The Antarctic Peninsula, known as O'Higgins Land in Chile and Tierra de San Martín in Argentina, and originally as Graham Land in the United Kingdom and the Palmer Peninsula in the United States, is the northernmost part of mainland Antarctica.
Alexander Island, which is also known as Alexander I Island, Alexander I Land, Alexander Land, Alexander I Archipelago, and Zemlja Alexandra I, is the largest island of Antarctica. It lies in the Bellingshausen Sea west of Palmer Land, Antarctic Peninsula from which it is separated by Marguerite Bay and George VI Sound. The George VI Ice Shelf entirely fills George VI Sound and connects Alexander Island to Palmer Land. The island partly surrounds Wilkins Sound, which lies to its west. Alexander Island is about 390 kilometres (240 mi) long in a north–south direction, 80 kilometres (50 mi) wide in the north, and 240 kilometres (150 mi) wide in the south. Alexander Island is the second-largest uninhabited island in the world, after Devon Island.
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.
The Beethoven Peninsula is a deeply indented, ice-covered peninsula, 60 miles (100 km) long in a northeast–southwest direction and 60 miles (100 km) wide at its broadest part, forming the southwest part of Alexander Island, which lies off the southwestern portion of the Antarctic Peninsula. The south side of the peninsula is supported by the Bach Ice Shelf whilst the north side of the peninsula is supported by the Wilkins Ice Shelf. The Mendelssohn Inlet, the Brahms Inlet and the Verdi Inlet apparently intrude into it. The Bach Ice Shelf, Rossini Point and Berlioz Point are some distance away, on the Ronne Entrance from the Southern Ocean. Beethoven Peninsula is one of the eight peninsulas of Alexander Island.
George VI Sound or Canal Jorge VI or Canal Presidente Sarmiento or Canal Seaver or King George VI Sound or King George the Sixth Sound is a major bay/fault depression, 300 miles (483 km) long and mainly covered by a permanent ice shelf. It is in the shape of the letter J without any upper bar. It lines the east and south shores of Alexander Island, separating it from the vestigial, quite small, Wordie Ice Shelf and Palmer Land and the north-facing "English Coast". A quite central point of it is 71°S68°W.
The Amery Ice Shelf is a broad ice shelf in Antarctica at the head of Prydz Bay between the Lars Christensen Coast and Ingrid Christensen Coast. It is part of Mac. Robertson Land. The name "Cape Amery" was applied to a coastal angle mapped on 11 February 1931 by the British Australian New Zealand Antarctic Research Expedition (BANZARE) under Douglas Mawson. He named it for William Bankes Amery, a civil servant who represented the United Kingdom government in Australia (1925–28). The Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names interpreted this feature to be a portion of an ice shelf and, in 1947, applied the name Amery to the whole shelf.
Mawson Peninsula is a high, narrow, ice-covered peninsula on the George V Coast, on the west side of the Slava Ice Shelf, Antarctica, terminating in Cape Hudson. It extends for over 30 nautical miles (56 km) in a northwesterly direction. The peninsula was photographed from the air by U.S. Navy Operation Highjump, 1946–47, and was sketched and photographed by Phillip Law of the Australian National Antarctic Research Expeditions who flew along it to its northern end in February 1959. It was named by the Antarctic Names Committee of Australia for Sir Douglas Mawson.
The Evans Ice Stream is a large ice stream draining from Ellsworth Land, between Cape Zumberge and Fowler Ice Rise, into the western part of the Ronne Ice Shelf. Mills Glacier flows adjacently into the ice stream from the southwest side. The feature was recorded on February 5, 1974, in Landsat imagery. It was named by the UK Antarctic Place-Names Committee for Stanley Evans, a British physicist who, starting in 1961, developed apparatus for radio echo sounding of icecaps and glaciers from aircraft; he carried out upper atmosphere research at Brunt Ice Shelf, 1956–57.
Ronne Entrance is a broad southwest entrance of the George VI Sound where it opens from the southeast portion of the Bellingshausen Sea at the southwest side of Alexander Island, Antarctica. The south side of the Monteverdi Peninsula occupies the north portion of the Ronne Entrance while Ellsworth Land occupies the southern portion of the entrance. The entrance receives much ice throughout the whole year mainly because the entrance protrudes eastward into the adjacent George VI Sound and the George VI Ice Shelf from the southwest section, the Ronne Entrance is also prone to ice flow from the Bach Ice Shelf as well as receiving ice from the Wilkins Ice Shelf. There are a few islands situated within the Ronne Entrance, mainly in the southwest area. Some of these islands include the Eklund Islands, DeAtley Island, Spaatz Island, Case Island and Smyley Island. It was discovered on a sledge journey through the sound in December 1940 by U.S. Polar explorer Finn Ronne and Carl Eklund of the US Antarctic Service (USAS), 1939–41, and named "Ronne Bay". Finn Ronne covered more miles by ski and sled dog than any other explorer in history and mapped the last unknown coastline on earth on his Ronne Antarctic Research Expedition in 1947.
Cape Jeremy is a cape marking the east side of the north entrance to George VI Sound and the west end of a line dividing Graham Land and Palmer Land, Antarctica. It was discovered by the British Graham Land expedition, 1934–37, under John Riddoch Rymill, who named it for Jeremy Scott, son of James Maurice Scott, who served as home agent for the expedition and was formerly a member of the British Arctic Air Route Expedition.
Smyley Island is an Antarctic island lying off the Antarctic Peninsula. The island is 61 km (38 mi) long and from 13 to 34 km wide, and lies about 20 km (12 mi) north of Case Island. It connects to the Stange Ice Shelf and is separated from Alexander Island by the Ronne Entrance. Smyley Island is one of the 27 islands of Palmer Land, Antarctica.
Mount Umbriel is a peak, rising to about 1,500 m, overlooking the head of Venus Glacier on the east coast of Alexander Island, Antarctica, with the east face of the mountain overlooking the George VI Ice Shelf that occupies George VI Sound. The mountain was first mapped by Searle of the Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey in 1960, from air photos taken by the Ronne Antarctic Research Expedition in 1947–48. Named by the United Kingdom Antarctic Place-Names Committee from association with nearby Uranus Glacier, Umbriel being one of the satellites of the planet Uranus, the seventh planet of the Solar System.
Churchill Peninsula is an ice-covered peninsula between Cabinet Inlet and Adie Inlet, extending some 30 miles (50 km) in a southeasterly direction from the east coast of Graham Land. The peninsula ends in Cape Alexander separating Oscar II Coast to the northeast from Foyn Coast to the southwest, and has its east coast indented by Zimen Inlet and Brentopara Inlet.
Posadowsky Glacier is a glacier about 9 nautical miles long, flowing north to Posadowsky Bay immediately east of Gaussberg. Posadowsky Bay is an open embayment, located just east of the West Ice Shelf and fronting on the Davis Sea in Kaiser Wilhelm II Land. Kaiser Wilhelm II Land is the part of East Antarctica lying between Cape Penck, at 87°43'E, and Cape Filchner, at 91°54'E, and is claimed by Australia as part of the Australian Antarctic Territory. Other notable geographic features in this area include Drygalski Island, located 45 mi NNE of Cape Filchner in the Davis Sea, and Mirny Station, a Russian scientific research station.
Noville Peninsula is a high ice-covered peninsula about 30 nautical miles (60 km) long, between Peale and Murphy Inlets on the north side of Thurston Island in Antarctica. It was delineated from aerial photographs made by U.S. Navy Operation HIGHJUMP in December 1946, and named for George O. Noville, executive officer of the Byrd Antarctic Expedition, 1933–35.
Neptune Glacier is a glacier on the east coast of Alexander Island, Antarctica, 12 nautical miles (22 km) long and 4 nautical miles (7 km) wide, flowing east into George VI Sound and the George VI Ice Shelf to the south of Triton Point. Although Neptune Glacier is not located within the mountain range Planet Heights, the glaciers name derives from the mountain range along with many other nearby glaciers named after planets of the Solar System. There are also other nearby landforms named in association with these glaciers. The glacier was first sighted from the air by Lincoln Ellsworth on November 23, 1935, and roughly mapped from photos obtained on that flight by W.L.G. Joerg. The mouth of the glacier was positioned in 1936 by the British Graham Land Expedition (BGLE). Named by the United Kingdom Antarctic Place-Names Committee (UK-APC) for the planet Neptune following a Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey (FIDS) survey in 1949. The head of the glacier was mapped from air photos taken by the Ronne Antarctic Research Expedition (RARE), 1947–48, by Searle of the FIDS in 1960.
Monteverdi Peninsula is a large ice-covered peninsula lying between the Bach Ice Shelf and George VI Sound, forming the southernmost extremity of Alexander Island, Antarctica. The southern side of the feature was first seen and charted by Finn Ronne and Carl Eklund of the United States Antarctic Service, 1939–41, who traversed the entire length of George VI Sound. The peninsula was mapped from trimetrogon air photography taken by the Ronne Antarctic Research Expedition in 1947–48, and from survey by the Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey, 1948–50. It was named by the UK Antarctic Place-Names Committee after Italian composer Claudio Monteverdi.
Tombaugh Cliffs is a group of ice-free cliffs which stand at the north side of the mouth of Pluto Glacier and face towards the George VI Ice Shelf which occupies George VI Sound, on the east side of Alexander Island, Antarctica. Photographed from the air by the Ronne Antarctic Research Expedition in 1947–48; surveyed by Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey from 1948 to 1950. The naming by the United Kingdom Antarctic Place-Names Committee continues the astronomy related or celestial theme displayed in the toponymy of this area. The cliffs were named for Clyde Tombaugh (1906-1997), an American astronomer who studied at Lowell Observatory and who first discovered the dwarf planet Pluto in 1930.
Rymill Coast is that portion of the west coast of Antarctic Peninsula between Cape Jeremy and Buttress Nunataks. It runs northward from English Coast and east of Alexander Island across George VI Sound, encompassing the Batterbee Mountains. It is joined in the north by Fallieres Coast, which runs along Marguerite Bay. It was named by the United Kingdom Antarctic Place-Names Committee (UK-APC) in 1985 after John Riddoch Rymill (1905–68), Australian leader of the BGLE, 1934–37.
Khufu Peak is a peak rising to about 745 m located in Planet Heights, near the center of the Fossil Bluff massif, on the east side of Alexander Island, Antarctica, in which the east face of the peak faces towards George VI Sound and the George VI Ice Shelf. For many years this was known to British Antarctic Survey (BAS) workers by the unofficial descriptive name "Pyramid," a name already in use. To avoid duplication, in 1987 the United Kingdom Antarctic Place-Names Committee (UK-APC) applied a new name after Khufu, the second Pharaoh of the Fourth Dynasty of Egypt, who erected the Great Pyramid of El Giza.
