Porters Pinnacles is a group of low ice-covered rocks forming a menace to navigation along the north coast of

Thurston Island Thurston Island is an ice-covered, glacially dissected island, long, wide and in area, lying a short way off the northwest end of Ellsworth Land, Antarctica. It is the third-largest island of Antarctica, after Alexander Island and Berkner Isl ...

, located about 4 nautical miles (7 km) north of the east extremity of

Glacier Bight Glacier Bight is an open embayment about wide, indenting the north coast of Thurston Island between Hughes Peninsula and Noville Peninsula. It was first delineated from air photos taken by U.S. Navy Operation Highjump in December 1946, and was ...

. It was discovered by the U.S. Navy

Bellingshausen Sea Expedition Bellingshausen may refer to: * Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen (1778–1852), Baltic German explorer and officer in the Russian navy, after whom are named: ** Bellingshausen Plate, a tectonic plate ** Bellingshausen Sea, off the Antarctic Penins ...

in February 1960, and named for Commander Philip W. Porter, Jr.,

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 ...

, commander of the icebreaker USS ''Glacier'' which made this discovery.

Maps

Thurston Island – Jones Mountains.
1:500000 Antarctica Sketch Map. US Geological Survey, 1967.
Antarctic Digital Database (ADD).
Scale 1:250000 topographic map of Antarctica. Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR). Since 1993, regularly upgraded and updated.

References

Reefs of Antarctica Landforms of Ellsworth Land {{ThurstonIsland-geo-stub