Victoria Land is a region in eastern Antarctica which fronts the western side of the Ross Sea and the Ross Ice Shelf, extending southward from about 70°30'S to 78°00'S, and westward from the Ross Sea to the edge of the Antarctic Plateau. It was discovered by Captain James Clark Ross in January 1841 and named after Queen Victoria. The rocky promontory of Minna Bluff is often regarded as the southernmost point of Victoria Land, and separates the Scott Coast to the north from the Hillary Coast of the Ross Dependency to the south.
The Churchill Mountains are a mountain range group of the Transantarctic Mountains System, located in the Ross Dependency region of Antarctica. They border on the western side of the Ross Ice Shelf, between Byrd Glacier and Nimrod Glacier.
Mount Discovery is a conspicuous, isolated stratovolcano, lying at the head of McMurdo Sound and east of Koettlitz Glacier, overlooking the NW portion of the Ross Ice Shelf. It forms the center of a three-armed mass of which Brown Peninsula is one extension to the north; Minna Bluff is a second to the east; the third is Mount Morning to the west. Mount Discovery was discovered by the British National Antarctic Expedition (1901–04) and named for their expedition ship Discovery.
Koettlitz Glacier is a large Antarctic glacier lying west of Mount Morning and Mount Discovery in the Royal Society Range, flowing from the vicinity of Mount Cocks northeastward between Brown Peninsula and the mainland into the ice shelf of McMurdo Sound.
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.
The Dailey Islands are a group of small volcanic islands lying off the coast of Victoria Land, 9 kilometres (5 nmi) northeast of Cape Chocolate, in the northern part of the ice shelf bordering McMurdo Sound. They were discovered by the British National Antarctic Expedition, 1901–04, under Robert Falcon Scott, and named for Fred E. Dailey, the expedition carpenter.
Ross Archipelago is a name for that group of islands which, together with the ice shelf between them, forms the eastern and southern boundaries of McMurdo Sound in Antarctica. The most northerly is Beaufort Island, then comes Ross Island, the Dellbridge Islands, and Black Island and White Island. Frank Debenham's classic report, The Physiography of the Ross Archipelago, 1923, described "Brown Island" as a part of the group.
Minna Bluff is a rocky promontory at the eastern end of a volcanic Antarctic peninsula projecting deep into the Ross Ice Shelf at 78°31′S166°25′E. It forms a long, narrow arm which culminates in a south-pointing hook feature, and is the subject of research into Antarctic cryosphere history, funded by the National Science Foundation, Office of Polar Programs.
Aurora Glacier is a large glacier draining that part of Ross Island between Mount Erebus and Mount Terra Nova, and flowing south into McMurdo Ice Shelf. It was named by A.J. Heine in 1963 after the Aurora, the ship of the Ross Sea Party of the British expedition under Ernest Shackleton, 1914–17.
Dibble Bluff is a conspicuous rock bluff, 1 nautical mile (2 km) south of Marshall Cirque on the west side of White Island, Ross Archipelago. It rises abruptly from McMurdo Ice Shelf to over 400 metres (1,300 ft). It was named by the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names (1999) after Raymond R. Dibble of the Department of Geology, Victoria University of Wellington, who investigated volcanic eruptions and the seismicity of nearby Mount Erebus in five seasons, 1980–81 through 1984–85.
Kainan Bay is an iceport which indents the front of the Ross Ice Shelf about 37 nautical miles (70 km) northeast of the northwestern end of Roosevelt Island, Antarctica. It was discovered in January 1902 by the British National Antarctic Expedition under Robert Falcon Scott. It was named by the Japanese Antarctic Expedition under Lieutenant Shirase Nobu which, in January 1912, effected a landing on the ice shelf here from the ship Kainan Maru. Little America V, the main scientific base of the U.S. Antarctic program during the International Geophysical Year, 1957–58, was established at this site in late December 1955.
Stuckless Glacier is a broad glacier in the southwest part of Black Island, Ross Archipelago. If flows southwest between Rowe Nunataks and Cape Beck to Moraine Strait, McMurdo Ice Shelf. Named by Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names (US-ACAN) (1999) after John S. Stuckless, Department of Geology, Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, who, in several seasons from 1972–73, investigated the geochemistry of McMurdo volcanic rocks, correlating samples from several Ross Island sites with DVDP core samples obtained in McMurdo Dry Valleys.
Eady Ice Piedmont is the ice piedmont lying south of Mount Discovery and Minna Bluff, merging at the south side with the Ross Ice Shelf, Antarctica. It was mapped by the United States Geological Survey from ground surveys and Navy air photos, and was named by the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names in 1963 for Captain Jack A. Eady, U.S. Navy, Chief of Staff to the Commander, U.S. Naval Support Force, Antarctica, from July 1959 to April 1962.
Evteev Glacier is a glacier flowing from the southeast slopes of the Worcester Range to the Ross Ice Shelf, west of Cape Timberlake. It was named by the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names in 1964 for Sveneld A. Evteev, a glaciologist and Soviet exchange observer at McMurdo Station in 1960.
Moore Embayment — shown on some maps as Moore Bay — is a large ice-filled embayment between Shults Peninsula and Minna Bluff, along the northwest side of the Ross Ice Shelf, Antarctica. It was discovered and named by Captain Robert F. Scott's Discovery Expedition, 1901–04. Admiral Sir Arthur Moore, Naval Commander-in-Chief at Cape Town, placed the resources of the naval dockyard at Cape Town at the disposal of the Discovery for much-needed repairs before the ship proceeded to New Zealand and the Antarctic.
Moraine Strait is a strait on the McMurdo Ice Shelf of Antarctica that trends north–south between Brown Peninsula, Mount Discovery, and Minna Bluff on the west, and Black Island on the east. The surface of the strait, especially the northern part between Brown Peninsula and Black Island, is noteworthy for the presence of broad moraine belts that obscure much of the ice and suggest the name. The strait was discovered by the British National Antarctic Expedition, 1901–04, led by Robert Falcon Scott, and was named by the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names in 1999.
The McIntosh Cliffs are a line of steep, uneven, volcanic bluffs or cliffs, 16 nautical miles (30 km) long, forming the southwest side of the Minna Bluff peninsula, at the northeast end of Hillary Coast, Ross Dependency, Antarctica. The height of the cliffs increases from west to east, ranging from 400 to 600 metres above the Ross Ice Shelf. They were named by the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names in 1999 after William C. McIntosh of the Department of Geoscience, New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology (NMIMT), Socorro, a member of the 1982 NMIMT field party that carried out the first geological mapping of Minna Bluff. McIntosh did additional field work at Mount Erebus, 1977–78, 1984–85; Mount Discovery and Mason Spur, 1983–84; Mount Murphy, 1985; the Executive Committee Range, 1989–90; and the Crary Mountains, 1992–93.
Mount Hayward is a hill 2 nautical miles (4 km) southwest of Mount Heine on White Island, in the Ross Archipelago, Antarctica. It was named by the New Zealand Geological Survey Antarctic Expedition (1958–59) for Victor Hayward, a British member of Ernest Shackleton's Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition (1914–17), who lost his life in a blizzard on 8 May 1916 on the sea ice in McMurdo Sound.
Castellini Bluff is a rock bluff rising to c. 500 m between Dibble Bluff and Mount Nesos in west White Island, Ross Archipelago. Named by the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names in 2005 after Michael A. Castellini, Institute of Marine Sciences, University of Alaska, Fairbanks, who studied the Weddell seal in McMurdo Sound sea ice areas from 1977 to 2004, including winter season research at White Island with Randall William Davis in 1981.
Davis Bluff is a rock bluff that rises to 400 m in height. It is located 2 nautical miles (3.7 km) northeast of Isolation Point in east White Island, Ross Archipelago. Davis Bluff was named by the United States Board of Geographic names following the recommendation of its Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names in 2005 after Randall William Davis, Department of Marine Biology, Texas A&M University, Galveston, Texas. Dr. Davis studied the Weddell seal in McMurdo Sound sea ice areas from 1977 to 2003, including winter season research at White Island with his wife Ana Maria Davis, Michael A. Castellini and Markus Horning.
