The Lazarev Ice Shelf is that part of the

ice shelf An ice shelf is a large floating platform of ice that forms where a glacier or ice sheet flows down to a coastline and onto the ocean surface. Ice shelves are only found in Antarctica, Greenland, Northern Canada, and the Russian Arctic. The ...

fringing the Princess Astrid Coast of

Queen Maud Land Queen Maud Land ( no, Dronning Maud Land) is a roughly region of Antarctica claimed by Norway as a dependent territory. It borders the claimed British Antarctic Territory 20° west and the Australian Antarctic Territory 45° east. In addi ...

, Antarctica, that lies between Leningradskiy Island and Verblyud Island. It is part of the western

Riiser-Larsen Sea The Riiser-Larsen Sea is one of the marginal seas located in the Southern Ocean off East Antarctica and south of the Indian Ocean. It is delimited Astrid Ridge in the west and the Gunnerus Ridge and the Kainanmaru Bank in the east. It is border ...

and is about long, with Razlom Point at its western edge. The ice shelf was first photographed from the air and mapped by the

Third German Antarctic Expedition New Swabia (Norwegian and german: Neuschwabenland) was a disputed Antarctic claim by Nazi Germany within the Norwegian territorial claim of Queen Maud Land and is now a cartographic name sometimes given to an area of Antarctica between 20°E a ...

, 1938–39. It was explored and mapped by the

Soviet Antarctic Expedition The Soviet Antarctic Expedition (SAE or SovAE) (russian: Советская антарктическая экспедиция, САЭ, ''Sovetskaya antarkticheskaya ekspeditsiya'') was part of the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute of the S ...

in 1959, and named for Lieutenant (later Admiral) Mikhail P. Lazarev, commander of the sloop '' Mirnyy''. Opornyy Point is an ice point along the west side of Lazarev Ice Shelf, about north of Leningradskiy Island. It was named ''Mys Opornyy'' (support point) because the ice shelf at this point rests on the ocean floor.

References

Ice shelves of Queen Maud Land Princess Astrid Coast Lazarev Sea {{PrincessAstridCoast-geo-stub

See also

References