Stancomb-Wills Glacier

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Stancomb-Wills Glacier
Penguin in Antarctica jumping out of the water.jpg
Emperor penguins breed in the IBA
Antarctica relief location map.jpg
Blue pog.svg
Location of Stancomb-Wills Glacier in Antarctica
Typecirque
Location Coats Land
Coordinates 75°18′S19°00′W / 75.300°S 19.000°W / -75.300; -19.000 Coordinates: 75°18′S19°00′W / 75.300°S 19.000°W / -75.300; -19.000
Thicknessunknown
Terminus Weddell Sea
Statusunknown

The Stancomb-Wills Glacier is a large glacier that debouches into the eastern Weddell Sea southward of Lyddan Island. The glacier was discovered in the course of the 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. The name was applied by the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names (US-ACAN) in 1969.

Contents

The Stancomb-Wills Glacier Tongue ( 75°0′S22°0′W / 75.000°S 22.000°W / -75.000; -22.000 ) is the extensive seaward projection of the Stancomb-Wills Glacier into the eastern Weddell Sea. The cliffed front of this feature was discovered in January 1915 by a British expedition led by Shackleton. He named it "Stancomb-Wills Promontory," after Dame Janet Stancomb-Wills, one of the principal donors of the expedition. In 1969, US-ACAN amended the name to "Stancomb-Wills Glacier Tongue". This followed the U.S. Navy flight on which the glacier was discovered and the relationship with the glacier tongue was first observed.

The Stancomb-Wills Glacier Important Bird Area ( 74°06′15″S23°05′31″W / 74.10417°S 23.09194°W / -74.10417; -23.09194 ) is a 352 ha site which has been designated an Important Bird Area (IBA) by BirdLife International because it supports a breeding colony of about 5,500 emperor penguins, as estimated from 2009 satellite imagery, on fast ice on the north-eastern coast of the glacier tongue, some 60 km west of Lyddan Island. [1]

See also

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The Weddell Sea is part of the Southern Ocean and contains the Weddell Gyre. Its land boundaries are defined by the bay formed from the coasts of Coats Land and the Antarctic Peninsula. The easternmost point is Cape Norvegia at Princess Martha Coast, Queen Maud Land. To the east of Cape Norvegia is the King Haakon VII Sea. Much of the southern part of the sea is covered by a permanent, massive ice shelf field, the Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf.

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Amundsen Sea Arm of the Southern Ocean

The Amundsen Sea, an arm of the Southern Ocean off Marie Byrd Land in western Antarctica, lies between Cape Flying Fish to the east and Cape Dart on Siple Island to the west. Cape Flying Fish marks the boundary between the Amundsen Sea and the Bellingshausen Sea. West of Cape Dart there is no named marginal sea of the Southern Ocean between the Amundsen and Ross Seas. The Norwegian expedition of 1928–1929 under Captain Nils Larsen named the body of water for the Norwegian polar explorer Roald Amundsen while exploring this area in February 1929.

Thurston Island Antarctic 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.

Alexandra Mountains

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 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.

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Brunt Ice Shelf Antarctic ice shelf

The Brunt Ice Shelf borders the Antarctic coast of Coats Land between Dawson-Lambton Glacier and Stancomb-Wills Glacier Tongue. It was named by the UK Antarctic Place-names Committee after David Brunt, British meteorologist, Physical Secretary of the Royal Society, 1948–57, who was responsible for the initiation of the Royal Society Expedition to this ice shelf in 1955.

Bear Peninsula

Bear Peninsula is a peninsula about 80 km (50 mi) long and 40 km (25 mi) wide which is ice covered except for several isolated rock bluffs and outcrops along its margins, lying 48 km 30 mi) east of Martin Peninsula on Walgreen Coast, Marie Byrd Land, Antarctica.

Mertz Glacier Glacier of Antarctica

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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.

Riiser-Larsen Ice Shelf Ice shelf of Antarctica

Riiser-Larsen Ice Shelf is an ice shelf about 250 miles (400 km) long on the coast of Queen Maud Land, Antarctica, extending from Cape Norvegia in the north to Lyddan Island and Stancomb-Wills Glacier in the south.

Dame Janet Stancomb Graham Stancomb-Wills, DBE was the first woman mayor of Ramsgate in Kent, an office which she held from 1923–24, and she was also the first person to receive, in 1922, the Freedom of the Town. She was elected President of the Royal West of England Academy (RWA) in 1911, decades before any other British Academy even admitted women as full members, and also became President of the School of Architecture at Bristol in 1921. In 1927, she was appointed Justice of the Peace for Kent. She died on 22 August 1932 at East Court (Historic England listing), Ramsgate, Kent, aged 78.

King Haakon VII Sea Proposed name for part of the Southern Ocean on the coast of East Antarctica

King Haakon VII Sea is a proposed name for part of the Southern Ocean on the coast of East Antarctica.

Weldon Glacier is a glacier entering the southeast part of Weddell Sea about 30 nautical miles (60 km) west-southwest of Hayes Glacier. The glacier was discovered in the course of a U.S. Navy LC-130 reconnaissance flight over the coast of Coats Land, November 5, 1967, and was plotted by United States Geological Survey (USGS) from photographs obtained at that time. Named by Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names (US-ACAN) for Don W. Weldon, U.S. Navy, photographer on that flight.

Dawson-Lambton Glacier Glacier of Antarctica

The Dawson-Lambton Glacier is a heavily crevassed glacier entering the south-eastern Weddell Sea immediately west of the Brunt Ice Shelf. It was discovered in January 1915 by a British expedition led by Ernest Shackleton. He named it for Elizabeth Dawson-Lambton, a benefactress of the Shackleton expeditions.

Perry Range Range of mountains on the coast of Marie Byrd Land (Antarctica)

Perry Range is a narrow range of mountains, 6 nautical miles (11 km) long, separating the lower ends of Venzke Glacier and Berry Glacier where they enter Getz Ice Shelf, on the coast of Marie Byrd Land. The range was discovered and photographed from aircraft of the U.S. Antarctic Service in December 1940. Named by Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names (US-ACAN) for Lieutenant John E. Perry, CEC, U.S. Navy, Public Works Officer at McMurdo Station, 1968. He commanded the Antarctic Construction Battalion Unit from January 1969 until it was decommissioned in May 1971, when he became project manager for the South Pole Station.

Thurston Glacier Glacier of Antarctica

Thurston Glacier is a glacier about 28 km (17 mi) long which drains the south-eastern slopes of Mount Siple on Siple Island. The glacier trends eastward and then east-north-eastward to reach the northern shore of the island. It was mapped by the United States Geological Survey (USGS) from surveys and United States Navy aerial photography, 1959–65.

Venzke Glacier is a broad glacier flowing northward between Bowyer Butte and Perry Range into Getz Ice Shelf on the coast of Marie Byrd Land. The glacier was discovered and photographed from aircraft of the U.S. Antarctic Service in December 1940. It was mapped in detail by United States Geological Survey (USGS) from surveys and U.S. Navy photographs, 1959–66. It was named on 1 January 1974 by the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names (US-ACAN) for Captain Norman C. Venzke, U.S. Coast Guard, commanding officer of USCGC Northwind (WAGB-282) in Antarctica, 1972 and 1973, and a participant in several other Deep Freeze operations as ship's company officer aboard icebreakers.

References

  1. "Stancomb-Wills Glacier". BirdLife Data Zone. BirdLife International. 2015. Retrieved 29 November 2020.