The Downshire Cliffs are a line of precipitous

basalt Basalt (; ) is an aphanite, aphanitic (fine-grained) extrusive igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of low-viscosity lava rich in magnesium and iron (mafic lava) exposed at or very near the planetary surface, surface of a terrestrial ...

cliffs rising to 2,000 m above the

Ross Sea The Ross Sea is a deep bay of the Southern Ocean in Antarctica, between Victoria Land and Marie Byrd Land and within the Ross Embayment, and is the southernmost sea on Earth. It derives its name from the British explorer James Clark Ross who vi ...

and forming much of the eastern side of the

Adare Peninsula The Adare Peninsula, sometimes called the Cape Adare Peninsula, is a high ice-covered peninsula, long, in the northeast part of Victoria Land, extending south from Cape Adare to Cape Roget. The peninsula is considered the southernmost point of ...

, along the

Borchgrevink Coast The Borchgrevink Coast is that portion of the coast of Victoria Land between Cape Adare and Cape Washington. The name was recommended by New Zealand Antarctic Place-Names Committee in 1961 after Carsten Borchgrevink, a member of Henrik Johan Bull's ...

of northern

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 ...

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 ...

. The nearest permanent research stations are the Italian Mario Zucchelli and South Korean

Jang Bogo Station The Jang Bogo Station in Terra Nova Bay, Antarctica is a permanent South Korean research station. It is the second base of South Korean Antarctic research mission (after King Sejong Station), and the first that is located in mainland Antarctica. ...

s some 400 km to the south in

Terra Nova Bay Terra Nova Bay is a bay which is often ice free, about long, lying between Cape Washington and the Drygalski Ice Tongue along the coast of Victoria Land, Antarctica. It was discovered by the British National Antarctic Expedition (known as the ...

Discovery and naming

In 1841 Captain

James Clark Ross Sir James Clark Ross (15 April 1800 – 3 April 1862) was a British Royal Navy officer and polar explorer known for his explorations of the Arctic, participating in two expeditions led by his uncle John Ross, and four led by William Edwa ...

applied the name "Cape Downshire" to a part of these cliffs. He did so at the request of Commander

Francis Crozier Francis Rawdon Moira Crozier (17 October 1796 – disappeared 26 April 1848) was an Irish officer of the Royal Navy and polar explorer who participated in six expeditions to the Arctic and Antarctic. In May 1845, he was second-in-command ...

of HMS ''Downshire''. No prominent cape exists here and, for the sake of historical continuity, the name was reapplied to the cliffs.

Important Bird Area

A 243 ha site comprising the ice-free slopes beneath the cliffs has been designated an

Important Bird Area An Important Bird and Biodiversity Area (IBA) is an area identified using an internationally agreed set of criteria as being globally important for the conservation of bird populations. IBA was developed and sites are identified by BirdLife Int ...

(IBA) by

BirdLife International BirdLife International is a global partnership of non-governmental organizations that strives to conserve birds and their habitats. BirdLife International's priorities include preventing extinction of bird species, identifying and safeguarding ...

because it supports about 20,000 breeding pairs of

Adélie penguins Adelie or Adélie may refer to: * Adélie Land, a claimed territory on the continent of Antarctica * Adelie Land meteorite, a meteorite discovered on December 5, 1912, in Antarctica by Francis Howard Bickerton * Adélie penguin, a species of pengui ...

s, the number based on counts carried out over five seasons sampled between 1981 and 2012.

References

External links

* Important Bird Areas of Antarctica Penguin colonies Cliffs of Victoria Land Borchgrevink Coast {{BorchgrevinkCoast-geo-stub