Sanctuary Cliffs
| Sanctuary Cliffs | ||
|---|---|---|
| location | Snow Hill Island ( Ross Islands , West Antarctica ) | |
|
||
| Coordinates | 64 ° 27 ′ S , 57 ° 11 ′ W | |
The Sanctuary Cliffs ( English for refuge cliffs ) are rocky cliffs on Snow Hill Island west of the Antarctic James Ross Island . They rise up on the northern edge of the ice sheet that covers the central part of the island.
The discovery and first measurement goes back to participants in the Swedish Antarctic Expedition (1901–1903) under the direction of Otto Nordenskjöld . Nordenskjöld named the formation as Mittelunatak after its geographical location . Measurements by the Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey (FIDS) in 1952 showed that it was cliffs instead of a nunatak . The UK Antarctic Place-Names Committee decided in 1957 to fundamentally rename it. The cliffs were given a descriptive name based on the fact that they had served the scientists of the FIDS as a windbreak when there was a sustained southwest wind.
Web links
- Sanctuary Cliffs in the Geographic Names Information System of the United States Geological Survey (English)
- Sanctuary Cliffs on geographic.org (English)