American highlands

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Coordinates: 73 °  S , 78 °  E

Relief Map: Antarctica
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American highlands​
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Antarctic
Coastal areas of the American highlands

The American Highland (English: American Highland ) is a region in East Antarctica . It is a largely flat ice surface with an area of ​​around 200,000 km². The American highlands lie between 70 ° E and 100 ° E and between 85 ° S and around 70 ° S. In the east it borders on the Lambert Glacier , in the west it merges into the Wilkesland and in the south into the polar plateau .

The ice cap of the Antarctic reaches a thickness of 2000 to 3000 m in the American highlands. That is why research has been intensified in recent years. Climatologists , in particular, are interested in the region, as ice core drilling can reconstruct the climate from times gone by.

The northern, d. H. Near the coast, part of the area is also divided into three parts from east to west:

  1. Queen Mary Land ( Queen Maryland ) between 100 ° E and 85 ° E
  2. Kaiser-Wilhelm-II.-Land ( Wilhelm II Land ) between 85 ° E and 80 ° E
  3. Princess Elizabeth Land ( Princess Elizabeth Land ) between 80 ° E and 75 ° E

West of Princess Elizabeth Land is 75 to 73 ° E, a small mountain range called the Grove Mountains .

Parts of the American highlands were discovered and explored by the US polar explorer Lincoln Ellsworth during a flight over the interior of the Antarctic continent on January 11, 1939. He also named the area American Highland . During the Cold War , however, the name became a curiosity, as the Soviet Union set up the research stations Vostok , Pionerskaya and Komsomolskaya in the eastern region . However, it was not a political decision to build these stations in the American highlands, but a purely scientific one.

Australia is officially claiming the American highlands. However , this claim is currently suspended by the Antarctic Treaty .

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