The Vestfold Hills are rounded, rocky, coastal hills, in extent, on the north side of Sorsdal Glacier on the Ingrid Christensen Coast of

Princess Elizabeth Land Princess Elizabeth Land is the sector of Antarctica between longitude 73° east and Cape Penck (at 87°43' east). The sector is claimed by Australia as part of the Australian Antarctic Territory, although this claim is not widely recognized. ...

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 cont ...

. The hills are subdivided by three west-trending peninsulas bounded by narrow fjords. Most of the hills range between in height, with the highest summit reaching nearly .

Geography

The Vestfold Hills are largely snow and ice-free and are thus classified as an

Antarctic oasis An Antarctic oasis is a large area naturally free of snow and ice in the otherwise ice-covered continent of Antarctica. Geology In Antarctica there are, in addition to mountaintops and nunataks, other natural snow- and ice-free areas often r ...

. They contain a great variety of lake systems with over 300 lakes and ponds including what is possibly the largest concentration of

meromictic A meromictic lake is a lake which has layers of water that do not intermix. In ordinary, holomictic lakes, at least once each year, there is a physical mixing of the surface and the deep waters. The term ''meromictic'' was coined by the Austr ...

(stratified) lakes in the world. This region contains 37 permanently stratified water bodies, including six marine basins and seven seasonally isolated marine basins (SIMBs). These stratified basins also have great variety. They range in salinity from 4 g L⁻¹ to 235 g L⁻¹, in temperature from , in depth from , in area from and surface level from below to above sea level. The region contains a large lake,

Lake Burton Lake Burton may refer to: *Lake Burton (Georgia), a lake in Rabun County, Georgia * Lake Burton (Quebec), a lake near Long Island, Quebec *Lake Burton (Antarctica) Lake Burton, also known as Burton Lagoon, is a meromictic and saline lake in th ...

, as well as the smaller Krok Lake and Camp Lake.

History and naming

The Vestfold Hills were discovered and a landing was made in the northern portion on February 20, 1935, by Captain Klarius Mikkelsen together with his wife and seven crew members (including the ship's dentist, Lief Sørsdal) of the

Norwegian Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to: *Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe * Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway * Demographics of Norway *The Norwegian language, including ...

whaling Whaling is the process of hunting of whales for their usable products such as meat and blubber, which can be turned into a type of oil that became increasingly important in the Industrial Revolution. It was practiced as an organized industr ...

ship "Thorshavn" sent out by Lars Christensen. Mrs Caroline Mikkelsen thereby became the first woman to set foot on the Antarctic continent. The Vestfold Hills are named after

Vestfold Vestfold is a traditional region, a former county and a current electoral district in Eastern Norway. In 2020 the county became part of the much larger county of Vestfold og Telemark. Located on the western shore of the Oslofjord, it bordered t ...

, a county in Norway where Sandefjord, headquarters of the whaling industry, is located. This hill area and its off-lying islands were mapped from air photos taken by the

Lars Christensen Expedition Lars is a common male name in Scandinavian countries. Origin ''Lars'' means "from the city of Laurentum". Lars is derived from the Latin name Laurentius, which means "from Laurentum" or "crowned with laurel". A homonymous Etruscan name was bo ...

(1936–37). Further brief landings were made by

Lincoln Ellsworth Lincoln Ellsworth (May 12, 1880 – May 26, 1951) was a polar explorer from the United States and a major benefactor of the American Museum of Natural History. Biography Lincoln Ellsworth was born on May 12, 1880, to James Ellsworth and Eva F ...

and several claims made by

Hubert Wilkins Sir George Hubert Wilkins MC & Bar (31 October 188830 November 1958), commonly referred to as Captain Wilkins, was an Australian polar explorer, ornithologist, pilot, soldier, geographer and photographer. He was awarded the Military Cross afte ...

in 1939. and the area was photographed from the air by USN Operation Highjump (1946–47). Landings were made and exploration carried out in 1954 and 1955 by ANARE ( Australian National Antarctic Research Expeditions) led by Phillip Law.

Davis Station The Davis Station, commonly called Davis, is one of three permanent bases and research outposts in Antarctica managed by the Australian Antarctic Division (AAD). Davis is situated on the coast of Cooperation Sea in Princess Elizabeth Land, ...

was established by ANARE in January 1957.

External links

Vestfold Hills
on

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 ...

website
Vestfold Hills
on AADC website
Vestfold Hills
on

SCAR A scar (or scar tissue) is an area of fibrous tissue that replaces normal skin after an injury. Scars result from the biological process of wound repair in the skin, as well as in other organs, and tissues of the body. Thus, scarring is a n ...

website
Visiting Vestfold Hills

Vimeo video of Vestfold Hills

References

{{Authority control Hills of Princess Elizabeth Land Oases of Antarctica Ingrid Christensen Coast

Geography

History and naming

Further reading

External links

References