Dotson Ice Shelf is an

ice shelf An ice shelf is a large platform of glacial ice floating on the ocean, fed by one or multiple tributary glaciers. Ice shelves form along coastlines where the ice thickness is insufficient to displace the more dense surrounding ocean water. T ...

about wide between

Martin Peninsula Martin Peninsula () is a peninsula about long and wide that is ice-covered except for a few rock outcrops along its margins, located between Getz Ice Shelf and Dotson Ice Shelf on the coast of Marie Byrd Land, Antarctica. The farthest point of ...

and

Bear Peninsula Bear Peninsula () is a peninsula about long and wide which is ice-covered except for several isolated rock bluffs and outcrops along its margins, lying east of Martin Peninsula on Walgreen Coast, Marie Byrd Land, Antarctica. Location Th ...

on the coast of

Marie Byrd Land Marie Byrd Land (MBL) is an unclaimed region of Antarctica. With an area of , it is the largest unclaimed territory on Earth. It was named after the wife of American naval officer Richard E. Byrd, who explored the region in the early 20th centu ...

in Antarctica. It was first mapped by the

U.S. Geological Survey The United States Geological Survey (USGS), founded as the Geological Survey, is an agency of the U.S. Department of the Interior whose work spans the disciplines of biology, geography, geology, and hydrology. The agency was founded on March ...

from air photos obtained by U.S. Navy Operation Highjump in January 1947, and was named by the

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 ...

for Lieutenant William A. Dotson, US Navy, formerly Officer in Charge of the Ice Reconnaissance Unit of the

Naval Oceanographic Office The Naval Oceanographic Office (NAVOCEANO), located at John C. Stennis Space Center in south Mississippi, is an echelon IV component of the Naval Meteorology and Oceanography Command (NMOC) and comprises approximately 1,000 civilian, military a ...

, killed in a plane crash in

Alaska Alaska ( ) is a non-contiguous U.S. state on the northwest extremity of North America. Part of the Western United States region, it is one of the two non-contiguous U.S. states, alongside Hawaii. Alaska is also considered to be the north ...

in November 1964 while on an ice reconnaissance mission. File:C74112s5 Ant.Map Martin Peninsula.jpg, Dotson Ice Shelf in east of map File:C74108s1 Ant.Map Bear Peninsula.jpg, Dotson Ice Shelf in west of map

References

Ice shelves of Antarctica Bodies of ice of Marie Byrd Land {{MarieByrdLand-geo-stub

Further reading

References