The Queen Alexandra Range is a major

mountain range A mountain range or hill range is a series of mountains or hills arranged in a line and connected by high ground. A mountain system or mountain belt is a group of mountain ranges with similarity in form, structure, and alignment that have arise ...

of the

Transantarctic Mountains The Transantarctic Mountains (abbreviated TAM) comprise a mountain range of uplifted (primarily sedimentary) rock in Antarctica which extend, with some interruptions, across the continent from Cape Adare in northern Victoria Land to Coats Land. ...

System, located in the

Ross Dependency The Ross Dependency is a region of Antarctica defined by a sector originating at the South Pole, passing along longitudes 160° east to 150° west, and terminating at latitude 60° south. It is claimed by New Zealand, a claim accepted only b ...

region of

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 ...

. It is about long, bordering the entire western side of Beardmore Glacier from the

Polar Plateau The Antarctic Plateau, Polar Plateau or King Haakon VII Plateau is a large area of East Antarctica which extends over a diameter of about , and includes the region of the geographic South Pole and the Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station. This h ...

to the Ross Ice Shelf. Alternate names for this range include Alexandra Mountains, Alexandra Range and Königin Alexandra Gebirge. The highest peak of the range is

Mount Kirkpatrick Mount Kirkpatrick is a lofty, generally ice-free mountain in Antarctica's Queen Alexandra Range. Located 8 km (5 mi) west of Mount Dickerson, Mount Kirkpatrick is the highest point in the Queen Alexandra Range, as well as in its parent ...

at . Other peaks in the range include Mount Dickerson (4,120 m).

Discovery

This mountain range was discovered on the journey toward the

South Pole The South Pole, also known as the Geographic South Pole, Terrestrial South Pole or 90th Parallel South, is one of the two points where Earth's axis of rotation intersects its surface. It is the southernmost point on Earth and lies antipod ...

by the British Antarctic Expedition, and was named by

Ernest Shackleton Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton (15 February 1874 – 5 January 1922) was an Anglo-Irish Antarctic explorer who led three British expeditions to the Antarctic. He was one of the principal figures of the period known as the Heroic Age of ...

for Queen consort Alexandra of the United Kingdom. Shackleton and his men, and a later expedition headed by

Robert Falcon Scott Captain Robert Falcon Scott, , (6 June 1868 – c. 29 March 1912) was a British Royal Navy officer and explorer who led two expeditions to the Antarctic regions: the ''Discovery'' expedition of 1901–1904 and the ill-fated ''Terra Nov ...

, both collected rock samples from the range that contained

fossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved ...

s. The discovery that multicellular life forms had lived so close to the South Pole was an additional piece of evidence that accompanied the publication (in 1910 and independently in 1912) of the theory of

continental drift Continental drift is the hypothesis that the Earth's continents have moved over geologic time relative to each other, thus appearing to have "drifted" across the ocean bed. The idea of continental drift has been subsumed into the science of pla ...

Mountains and peaks

Ahmadjian Peak

Ahmadjian Peak is a prominent ice-covered

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 ...

, standing 4.5 miles (7 km) southwest of Mount Fox. Named by Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names (US-ACAN) for

Vernon Ahmadjian Vernon Ahmadjian (May 19, 1930 - March 13, 2012) was a distinguished professor at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts. He specialized in the symbiosis of lichens, and wrote several books and numerous publications on the subject. Car ...

United States Antarctic Research Program The United States Antarctic Program (or USAP; formerly known as the United States Antarctic Research Program or USARP and the United States Antarctic Service or USAS) is an organization of the United States government which has presence in the A ...

(USARP) biologist at McMurdo Station, 1963–64.

Mount Bishop

Mount Bishop stands south of Ahmadjian Peak. Named by US-ACAN after Lieutenant Barry Chapman Bishop (1932–94),

United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the Aerial warfare, air military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part ...

(USAF), an observer with the Argentine Antarctic Expedition (1956–57); member of the Staff of the U.S. Antarctica Projects Officer, 1958 and 1959; member of the American party which on May 22, 1962, succeeded in climbing

Mount Everest Mount Everest (; Tibetan: ''Chomolungma'' ; ) is Earth's highest mountain above sea level, located in the Mahalangur Himal sub-range of the Himalayas. The China–Nepal border runs across its summit point. Its elevation (snow heig ...

Decennial Peak

Decennial Peak is a

situated 4.8 km (3 mi) southwest of

. Mapped by

United States Geological Survey 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, ...

(USGS) from surveys and

U.S. 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 o ...

air photos, 1958–65. Named by US-ACAN in recognition of the Decennial of the Institute of Polar Studies,

Ohio State University The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best publ ...

, in 1970, the same year the university celebrated its Centennial. The university and the Institute have been very active in Antarctic investigations since 1960.

Mount Elizabeth

Mount Elizabeth is a large ice-free mountain 4,480 metres high situated 6 mi south of Mount Anne. Discovered by the British Antarctic Expedition and named for Elizabeth Dawson-Lambton, a supporter of the BAE.

Mount Fox

Mount Fox is a mountain standing 1 mi SW of Mount F. L. Smith. Discovered and named by the British Antarctic Expedition.

Mount Ida

Mount Ida is a conspicuous bare rock mountain, standing 2 miles (3.2 km) west of Granite Pillars, just southeast of the head of King Glacier. Discovered by the British Antarctic Expedition (1907–09), and named for Ida Jane Rule of Christchurch,

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

, who later married Edward Saunders, Secretary to Shackleton, who assisted in preparing the narrative of the expedition.

Mount Stanley

Mount Stanley stands northeast of the head of Wyckoff Glacier near the western limits of Grindley Plateau. Named by the British Antarctic Expedition (1907–09) for the eldest brother of Dr. E.S. Marshall, a member of the expedition. This identification is the

New Zealand Geological Survey Antarctic Expedition The New Zealand Geological Survey Antarctic Expedition (NZGSAE) describes a series of scientific explorations of the continent Antarctica. The expeditions were notably active throughout the 1950s and 1960s. Features named by the expeditions 1957 ...

(NZGSAE) (1961–62) interpretation of the original positioning by the British Antarctic Expedition (1907–09).

Morris Heights

Morris Heights () is a relatively smooth ice-covered heights, forming a peninsula-like divide between Beaver and King Glaciers at the north end of Queen Alexandra Range. Named by Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names (US-ACAN) for Lieutenant Clarence T. Morris,

, aerology officer on the staff of the Commander, U.S. Naval Support Force, Antarctica, 1962 and 1963. Mount Gunner is a partially snow-covered peak, high, that rises from the southern part of the Morris Heights.

References

---- {{Authority control Mountain ranges of the Ross Dependency Transantarctic Mountains Shackleton Coast