|
Lost Seal Stream
Lost Seal Stream () is a glacial meltwater stream, long, draining from the west margin of Commonwealth Glacier into the northeast end of Lake Fryxell, in Taylor Valley, Victoria Land, Antarctica. The name was suggested by Diane McKnight, leader of a United States Geological Survey team that studied the hydrology of streams flowing into Lake Fryxell in several seasons, 1987–94, and commemorates the encounter with a living Weddell seal The Weddell seal (''Leptonychotes weddellii'') is a relatively large and abundant true seal with a circumpolar distribution surrounding Antarctica. The Weddell seal was discovered and named in the 1820s during expeditions led by British sealing .... The seal wandered into the area north of Lake Fryxell during November 1990 and was evacuated by helicopter to New Harbour after it entered the camp area. A mummified seal is prominent at the mouth of the stream. References Rivers of Victoria Land McMurdo Dry Valleys {{McMurdoDryValleys-ge ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Commonwealth Glacier
Commonwealth Glacier is a glacier which flows in a southeasterly direction and enters the northern side of Taylor Valley immediately west of Mount Coleman, in Victoria Land, Antarctica. It was charted by the British Antarctic Expedition, 1910–13 (BrAE ), under Robert Falcon Scott, and named by them for the Commonwealth of Australia, which made a financial grant to the BrAE and contributed two members to the Western Geological Party which explored this area. The north end of the glacier is bounded by Flint Ridge. See also * List of glaciers in the Antarctic * Glaciology Glaciology (; ) is the scientific study of glaciers, or more generally ice and natural phenomena that involve ice. Glaciology is an interdisciplinary Earth science that integrates geophysics, geology, physical geography, geomorphology, c ... Further reading * Steven A. ARCONE, Karl KREUTZ, 'GPR reflection profiles of Clark and Commonwealth Glaciers, Dry Valleys, Antarctica, Climate Change Institu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lake Fryxell
Lake Fryxell is a frozen lake long, between Canada Glacier and Commonwealth Glaciers at the lower end of Taylor Valley in Victoria Land, Antarctica. It was mapped in the early 1900s and named during Operation Deep Freeze in the 1950s. There are several forms of algae living in the waters and a weather station located at the lake. Geography Lake Fryxell is deep, making it so the deepest portion of the lake is below sea level. The lake is dammed by Canada Glacier, making it so that it has no natural outflow. It is covered with about of ice, but during the summer months, the ice can clear along the shoreline. There are a few small islands as well as several shallow areas. The average annual ablation is between and , which is significantly lower when compared to other nearby frozen water bodies, such as the waters adjacent to Ross Island. Watershed The watershed contains thirteen streams flowing into the lake, forming a watershed that has an area roughly in size. Where a few of t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Taylor Valley
Taylor Valley is the southernmost of the three large McMurdo Dry Valleys in the Transantarctic Mountains, Victoria Land, Antarctica, located west of McMurdo Sound at approximately . The valley extends from Taylor Glacier in the west to McMurdo Sound at Explorers Cove at the northwest head of New Harbour in the east and is about long. It was once occupied by the receding Taylor Glacier, from which it derives its name. Taylor Valley contains Lake Bonney in the west (inward), and Lake Fryxell in the east (coastward), and Lake Hoare, Lake Chad, Lake Popplewell, Mummy Pond and Parera Pond close together between the two. Further east of Lake Bonney is Pearse Valley. Taylor Valley is separated from Wright Valley in the north by Asgard Range, and from Ferrar Glacier in the south by Kukri Hills. At its southernmost end, Taylor Valley becomes Quinn Gully, a mainly ice-free gully, which descends between MacDonald Hills and Hjorth Hill to Explorers Cove in New Harbour. It was named by ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Victoria Land
Victoria Land is a region in eastern Antarctica which fronts the western side of the Ross Sea and the Ross Ice Shelf, extending southward from about 70°30'S to 78°00'S, and westward from the Ross Sea to the edge of the Antarctic Plateau. It was discovered by Captain James Clark Ross in January 1841 and named after Queen Victoria. The rocky promontory of Minna Bluff is often regarded as the southernmost point of Victoria Land, and separates the Scott Coast to the north from the Hillary Coast of the Ross Dependency to the south. The region includes ranges of the Transantarctic Mountains and the McMurdo Dry Valleys (the highest point being Mount Abbott in the Northern Foothills), and the flatlands known as the Labyrinth. The Mount Melbourne is an active volcano in Victoria Land. Early explorers of Victoria Land include James Clark Ross and Douglas Mawson. In 1979, scientists discovered a group of 309 meteorites in Antarctica, some of which were found near the Allan Hills in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Diane McKnight
Diane McKnight (born March 22, 1953) is a professor of civil, environmental, and architectural engineering at the University of Colorado Boulder and a fellow at the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research (INSTAAR). McKnight is a founding principal investigator of the National Science Foundation's Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) program in the McMurdo Dry Valleys of Antarctica. Early life and education McKnight received a BS in mechanical engineering (1975), MS in civil engineering (1978), and her PhD in environmental engineering in 1979, all from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Career and impact After completing her graduate studies, McKnight began working for the US Geological Survey (USGS) as a research scientist for the Water Resources Division. As part of her work with USGS, she conducted research on lakes in the blast zone of Mount St. Helens in 1980. In 1996, McKnight transitioned to the University of Colorado – Boulder, where she became one of the found ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
United States Geological Survey
The United States Geological Survey (USGS), formerly simply known as the Geological Survey, is a scientific agency of the United States government. The scientists of the USGS study the landscape of the United States, its natural resources, and the natural hazards that threaten it. The organization's work spans the disciplines of biology, geography, geology, and hydrology. The USGS is a fact-finding research organization with no regulatory responsibility. The agency was founded on March 3, 1879. The USGS is a bureau of the United States Department of the Interior; it is that department's sole scientific agency. The USGS employs approximately 8,670 people and is headquartered in Reston, Virginia. The USGS also has major offices near Lakewood, Colorado, at the Denver Federal Center, and Menlo Park, California. The current motto of the USGS, in use since August 1997, is "science for a changing world". The agency's previous slogan, adopted on the occasion of its hundredt ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Weddell Seal
The Weddell seal (''Leptonychotes weddellii'') is a relatively large and abundant true seal with a circumpolar distribution surrounding Antarctica. The Weddell seal was discovered and named in the 1820s during expeditions led by British sealing captain James Weddell to the area of the Southern Ocean now known as the Weddell Sea. The life history of this species is well documented since it occupies fast ice environments close to the Antarctic continent and often adjacent to Antarctic bases. This is the only species in the genus ''Leptonychotes''. Description Weddell seals measure about 2.5–3.5 m (8 ft 2 in–11 ft 6 in) long and weigh 400–600 kg (880–1,320 lb). They are amongst the largest seals, with a rather bulky body and short fore flippers relative to their body length. Males weigh less than females, usually about 500 kg (1,100 lb) or less. Male and female Weddell seals are generally about the same length, though females can be slightly l ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
New Harbour (Antarctica)
New Harbour is a bay about wide between Cape Bernacchi and Butter Point along the coast of Victoria Land, due west of Ross Island. It was discovered by the British National Antarctic Expedition (1901–04) and so named because this new harbor was found while the ''Discovery'' was seeking the farthest possible southern anchorage along the coast of Victoria Land. The Ferrar Glacier flows into the bay, which overlooked by Mount Barnes, which sits at the eastern end of the Kukri Hills range. Wales Stream carries water from Wales Glacier into Explorers Cove, which indents the harbor at its northwest head. Explorers Cove was named in 1976 by the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names (US-ACAN) in recognition of the large number of explorers that have worked in the vicinity of this cove. Quinn Gully, an ice-free gully at the lower end of Taylor Valley, descends to the seashore here. On the north side of the entrance is McClintock Point, named by US-ACAN in 1997 for James B. McClin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rivers Of Victoria Land
A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases, a river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of water. Small rivers can be referred to using names such as creek, brook, rivulet, and rill. There are no official definitions for the generic term river as applied to geographic features, although in some countries or communities a stream is defined by its size. Many names for small rivers are specific to geographic location; examples are "run" in some parts of the United States, "burn" in Scotland and northeast England, and "beck" in northern England. Sometimes a river is defined as being larger than a creek, but not always: the language is vague. Rivers are part of the water cycle. Water generally collects in a river from precipitation through a drainage basin from surface runoff and other sources such as groundwater recharge, springs, a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
