Pensacola Mountains

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Pensacola Mountains
Pensacola Mountains.jpg
Highest point
PeakEngland Peak[1]
Elevation2,150 m (7,050 ft)
Coordinates82°37′S 52°49′W / 82.617°S 52.817°W / -82.617; -52.817Coordinates: 82°37′S 52°49′W / 82.617°S 52.817°W / -82.617; -52.817
Dimensions
Length450 km (280 mi)
Area86,850 km2 (33,530 sq mi)
Geography
Pensacola Mountains is located in Antarctica
Pensacola Mountains
Location in Antarctica
ContinentAntarctica
RegionQueen Elizabeth Land
Range coordinates84°2′S 61°22′W / 84.033°S 61.367°W / -84.033; -61.367
Parent rangeTransantarctic Mountains

The Pensacola Mountains are a large group of mountain ranges of the Transantarctic Mountains System, located in the Queen Elizabeth Land region of Antarctica.

Geography[]

They extend 450 km (280 mi) in a NE-SW direction. Subranges of the Pensacola Mountains include: Argentina Range, Forrestal Range, Dufek Massif, Cordiner Peaks, Neptune Range, Patuxent Range, Rambo Nunataks and Pecora Escarpment. These mountain units lie astride the extensive Foundation Ice Stream and Support Force Glacier which drain northward to the Ronne Ice Shelf.[2]

Naming

Discovered and photographed on 13 January 1956 in the course of a transcontinental nonstop plane flight by personnel of United States Navy Operation Deep Freeze I from McMurdo Sound to Weddell Sea and return. Named by US-ACAN for the U.S. Naval Air Station, Pensacola, Florida, in commemoration of the historic role of that establishment in training aviators of the U.S. Navy. The mountains were mapped in detail by USGS from surveys and US Navy air photos, 1956–67.[2]

Geology[]

The Pensacola Mountains were originally continuous with the Ventana Mountains near Bahía Blanca in Argentina, Cape Fold Belt in South Africa, the Ellsworth Mountains (West Antarctica) and the Hunter-Bowen orogeny in eastern Australia.

The Ordovician-Devonian Neptune Group rests unconformably on a Cambrian succession, and is overlain disconformably by the Dover Sandstone of the Beacon Supergroup. Within the Neptune Group is the Brown Ridge Conglomerate, Elliott Sandstone, Elbow Formation, and the Heiser Sandstone.[3]

Features[]

Geographical features include:

Neptune Range[]

Main article: Neptune Range

Williams Hills[]

Main article: Williams Hills

Schmidt Hills[]

Main article: Schmidt Hills
  • Mount Coulter
  • Mount Gorecki
  • Mount Nervo
  • Pepper Peak
  • Robbins Nunatak
  • Wall Rock

Other features[]

Forrestal Range[]

Main article: Forrestal Range

Patuxent Range[]

Main article: Patuxent Range

Anderson Hills[]

Main article: Anderson Hills

Thomas Hills[]

Main article: Thomas Hills

Other features[]

Argentina Range[]

Main article: Argentina Range

Schneider Hills[]

Main article: Schneider Hills

Panzarini Hills[]

Main article: Panzarini Hills

Other features[]

Cordiner Peaks[]

Main article: Cordiner Peaks

Rambo Nunataks[]

Main article: Rambo Nunataks

Pecora Escarpment[]

Main article: Pecora Escarpment

Dufek Massif[]

Main article: Dufek Massif

Boyd Escarpment[]

Main article: Boyd Escarpment

Other features[]

Other Pensacola Mountains features[]

Further reading[]

References[]

  1. ^ "Pensacola Mountains". Peakbagger. Retrieved 23 May 2017.
  2. ^ Jump up to: a b "Pensacola Mountains". Geographic Names Information System. United States Geological Survey. Retrieved 2004-11-03.
  3. ^ Laird, M.G. (1991). Thomson, M.R.A.; Crame, J.A.; Thomson, J.W. (eds.). Lower-mid-Palaeozoic sedimentation and tectonic patterns on the palaeo-Pacific margin of Antarctica, in Geological Evolution of Antarctica. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 179. ISBN 9780521372664.
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