Erskine Iceport (), also known as Erskine Bay or General Erskine Bay, is an
iceport
An iceport is a more-or-less permanent indentation in the front of an ice shelf, that can serve as a natural ice harbour. Though useful, they are not always reliable, as calving of surrounding ice shelves can render an iceport temporarily unstabl ...
about wide and long, which marks a more-or-less permanent indentation extending southeast into the seaward front of the extensive
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
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 ...
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Discovery and naming
United States 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 ...
Operation Deep Freeze I personnel on the USS ''Glacier'' made a running survey A running survey is a rough survey made by a vessel while coasting. Bearings to landmarks are taken at intervals as the vessel sails offshore, and are used to fix features on the coast and further inland. Intervening coastal detail is sketched in. ...
of this coast in March 1956. They applied the name "General Erskine Bay" for General Graves B. Erskine, United States Marine Corps
The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for conducting expeditionary and amphibious operations through combi ...
, director of the U.S. Navy Office of Special Operations, who assisted in formulating expedition plans and policy. The term "iceport" was suggested by the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names in 1956 to denote an ice shelf indentation, subject to configuration changes, which may offer anchorage or possible access to the upper surface of an ice shelf via ice ramps along one or more sides of the feature.[
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See also
* Ice pier
An ice pier or ice wharf is a man-made structure used to assist the unloading of ships in Antarctica. It is constructed by pumping seawater into a contained area and allowing the water to freeze. By repeating this procedure several times, additio ...
* Atka Iceport
* Godel Iceport
* Norsel Iceport
* 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 ex ...
References
Ports and harbours of Queen Maud Land
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