Watson Escarpment
| Watson Escarpment | ||
|---|---|---|
| location | Marie Byrd Land , West Antarctica | |
| part of | Queen Maud Mountains in the Transantarctic Mountains | |
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| Coordinates | 86 ° 0 ′ S , 145 ° 0 ′ W | |
The Watson Escarpment is a large step in the Queen Maud Mountains of the Marie Byrd Lands in West Antarctica . On the eastern edge of Scott Glacier , it runs north, then east to Reedy Glacier , where it turns south along the western flank of the glacier. It is about 160 km long and reaches an altitude of 3550 m , where it drops down to 1500 m to the surrounding area. The Leverett Glacier cuts the Watson Escarpment from southeast to northwest, paving the way for the South Pole Traverse .
The north-central section was first sighted from a vantage point on Supporting Party Mountain by participants in the first Antarctic expedition (1928-1930) of the US polar explorer Richard Evelyn Byrd in December 1929 and partially mapped. Byrd named it after the entrepreneur Thomas J. Watson (1874–1956), a sponsor of the research trip . The complete mapping was followed by geodetic work by the United States Geological Survey and with the help of aerial photographs by the United States Air Force from 1960 to 1964.
Web links
- Watson Escarpment in the Geographic Names Information System of the United States Geological Survey (English)
- Watson Escarpment on geographic.org (English)
