Minna Bluff
| Minna Bluff | ||
 Satellite image from Minna Bluff (bottom right) |
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| Geographical location | ||
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| Coordinates | 78 ° 35 ′ S , 167 ° 4 ′ E | |
| location | Border between Scott and Hillary Coasts , Victoria Land , East Antarctica | |
| Waters 1 | Ross Ice Shelf ( Ross Sea ) | |
| length | 45 km | |
| width | 5 km | |
 Mount Discovery 1: 250,000 topographic map sheet |
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Minna Bluff is a 45 km long and up to 5 km wide peninsula of volcanic origin on the border between the Scott and Hillary coasts in East Antarctica Victoria Land . It extends from Mount Discovery to the east into the Ross Ice Shelf . It is separated from Mount Discovery by the Minna Saddle and ends in a hook-shaped spur, the Minna Hook . The peninsula is on average around 900 m high, its highest point is 1071 m . Funded by the National Science Foundation , the peninsula is being explored for the history of the Antarctic cryosphere .
The peninsula has appeared repeatedly in the history of the discovery of Antarctica. It was first sighted in June 1902 during the Discovery Expedition (1901-1904) led by the British polar explorer Robert Falcon Scott . Later, the Minna Hook in particular was used as a crucial landmark and location for important depots. Scott originally named the peninsula as The Bluff , but changed this before the return of the Discovery Expedition in 1904. It is named after Mary Anne Isabella Caroline "Minna" Markham (née Chinchester, * 1837), wife of Clements Markham , President of the Royal Geographical Society from 1893 to 1905 and patron of the expedition.
Every expedition that Scott followed after his pioneering voyage on this route (including Ernest Shackleton in 1908, Scott himself in 1911 and Shackleton's Ross Sea Party 1914-16) used Minna Bluff to store supplies and to orientate themselves when traveling. Thanks to the condition of the ice in its immediate vicinity, the polar route was set up about 30 kilometers to the east, with depots on this route within sight of the cape.
According to research by George Clarke Simpson , the meteorologist for the Terra Nova Expedition , Minna Bluff has an effect on polar weather. The bulk of the cape deflects the winds sweeping along the eastern edge of the Ross Ice Shelf to the east. About 80 kilometers further north, these winds reach Ross Island , where they are divided. One stream blows into McMurdo Sound , the other heads east towards Cape Crozier . This division of wind direction is, together with other factors, the trigger for the “windless bay” on the south coast of Ross Island, an exceptionally cold area in which fog prevails and which has been described on several land trips between McMurdo Sound and Cape Crozier .
swell
- Edward Wilson: Diary of the Discovery Expedition , Blandford Press 1966
- Scott's Last Expedition , Smith, Elder & Co 1913
- Beau Riffenburgh: Nimrod , Bloomsbury Publications 2004
- Lennard Bickel: Shackleton's Forgotten Men , Random House 2000
- Susan Solomon: The Coldest March , Yale University Press 2001
- Apsley Cherry-Garrard: The Worst Journey in the World , Penguin edition 1983
Web links
- Minna Bluff in the Geographic Names Information System of the United States Geological Survey (English)
- Minna Bluff on geographic.org (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Wilch, TI; McIntosh, WC; Panter, KS; Dunbar, NW; Smellie, J .; Fargo, AJ; Ross, JI; Antibus, JV; Scanlan, MK: Two-stage growth of the Late Miocene Minna Bluff Volcanic Complex, Ross Embayment, Antarctica: implications for ice-sheet and volcanic histories. American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2011, abstract # V31F-2591, bibcode : 2011AGUFM.V31F2591W .
- ↑ United States Geological Survey: Antarctica 1: 250,000 Reconnaisance Series: Map sheet Mount Discovery ST 57-60 / 10 (1988)
- ^ John Stewart: Antarctica - An Encyclopedia . Vol. 2, McFarland & Co., Jefferson and London 2011, ISBN 978-0-7864-3590-6 , p. 1044 (English).
- ^ Edward Wilson: Diary of the Discovery Expedition, entry from June 12, 1902
- ^ John Stewart: Antarctica - An Encyclopedia . Vol. 2, McFarland & Co., Jefferson and London 2011, ISBN 978-0-7864-3590-6 , p. 1045 (English).
- ↑ Riffenburgh pp. 216-217
- ↑ Bickel pp. 99-100
- ↑ Solomon pp. 152-153
- ↑ Cherry-Garrard, map p. 346
