Wilkniss Mountains () is a prominent group of conical

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, long running north–south, located east-southeast of Mount Feather,

Quartermain Mountains 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 ...

, in

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 ...

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 ...

. The mountains are wide in the north portion where Mount Blackwelder (2,340 m) and

Pivot Peak Pivot Peak () is a prominent conical peak, 2,470 m, distinguished by a large northeast cirque and as the highest point in Wilkniss Mountains, Victoria Land. The New Zealand Northern Survey Party of the Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition ...

(2,450 m) rise above ice-free valleys. Except for an outlying southwest

peak Peak or The Peak may refer to: Basic meanings Geology * Mountain peak ** Pyramidal peak, a mountaintop that has been sculpted by erosion to form a point Mathematics * Peak hour or rush hour, in traffic congestion * Peak (geometry), an (''n''-3)-di ...

, the south portion narrows to a series of mainly ice-covered smaller peaks. 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 ...

(US-ACAN) in 1992 after Peter E. Wilkniss, a chemist who from 1975 has served in various positions at the

National Science Foundation The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent agency of the United States government that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National I ...

, including Deputy Assistant Director of the Directorate for Scientific, Technological, and International Affairs; Director, Division of Polar Programs, 1984–93; senior science associate to the assistant director for Geosciences, from 1993.

Features

Level Valley Level Valley () is a distinctive ice-free valley which descends northeastward from the Pivot Peak cirque, in the Wilkniss Mountains of Victoria Land, Antarctica. The name does not refer to the local topography, but is one of a group of names in t ...

References

Mountain ranges of Victoria Land Scott Coast {{ScottCoast-geo-stub