 km) west-southwest of Bauhs Nunatak. It was so named by the New Zealand Geological Survey Antarctic Expedition (1961–62) because of the coal seams found running through the bluff.
Wall Rock is a rock 4 nautical miles (7 km) north of Robbins Nunatak in the Schmidt Hills portion of the Neptune Range, Pensacola Mountains in Queen Elizabeth Land, Antarctica. Wall Rock was mapped by the United States Geological Survey from surveys and U.S. Navy air photos, 1956–1966. It was named by the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names for John Wall, a member of the Electronic Test Unit in the Pensacola Mountains, 1957–58.
Turbidite Hill is a low nunatak that lies four nautical miles (7 km) east of Laird Plateau on the north side of Olson Neve in Antarctica. It was mapped by the Holyoake, Cobham and Queen Elizabeth Ranges party of the New Zealand Geological Survey Antarctic Expedition (NZGSAE) (1964–65). It was named after sedimentary features, called turbidites, which were reportedly found in sedimentary rocks of the Beacon Supergroup which forms the summit of this hill.
Schmidt Hills is a group of rock hills, 15 nautical miles (28 km) long, lying north of Childs Glacier and west of Roderick Valley in the Neptune Range, Pensacola Mountains. Mapped by United States Geological Survey (USGS) from surveys and U.S. Navy air photos, 1956–66. Named by Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names (US-ACAN) for Dwight L. Schmidt, USGS geologist to the Pensacola Mountains in 1962–63, 1963–64 and 1965–66.
Ruthven Bluff is a large rock bluff 1 nautical mile (1.9 km) south of Sosa Bluff in the Schneider Hills portion of the Argentina Range, Pensacola Mountains. Mapped by United States Geological Survey (USGS) from surveys and U.S. Navy air photos, 1956–67. Named by Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names (US-ACAN) for Richard W. Ruthven, USGS surveyor who visited the bluff in the 1965–66 season.
Ray Nunatak is a nunatak, an Eskimo word meaning an isolated rocky peak that projects above the surface of a glacier where the ice cover is relatively thin. Ray Nunatak is 1,630 m, located just north of Beiszer Nunatak and 5 nautical miles (9 km) southwest of Dyrdal Peak in southern Forrestal Range, Pensacola Mountains. Mapped by United States Geological Survey (USGS) from surveys and U.S. Navy air photos, 1956–66. Named by Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names (US-ACAN) for James A. Ray, utilities man at Ellsworth Station, winter 1957.
Vanguard Nunatak is a conspicuous cone-shaped nunatak standing at the northern extremity of the Forrestal Range, Pensacola Mountains in Antarctica. It was mapped by United States Geological Survey (USGS) from surveys and U.S. Navy air photos, 1956–66, and was named by the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names (US-ACAN) for its prominent position at the north end of the Forrestal Range.
Mount Ritchie is a mountain rising over 1600 m in the southeast part of Warren Range, Antarctica. The feature is 5.6 km (3 nmi) northeast of Wise Peak on the west side of Deception Glacier. Named by the Victoria University of Wellington Antarctic Expedition (VUWAE), 1970–71, after A. Ritchie, curator of fossils at the Australian Museum, Sydney, a member of the VUWAE party that discovered important sites of fossil fish in this Skelton Neve area.
The geology of the Ellsworth Mountains, Antarctica, is a rock record of continuous deposition that occurred from the Cambrian to the Permian periods, with basic igneous volcanism and uplift occurring during the Middle to Late Cambrian epochs, deformation occurring in the Late Permian period or early Mesozoic era, and glacier formation occurring in the Cretaceous period and Cenozoic era. The Ellsworth Mountains are located within West Antarctica at 79°S, 85°W. In general, it is made up of mostly rugged and angular peaks such as the Vinson Massif, the highest mountain in Antarctica.