![Mcmurdo oli 2013334](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/ba/Mcmurdo_oli_2013334.jpg)
The McMurdo Ice Shelf is the portion of the
Ross Ice Shelf bounded by
McMurdo Sound
McMurdo Sound is a sound in Antarctica. It is the southernmost navigable body of water in the world, and is about from the South Pole.
Captain James Clark Ross discovered the sound in February 1841, and named it after Lt. Archibald McMurdo ...
and
Ross Island on the north and
Minna Bluff Minna Bluff is a rocky promontory at the eastern end of a volcanic Antarctic peninsula projecting deep into the Ross Ice Shelf at . It forms a long, narrow arm which culminates in a south-pointing hook feature (Minna Hook), and is the subject of re ...
on the south. Studies show this feature has characteristics quite distinct from the Ross Ice Shelf and merits individual naming. A.J. Heine, who made investigations in 1962–63, suggested the name for the ice shelf bounded by Ross Island,
Brown Peninsula
Brown Peninsula () is a nearly ice-free peninsula, long and wide, which rises above the Ross Ice Shelf northward of Mount Discovery, to which it is connected by a low isthmus. It was discovered by the British National Antarctic Expedition, 1901â ...
,
Black Island and
White Island. The
Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names has extended the application of this name to include the contiguous ice shelf southward to Minna Bluff.
In March 2010, while scientists were taking photographs of the underside of the ice shelf, they discovered a living
Lysianassidae amphipod.
References
Ice shelves of Antarctica
Landforms of Victoria Land
Landforms of Ross Island
Scott Coast
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