The Fletcher Islands are a small group of

island An island (or isle) is an isolated piece of habitat that is surrounded by a dramatically different habitat, such as water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, skerries, cays or keys. An island ...

s lying

west-southwest The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each sepa ...

(WSW) of

Cape Gray Cape Gray is a rocky cape which forms the east side of the entrance to Commonwealth Bay, part of the George V Coast of Antarctica. The cape is actually a small rocky island which is joined to the icecap of the mainland by an ice ramp. It was disc ...

in the eastern part of

Commonwealth Bay Commonwealth Bay is an open bay about 48 km (30 mi) wide at the entrance between Point Alden and Cape Gray in Antarctica. It was discovered in 1912 by the Australasian Antarctic Expedition under Douglas Mawson, who established the main ...

. The Fletcher Islands were discovered by the

Australian Antarctic Expedition The Australasian Antarctic Expedition was a 1911–1914 expedition headed by Douglas Mawson that explored the largely uncharted Antarctic coast due south of Australia. Mawson had been inspired to lead his own venture by his experiences on Erne ...

(AAE) (1911-1914) under

Douglas Mawson Sir Douglas Mawson OBE FRS FAA (5 May 1882 – 14 October 1958) was an Australian geologist, Antarctic explorer, and academic. Along with Roald Amundsen, Robert Falcon Scott, and Sir Ernest Shackleton, he was a key expedition leader during ...

, who gave the name Fletcher to

Fletcher Island Fletcher Island is a rocky island, in diameter, which is the largest of the Fletcher Islands. Fletcher Island is located at . Fletcher Island lies in the eastern part of Commonwealth Bay, west-southwest (WSW) of Cape Gray. Fletcher Island was ...

, the large island of the group. The

United States Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names The Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names (ACAN or US-ACAN) is an advisory committee of the United States Board on Geographic Names responsible for recommending commemorative names for features in Antarctica. History The committee was established ...

(US-ACAN) recommends that the name Fletcher also be applied for the group in keeping with the interpretation shown on G.D. Blodgett's 1955 map compiled from air photos taken by

U.S. Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage o ...

(USN)

Operation Highjump Operation HIGHJUMP, officially titled The United States Navy Antarctic Developments Program, 1946–1947, (also called Task Force 68), was a United States Navy (USN) operation to establish the Antarctic research base Little America IV. The opera ...

(1946-1947).

References

Islands of George V Land {{GeorgeVLand-geo-stub

See also

References