The Pensacola Mountains are a large group of

mountain range A mountain range or hill range is a series of mountains or hills arranged in a line and connected by high ground. A mountain system or mountain belt is a group of mountain ranges with similarity in form, structure, and alignment that have arise ...

s of the

Transantarctic Mountains The Transantarctic Mountains (abbreviated TAM) comprise a mountain range of uplifted (primarily sedimentary rock, sedimentary) rock in Antarctica which extend, with some interruptions, across the continent from Cape Adare in northern Victoria La ...

System, located in the

Queen Elizabeth Land Queen Elizabeth Land is a portion of mainland Antarctica named by the government of the United Kingdom and claimed as part of the British Antarctic Territory, which is the largest of the 14 British Overseas Territories. Situated south of Weddel ...

region of

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 ...

Geography

They extend 450 km (280 mi) in a NE-SW direction. Subranges of the Pensacola Mountains include:

Argentina Range The Argentina Range is a mountain range of rock peaks and bluffs, long, lying east of the northern part of Forrestal Range in the northeastern portion of the Pensacola Mountains of Antarctica. Discovered and photographed on January 13, 1956, in t ...

Forrestal Range The Forrestal Range () is a largely snow-covered mountain range, about long, standing east of Dufek Massif and the Neptune Range in the Pensacola Mountains of Antarctica. Discovered and photographed on 13 January 1956 on a transcontinental patrol ...

Dufek Massif Dufek Massif, Augusto Pinochet Massif or Santa Teresita Massif is a rugged, largely snow-covered massif long, standing west of the Forrestal Range in the northern part of the Pensacola Mountains. It was discovered and photographed on January 13, 1 ...

Cordiner Peaks The Cordiner Peaks are a group of peaks extending over an area of , standing southwest of Dufek Massif in the northern part of the Pensacola Mountains. They were discovered and photographed on January 13, 1956, in the course of a transcontinental ...

Neptune Range The Neptune Range is a mountain range, long, lying WSW of Forrestal Range in the central part of the Pensacola Mountains in Antarctica. The range is composed of Washington Escarpment with its associated ridges, valleys and peaks, the Iroquois ...

Patuxent Range The Patuxent Range or macizo Armada Argentina is a major range of the Pensacola Mountains, comprising the Thomas Hills, Anderson Hills, Mackin Table and various nunataks and ridges bounded by the Foundation Ice Stream, Academy Glacier and the Pa ...

, Rambo Nunataks and Pecora Escarpment. These mountain units lie astride the extensive

Foundation Ice Stream Foundation Ice Stream is a major ice stream in Antarctica's Pensacola Mountains. The ice stream drains northward for along the west side of the Patuxent Range and the Neptune Range to enter the Ronne Ice Shelf westward of Dufek Massif. The Unit ...

and

Support Force Glacier Support Force Glacier is a major glacier in the Pensacola Mountains, draining northward between the Forrestal Range and Argentina Range to the Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf. Mapped by the United States Geological Survey from surveys and US Navy air p ...

which drain northward to the Ronne Ice Shelf. ;Naming Discovered and photographed on 13 January 1956 in the course of a transcontinental nonstop plane flight by personnel of

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 ...

Operation Deep Freeze Operation Deep Freeze (OpDFrz or ODF) is codename for a series of United States missions to Antarctica, beginning with "Operation Deep Freeze I" in 1955–56, followed by "Operation Deep Freeze II", "Operation Deep Freeze III", and so on. (There w ...

I from

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 o ...

Weddell Sea The Weddell Sea is part of the Southern Ocean and contains the Weddell Gyre. Its land boundaries are defined by the bay formed from the coasts of Coats Land and the Antarctic Peninsula. The easternmost point is Cape Norvegia at Princess Martha ...

and return. Named by

US-ACAN 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 ...

for the U.S. Naval Air Station,

Pensacola, Florida Pensacola () is the westernmost city in the Florida Panhandle, and the county seat and only incorporated city of Escambia County, Florida, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, the population was 54,312. Pensacola is the principal ...

, in commemoration of the historic role of that establishment in training aviators of the U.S. Navy. The mountains were mapped in detail by

USGS The United States Geological Survey (USGS), formerly simply known as the Geological Survey, is a scientific agency of the United States government. The scientists of the USGS study the landscape of the United States, its natural resources, a ...

from surveys and US Navy air photos, 1956–67.

Geology

The Pensacola Mountains were originally continuous with the Ventana Mountains near

Bahía Blanca Bahía Blanca (; English: White Bay) is a city in the southwest of the provinces of Argentina, province of Buenos Aires Province, Buenos Aires, Argentina, by the Atlantic Ocean, and is the seat of government of the Bahía Blanca Partido. It had 3 ...

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

Cape Fold Belt The Cape Fold Belt is a fold and thrust belt of late Paleozoic age, which affected the sequence of sedimentary rock layers of the Cape Supergroup in the southwestern corner of South Africa. It was originally continuous with the Ventana Mount ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

, the

Ellsworth Mountains The Ellsworth Mountains are the highest mountain ranges in Antarctica, forming a long and wide chain of mountains in a north to south configuration on the western margin of the Ronne Ice Shelf in Marie Byrd Land. They are bisected by Minnesota ...

(West Antarctica) and the

Hunter-Bowen orogeny The Hunter-Bowen Orogeny was a significant arc accretion event in the Permian and Triassic periods affecting approximately 2,500 km of the Australian continental margin. The Hunter-Bowen Orogeny occurred in two main phases, a Permian accreti ...

in eastern

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

. The

Ordovician The Ordovician ( ) is a geologic period and System (geology), system, the second of six periods of the Paleozoic Era (geology), Era. The Ordovician spans 41.6 million years from the end of the Cambrian Period million years ago (Mya) to the start ...

Devonian The Devonian ( ) is a geologic period and system of the Paleozoic era, spanning 60.3 million years from the end of the Silurian, million years ago (Mya), to the beginning of the Carboniferous, Mya. It is named after Devon, England, whe ...

Neptune Group rests

unconformably An unconformity is a buried erosional or non-depositional surface separating two rock masses or strata of different ages, indicating that sediment deposition was not continuous. In general, the older layer was exposed to erosion for an interval ...

on a Cambrian succession, and is overlain disconformably by the Dover

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) ...

of the

Beacon Supergroup The Beacon Supergroup is a geological formation exposed in Antarctica and deposited from the Devonian to the Triassic (). The unit was originally described as either a formation or sandstone, and upgraded to group and supergroup as time passed. It ...

. Within the Neptune Group is the Brown Ridge Conglomerate, Elliott Sandstone, Elbow

Formation Formation may refer to: Linguistics * Back-formation, the process of creating a new lexeme by removing or affixes * Word formation, the creation of a new word by adding affixes Mathematics and science * Cave formation or speleothem, a secondar ...

, and the Heiser Sandstone.

Features

Geographical features include:

Neptune Range

Williams Hills

Schmidt Hills

Other features

Forrestal Range

Patuxent Range

Anderson Hills

Thomas Hills

Other features

Argentina Range

Schneider Hills

Panzarini Hills

Other features

Cordiner Peaks

Rambo Nunataks

Pecora Escarpment

Dufek Massif

Boyd Escarpment

Other features

Other Pensacola Mountains features

Academy Glacier Foundation Ice Stream is a major ice stream in Antarctica's Pensacola Mountains. The ice stream drains northward for along the west side of the Patuxent Range and the Neptune Range to enter the Ronne Ice Shelf westward of Dufek Massif. The Unit ...

Edge Rocks The Edge Rocks () are two rock exposures at the southeast margin of Iroquois Plateau, east of Hill Nunatak, in the Pensacola Mountains. They were mapped by the United States Geological Survey from surveys and from U.S. Navy The United St ...

Ferrell Nunatak Iroquois Plateau () is a large, mainly ice-covered plateau situated east of the southern part of the Washington Escarpment in the Pensacola Mountains of Edith Ronne Land, Antarctica. It was mapped by the United States Geological Survey from surveys ...

* Ford Massif *

Himmelberg Hills The Himmelberg Hills () are a linear group of hills with prominent rock outcrops, long, at the southwest end of Saratoga Table, in the Pensacola Mountains of Antarctica. Named features in the group include Haskill Nunatak, high, near the center, ...

Iroquois Plateau Iroquois Plateau () is a large, mainly ice-covered plateau situated east of the southern part of the Washington Escarpment in the Pensacola Mountains of Edith Ronne Land, Antarctica. It was mapped by the United States Geological Survey from surveys ...

* Kester Peaks * Taylor Nunatak

References

{{Authority control Mountain ranges of Queen Elizabeth Land Transantarctic Mountains

Geography

Geology

Features

Neptune Range

Williams Hills

Schmidt Hills

Other features

Forrestal Range

Patuxent Range

Anderson Hills

Thomas Hills

Other features

Argentina Range

Schneider Hills

Panzarini Hills

Other features

Cordiner Peaks

Rambo Nunataks

Pecora Escarpment

Dufek Massif

Boyd Escarpment

Other features

Other Pensacola Mountains features

Further reading

References