The Comer Range () is an Antarctican mountain range, long, running southwest to northeast and rising to 600 meters to the west of Harbour Glacier in

Wiencke Island Wiencke Island is an island long and from wide, about in area, the southernmost of the major islands of the Palmer Archipelago, lying between Anvers Island to its north across the Neumayer Channel and the west coast of the Antarctic Peninsu ...

Palmer Archipelago Palmer Archipelago, also known as Antarctic Archipelago, Archipiélago Palmer, Antarktiske Arkipel or Palmer Inseln, is a group of islands off the northwestern coast of the Antarctic Peninsula. It extends from Tower Island in the north to Anver ...

. From south to north the range includes Jabet Peak and

Noble Peak Noble Peak () is a peak in the Comer Range, 720 m, standing 1 nautical mile (1.9 km) southwest of Lockley Point and marking the northeast end of a prominent ridge on the northwest side of Wiencke Island, in the Palmer Archipelago. Discovered ...

. Named by the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names in 2007 after Gary Comer (1927-2006), an American philanthropist and founder of the

Lands' End Lands' End is an American clothing and home decor retailer founded in 1963 and based in Dodgeville, Wisconsin, that specializes in casual clothing, luggage, and home furnishings. The majority of the company's business is conducted through mail ...

company whose association with polar research stems from his 2001 trip through the

Northwest Passage The Northwest Passage (NWP) is the sea route between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans through the Arctic Ocean, along the northern coast of North America via waterways through the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. The eastern route along the Arc ...

in the vessel ''Turmoil''. The ease of his passage in comparison to that of numerous experienced sailors previously convinced him that

climate change In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to ...

was occurring. To research the issue Comer contacted distinguished scientists Wallace S. Broecker, Lamont-Doherty Geological Observatory, and F. Sherwood Rowland,

University of California, Irvine The University of California, Irvine (UCI or UC Irvine) is a public land-grant research university in Irvine, California. One of the ten campuses of the University of California system, UCI offers 87 undergraduate degrees and 129 graduate and p ...

, and engaged their help in sponsoring a fellowship/mentorship program that he would fund. Comer's investments in climate and environmental change research in the Arctic, and in particular the polar science internship program that he developed and supported, represents a substantial contribution to the advancement of polar science. The new intellectual capital represented by the cadre of new scientists trained through his internship program has already made substantial contributions to knowledge of the Arctic and this in turn represents a significant contribution to improving the global glacial-geologic and glaciological context that is essential for understanding climate change work in the Antarctic.

References

{{PalmerArchipelago-geo-stub Mountains of the Palmer Archipelago