Shirase Coast () is the north segment of the relatively ill-defined coast along the east side of

Ross Ice Shelf The Ross Ice Shelf is the largest ice shelf of Antarctica (, an area of roughly and about across: about the size of France). It is several hundred metres thick. The nearly vertical ice front to the open sea is more than long, and between hi ...

and

Ross Sea The Ross Sea is a deep bay of the Southern Ocean in Antarctica, between Victoria Land and Marie Byrd Land and within the Ross Embayment, and is the southernmost sea on Earth. It derives its name from the British explorer James Clark Ross who vi ...

, lying between the north end of

Siple Coast Siple Coast () is the middle portion of the relatively ill-defined coast along the east side of the Ross Ice Shelf, between the north end of Gould Coast () and the south end of Shirase Coast (). The area was originally called Kirton Coast, but was ...

(about ) and

Cape Colbeck Cape Colbeck is a prominent ice-covered cape which forms the northwestern extremity of the Edward VII Peninsula and Marie Byrd Land in Antarctica. It was discovered in January 1902 by the British National Antarctic Expedition and named for Capta ...

. Named by NZ-APC in 1961 after Lieutenant

Nobu Shirase was a Japanese army officer and explorer. He led the first Japanese Antarctic Expedition, 1910–12, which reached a southern latitude of 80°5′, and made the first landing on the coast of King Edward VII Land. Shirase had harboured polar am ...

(1861-1946), leader of the Japanese expedition, whose ship ''Kainan Maru'' sailed near this coast in January 1912. Landings were made at

Kainan Bay Kainan Bay is an iceport which indents the front of the Ross Ice Shelf about northeast of the northwestern end of Roosevelt Island, Antarctica. It was discovered in January 1902 by the British National Antarctic Expedition under Robert Falcon ...

and at the

Bay of Whales The Bay of Whales was a natural ice harbour, or iceport, indenting the front of the Ross Ice Shelf just north of Roosevelt Island, Antarctica. It is the southernmost point of open ocean not only of the Ross Sea, but worldwide. The Ross Sea ...

, the origin of a 160-mile journey southeast on Ross Ice Shelf. From (off

Edward VII Peninsula King Edward VII Land or King Edward VII Peninsula is a large, ice-covered peninsula which forms the northwestern extremity of Marie Byrd Land in Antarctica. The peninsula projects into the Ross Sea between Sulzberger Bay and the northeast corne ...

), another party landed for a sledge trip to the edge of the

Queen Alexandra Range The Queen Alexandra Range is a major mountain range of the Transantarctic Mountains System, located in the Ross Dependency region of Antarctica. It is about long, bordering the entire western side of Beardmore Glacier from the Polar Plateau to ...

References

Coasts of the Ross Dependency King Edward VII Land {{RossDependency-geo-stub

See also

References