The Quartermain Mountains are a group of exposed

mountain A mountain is an elevated portion of the Earth's crust, generally with steep sides that show significant exposed bedrock. Although definitions vary, a mountain may differ from a plateau in having a limited Summit (topography), summit area, and ...

s in

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 ...

, about long, typical of ice-free features of the McMurdo Dry Valleys,

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 ...

, located south of Taylor Glacier and bounded by Finger Mountain, Mount Handsley, Mount Feather and Tabular Mountain; also including

Knobhead Knobhead () is a massive ice-free mountain, high, standing south of the western end of the Kukri Hills and overlooking Ferrar Glacier and Taylor Glacier at their point of apposition, in Victoria Land, Antarctica. It was discovered by the British Na ...

Terra Cotta Mountain The Quartermain Mountains are a group of exposed mountains in Antarctica, about long, typical of ice-free features of the McMurdo Dry Valleys, Victoria Land, located south of Taylor Glacier and bounded by Finger Mountain, Mount Handsley, Mount F ...

New Mountain The Quartermain Mountains are a group of exposed mountains in Antarctica, about long, typical of ice-free features of the McMurdo Dry Valleys, Victoria Land, located south of Taylor Glacier and bounded by Finger Mountain, Mount Handsley, Mount F ...

Beacon Heights The Beacon Heights () are a small cluster of peaks between Beacon Valley and Arena Valley in Quartermain Mountains, Victoria Land, rising to in West Beacon, and also including East Beacon and South Beacon. They were named by Hartley Ferrar, ...

, Pyramid Mountain,

Arena Valley Arena Valley () is an ice-free valley, between East Beacon and New Mountain, which opens to the south side of Taylor Glacier in Victoria Land. It was given this descriptive name by the Victoria University of Wellington Antarctic Expedition The An ...

, Kennar Valley,

Turnabout Valley The Quartermain Mountains are a group of exposed mountains in Antarctica, about long, typical of ice-free features of the McMurdo Dry Valleys, Victoria Land, located south of Taylor Glacier and bounded by Finger Mountain, Mount Handsley, Mount F ...

and the several valleys and ridges within Beacon Valley.

Exploration

The mountains were visited by British expeditions led by Robert Falcon Scott (1901–04 and 1910–13) and

Ernest Shackleton Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton (15 February 1874 – 5 January 1922) was an Anglo-Irish Antarctic explorer who led three British expeditions to the Antarctic. He was one of the principal figures of the period known as the Heroic Age of ...

(1907–09), who applied several names. Names were added in the years subsequent to the

International Geophysical Year The International Geophysical Year (IGY; french: Année géophysique internationale) was an international scientific project that lasted from 1 July 1957 to 31 December 1958. It marked the end of a long period during the Cold War when scientific ...

, 1957–58, concurrent with research carried out by

New Zealand Antarctic Research Programme The New Zealand Antarctic Research Programme (NZARP) was a research program that operated a permanent research facility in Antarctica from 1959 to 1996. It was created by the Geophysics Division of New Zealand's Department of Scientific and Indust ...

and

United States Antarctic Research Program The United States Antarctic Program (or USAP; formerly known as the United States Antarctic Research Program or USARP and the United States Antarctic Service or USAS) is an organization of the United States government which has presence in the A ...

field parties, and to fulfill the requirement for maps compiled from

United States 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 ...

aerial photographs, 1947–83. In 1977, the

New Zealand Antarctic Place-Names Committee New Zealand Antarctic Place-Names Committee (NZ-APC) is an adjudicating committee established to authorize the naming of features in the Ross Dependency on the Antarctic continent. It is composed of the members of the New Zealand Geographic Board pl ...

named the mountains after

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

Antarctic historian

Lester Bowden Quartermain Lester is an ancient Anglo-Saxon surname and given name. Notable people and characters with the name include: People Given name * Lester Bangs (1948–1982), American music critic * Lester W. Bentley (1908–1972), American artist from Wiscon ...

(1895–1973).

List of mountains

Mount Benninghoff

Mount Benninghoff () is a mainly ice-free

(1,965 m) standing 1.5 nautical miles (2.8 km) southeast of

. Named by

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 ...

in 1993 after

William S. Benninghoff William is a masculine given name of Norman French origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conques ...

(1918–93), Professor of Botany,

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

, 1957–88, retiring as

Professor Emeritus ''Emeritus'' (; female: ''emerita'') is an adjective used to designate a retired chair, professor, pastor, bishop, pope, director, president, prime minister, rabbi, emperor, or other person who has been "permitted to retain as an honorary title ...

of Botany; seasonal visits to Antarctica in 1968, 1976, 1977 and 1989; member,

Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research The Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) is an interdisciplinary body of the International Science Council (ISC). SCAR coordinates international scientific research efforts in Antarctica, including the Southern Ocean. SCAR's scien ...

(SCAR) Working Group on Biology, 1968–87; member,

Polar Research Board Polar may refer to: Geography Polar may refer to: * Geographical pole, either of two fixed points on the surface of a rotating body or planet, at 90 degrees from the equator, based on the axis around which a body rotates * Polar climate, the c ...

of the

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Nati ...

, 1966–86.

Mount Feather

Mount Feather () is a massive mountain, , with a broad flattish summit, standing at the southern extremity of the Quartermain Mountains. Named after Thomas A. Feather, Royal Navy,

Boatswain A boatswain ( , ), bo's'n, bos'n, or bosun, also known as a deck boss, or a qualified member of the deck department, is the most senior rate of the deck department and is responsible for the components of a ship's hull. The boatswain supervi ...

on the Discovery during the British National Antarctic Expedition (1901–04), who accompanied Scott in his Western Journey to this area in 1903.

Finger Mountain

Finger Mountain () is an elongated mountain rising to on the northern side of

. So named by the British National Antarctic Expedition (1901–04) because a long tongue of

dolerite Diabase (), also called dolerite () or microgabbro, is a mafic, holocrystalline, subvolcanic rock equivalent to volcanic basalt or plutonic gabbro. Diabase dikes and sills are typically shallow intrusive bodies and often exhibit fine-grained ...

between the

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates) ...

strata has the appearance of a

finger A finger is a limb of the body and a type of digit, an organ of manipulation and sensation found in the hands of most of the Tetrapods, so also with humans and other primates. Most land vertebrates have five fingers ( Pentadactyly). Chambers ...

Pyramid Mountain

Pyramid Mountain () is a

resembling a

pyramid A pyramid (from el, πυραμίς ') is a structure whose outer surfaces are triangular and converge to a single step at the top, making the shape roughly a pyramid in the geometric sense. The base of a pyramid can be trilateral, quadrilat ...

, rising to between

and the mouth of Beacon Valley. The name seems first to appear on maps of the British Antarctic Expedition (R.F. Scott), 1910–13, but the mountain was almost certainly seen for the first time during Scott's first expedition, 1901–04.

Tabular Mountain

Tabular Mountain () is a broad, flat-topped mountain, , about north-northwest of Mount Feather. Descriptively named by the British National Antarctic Expedition, 1901–04.

Terra Cotta Mountain

Terra Cotta Mountain () is a mountain between

Windy Gully Windy Gully is an ice-filled gully between New Mountain and Terra Cotta Mountain, on the south side of Taylor Glacier in Victoria Land Victoria Land is a region in eastern Antarctica which fronts the western side of the Ross Sea and the Ros ...

and

, on the southern side of Taylor Glacier. The descriptive name was applied by the British National Antarctic Expedition, 1901–04.

Other features

* Nadir Bluff *

Plumb Bob Point The Quartermain Mountains are a group of exposed mountains in Antarctica, about long, typical of ice-free features of the McMurdo Dry Valleys, Victoria Land, located south of Taylor Glacier and bounded by Finger Mountain, Mount Handsley, Mount F ...

* Subtense Valley

References

{{USGS Mountain ranges of Victoria Land McMurdo Dry Valleys