Pensacola Mountains
| Pensacola Mountains | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Highest point | |
| Peak | England Peak[1] |
| Elevation | 2,150 m (7,050 ft) |
| Coordinates | 82°37′S 52°49′W / 82.617°S 52.817°W |
| Dimensions | |
| Length | 450 km (280 mi) |
| Area | 86,850 km2 (33,530 sq mi) |
| Geography | |
  Pensacola Mountains Location in Antarctica | |
| Continent | Antarctica |
| Region | Queen Elizabeth Land |
| Range coordinates | 84°2′S 61°22′W / 84.033°S 61.367°W |
| Parent range | Transantarctic 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 January 13, 1956 in the course of a transcontinental nonstop plane flight by personnel of US 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
Williams Hills
Schmidt Hills
Other features
Forrestal Range
Patuxent Range
Anderson Hills
Thomas Hills
Other features
Argentina Range
Schneider Hills
Panzarini Hills
Other features
Cordiner Peaks
Rambo Nunataks
Pecora Escarpment
Dufek Massif
Boyd Escarpment
Other features
Other Pensacola Mountains features
Further reading
References
- ^ "Pensacola Mountains". Peakbagger. Retrieved 23 May 2017.
- ^ a b "Pensacola Mountains". Geographic Names Information System. United States Geological Survey, United States Department of the Interior. Retrieved 2004-11-03.
- ^ 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.