Elephant Moraine
| Elephant Moraine | ||
|---|---|---|
| location | Victoria Land , East Antarctica | |
| part of | Transantarctic Mountains | |
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| Coordinates | 76 ° 17 ′ S , 157 ° 20 ′ E | |
The Elephant Moraine ( English for elephant moraine ) is a 5 km long and isolated moraine in East Antarctica Victoria Land . It is 45 km west of Reckling Peak on the west side of the head end of the Mawson Glacier . It is part of a narrow band of ice that extends from Reckling Peak for around 100 km to the west.
William R. MacDonald (1925–1977) of the United States Geological Survey incorrectly identified the moraine as "[...] nunatak in the shape of an elephant [head]" based on satellite images from 1973 and later aerial photographs . The actual nature of the object was clarified in the course of one of the United States Antarctic Program 's campaigns for the collection of Antarctic meteorites ( ANSMET ) in the Ross Dependency between 1979 and 1980, led by William A. Cassidy of the University of Pittsburgh Martian meteorite Elephant Moraine A79001 found. The Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names gave the moraine its descriptive name from the first description in 1989.
Web links
- Elephant Moraine in the Geographic Names Information System of the United States Geological Survey (English)
- Elephant Moraine on geographic.org (English)