Balgari Nunatak ( bg, нунатак Българи, ‘Nunatak Balgari’ /'nunatak 'bɤlgari/) is the mostly ice-free rocky ridge extending 800 m in east–west direction and 550 m wide, rising to 282 mReference Elevation Model of Antarctica.
Polar Geospatial Center. University of Minnesota, 2019 on the south side of Bongrain Ice Piedmont in northern

Alexander Island Alexander Island, which is also known as Alexander I Island, Alexander I Land, Alexander Land, Alexander I Archipelago, and Zemlja Alexandra I, is the largest island of Antarctica. It lies in the Bellingshausen Sea west of Palmer Land, Antarc ...

Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean, it contains the geographic South Pole. Antarctica is the fifth-largest contine ...

. It surmounts

Lazarev Bay Lazarev Bay is a rectangular bay, long and wide, which separates Alexander Island from Rothschild Island and is bounded on the south side by the Wilkins Ice Shelf, which joins the east portion of Rothschild Island and the west portion of Alexan ...

to the south. The nunatak was visited on 3 January 1988 by the geological survey party of

Christo Pimpirev Christo Pimpirev ( bg, Христо Пимпирев) is a Bulgarian scientist (geologist) and polar explorer. Academic career He was born on Friday, 13 February 1953 in Sofia, Bulgaria. After graduating from Sofia University with a master's d ...

and Borislav Kamenov (First Bulgarian Antarctic Expedition), and Philip Nell and Peter Marquis (

British Antarctic Survey The British Antarctic Survey (BAS) is the United Kingdom's national polar research institute. It has a dual purpose, to conduct polar science, enabling better understanding of global issues, and to provide an active presence in the Antarctic on ...

). On that occasion, a small rocky offshoot situated 360 m southeast of the nunatak's summit was designated as the site for a future Bulgarian Antarctic base. However, the two prefabricated huts brought for the purpose on board the

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

Research Ship ''

Mikhail Somov Mikhail Mikhailovich Somov (russian: Михаил Михайлович Сомов; , in Moscow – 30 December 1973, in Leningrad) was a Soviet oceanologist, polar explorer, Doctor of Geographical Sciences (1954). Somov graduated from the Moscow ...

'' in April 1988 could not be helicoptered ashore due to bad weather, and were erected on

Livingston Island Livingston Island (Russian name ''Smolensk'', ) is an Antarctic island in the Southern Ocean, part of the South Shetlands Archipelago, a group of Antarctic islands north of the Antarctic Peninsula. It was the first land discovered south of 60 ...

instead.Ivanov, L. and N. Ivanova. ''The World of Antarctica''. Generis Publishing, 2022. 241 pp. The feature is so named in connection with the first choice of a site for the Bulgarian Antarctic base.

Location

The ridge is located at , which is 630 m from the seashore, 1.85 km north by west of

Cape Vostok Cape Vostok () is a rocky headland which forms the west extremity of the Havre Mountains and the northwest extremity of Alexander Island in Antarctica. It was discovered by the First Russian Antarctic Expedition in 1821, led by Fabian Gottlieb von ...

, 13.4 km west of Boyn Ridge and 6.1 km northwest of

Saint George Peak Saint George Peak (Russian: "Gora Svyatogo Georgiya Pobedonostsa") is a peak rising to about 1,500 m in the western part of the Havre Mountains, situated 3 mi northeast of Cape Vostok within the northwest portion of Alexander Island, Antarc ...

Maps

* British Antarctic Territory. Scale 1:250000 topographic map. Sheet SR19-20/5. APC UK, 1991
Antarctic Digital Database (ADD).
Scale 1:250000 topographic map of Antarctica. Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR). Since 1993, regularly upgraded and updated

Notes

References

Bulgarian Antarctic Gazetteer.

Antarctic Place-names Commission The Antarctic Place-names Commission was established by the Bulgarian Antarctic Institute in 1994, and since 2001 has been a body affiliated with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Bulgaria. The Commission approves Bulgarian place names in ...

. (details in Bulgarian
basic data
in English)
Balgari Nunatak.
SCAR

Composite Gazetteer of Antarctica The Composite Gazetteer of Antarctica (CGA) of the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) is the authoritative international gazetteer containing all Antarctic toponyms published in national gazetteers, plus basic information about th ...

External links

Balgari Nunatak.
Adjusted Copernix satellite image Nunataks of Alexander Island Bulgaria and the Antarctic {{AlexanderIsland-geo-stub