Gandalf Ridge () is a volcanic ridge at the northwest end of Hurricane Ridge, to the north of

Mount Morning Mount Morning is a shield volcano at the foot of the Transantarctic Mountains in Victoria Land, Antarctica. It lies from Ross Island. Mount Morning rises to an elevation of and is almost entirely mantled with snow and ice. A wide summit calder ...

on the

Scott Coast Scott Coast () is the portion of the coast of Victoria Land, Antarctica between Cape Washington and Minna Bluff. It was named by the New Zealand Antarctic Place-Names Committee in 1961 after Captain Robert Falcon Scott, Royal Navy, leader of the ...

of Antarctica. Gandalf is a whimsical name put forward by geologist

Philip R. Kyle Philip, also Phillip, is a male given name, derived from the Greek (''Philippos'', lit. "horse-loving" or "fond of horses"), from a compound of (''philos'', "dear", "loved", "loving") and (''hippos'', "horse"). Prominent Philips who popularize ...

of the Institute of Polar Studies,

Ohio State University The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best publ ...

, who examined the ridge in December 1977. The discovery of very hard volcanic rock at this ridge led to the naming: Gandalf, after a crusty character (a wizard) in

J. R. R. Tolkien John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (, ; 3 January 1892 – 2 September 1973) was an English writer and philology, philologist. He was the author of the high fantasy works ''The Hobbit'' and ''The Lord of the Rings''. From 1925 to 1945, Tolkien was ...

's ''

The Lord of the Rings ''The Lord of the Rings'' is an epic high-fantasy novel by English author and scholar J. R. R. Tolkien. Set in Middle-earth, intended to be Earth at some time in the distant past, the story began as a sequel to Tolkien's 1937 children's boo ...

''.

References

Ridges of Victoria Land Scott Coast {{ScottCoast-geo-stub