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Harnish Creek
Taylor Valley is an ice-free valley about long, once occupied by the receding Taylor Glacier. It lies north of the Kukri Hills between the Taylor Glacier and New Harbour in Victoria Land, Antarctica. Taylor Valley is the southernmost of the three large McMurdo Dry Valleys in the Transantarctic Mountains, located west of McMurdo Sound. Exploration and naming The Taylor Valley was discovered by the British National Antarctic Expedition (BrNAE, 1901–04). It was more fully explored by the British Antarctic Expedition, 1907–09 (BrAE) and the British Antarctic Expedition, 1910–13. It was named after the Taylor Glacier. Geology In the oblique aerial photo at right, the tan bands are sandstone layers from the Beacon Supergroup, a series of sedimentary rock layers formed at the bottom of a shallow sea between 250 million and 400 million years ago. Throughout that period, Earth's southern continents were locked into the supercontinent Gondwana. The dark band of rock that divi ...
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Lake Bonney (Antarctica)
Lake Bonney () is a saline water, saline lake with permanent ice cover at the western end of Taylor Valley in the McMurdo Dry Valleys of Victoria Land, Antarctica. It is long and up to wide. A narrow channel only wide (''Lake Bonney at Narrows'') separates the lake into ''East Lake Bonney'' () and ''West Lake Bonney'' (). To the north and south of the lake lie peaks that are over above sea level, and the Taylor Glacier is positioned to the west of the lake. It is deep and is perpetually trapped under of ice. It was first visited by the Discovery Expedition, British National Antarctic Expedition of 1901–1904. It was named by the Robert Falcon Scott Terra Nova Expedition, expedition of 1910–1913, for Thomas George Bonney, professor of geology at University College London, England from 1877 to 1901. Lake Bonney is one of the main lakes studied by the National Science Foundations, McMurdo Long Term Ecological Research Network, Long Term Ecological Research site. Starting ...
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Public Domain
The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work to which no Exclusive exclusive intellectual property rights apply. Those rights may have expired, been forfeited, expressly Waiver, waived, or may be inapplicable. Because no one holds the exclusive rights, anyone can legally use or reference those works without permission. As examples, the works of William Shakespeare, Ludwig van Beethoven, Miguel de Cervantes, Zoroaster, Lao Zi, Confucius, Aristotle, L. Frank Baum, Leonardo da Vinci and Georges Méliès are in the public domain either by virtue of their having been created before copyright existed, or by their copyright term having expired. Some works are not covered by a country's copyright laws, and are therefore in the public domain; for example, in the United States, items excluded from copyright include the formulae of Classical mechanics, Newtonian physics and cooking recipes. Other works are actively dedicated by their authors to the public domain (see waiver) ...
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Victoria University Of Wellington Antarctic Expedition
The Antarctic Research Centre (ARC) is part of the School of Geography, Environment and Earth Sciences at Victoria University of Wellington. Its mission is to research " Antarctic climate history and processes, and their influence on the global climate system. The current director of the Antarctic Research Centre is Associate Professor Robert McKay. Directors * 1972–2007: Professor Peter Barrett * 2008–2016: Professor Tim Naish * 2017–2019: Professor Andrew Mackintosh * 2020–present: Professor Robert McKay History In December 1957, geology students Barrie McKelvey and Peter Webb along with biologist Ron Balham conducted an expedition to the then unexplored McMurdo Dry Valleys via the Royal New Zealand Navy Antarctic support ship HMNZS ''Endeavour''. This expedition formed the basic for the annual Victoria University of Wellington Antarctic Expeditions, which continue to the present day. Since this first expedition, over 400 staff and students have travelled to t ...
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Lake Hoare 2014 01
A lake is often a naturally occurring, relatively large and fixed body of water on or near the Earth's surface. It is localized in a basin or interconnected basins surrounded by dry land. Lakes lie completely on land and are separate from the ocean, although they may be connected with the ocean by rivers. Lakes, as with other bodies of water, are part of the water cycle, the processes by which water moves around the Earth. Most lakes are fresh water and account for almost all the world's surface freshwater, but some are salt lakes with salinities even higher than that of seawater. Lakes vary significantly in surface area and volume of water. Lakes are typically larger and deeper than ponds, which are also water-filled basins on land, although there are no official definitions or scientific criteria distinguishing the two. Lakes are also distinct from lagoons, which are generally shallow tidal pools dammed by sandbars or other material at coastal regions of oceans or large la ...
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United States 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 3, 1879, to study the landscape of the United States, its natural resources, and the natural hazards that threaten it. The agency also makes maps of planets and moons, based on data from U.S. space probes. The sole scientific agency of the U.S. Department of the Interior, USGS is a fact-finding research organization with no regulatory responsibility. It is headquartered in Reston, Virginia, with major offices near Lakewood, Colorado; at the Denver Federal Center; and in NASA Research Park in California. In 2009, it employed about 8,670 people. The current motto of the USGS, in use since August 1997, is "science for a changing world". The agency's previous slogan, adopted on its hundredth anniversary, was "Earth Science in the Pub ...
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Diane McKnight
Diane McKnight (born March 22, 1953) is a distinguished professor of civil, environmental, and architectural engineering at the University of Colorado Boulder and a fellow at the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research (INSTAAR). McKnight is a founding principal investigator of the National Science Foundation's Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) program in the McMurdo Dry Valleys of Antarctica. Early life and education McKnight received a BS in mechanical engineering (1975), MS in civil engineering (1978), and her PhD in environmental engineering in 1979, all from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Career and impact After completing her graduate studies, McKnight began working for the US Geological Survey (USGS) as a research scientist for the Water Resources Division. As part of her work with USGS, she conducted research on lakes in the blast zone of Mount St. Helens in 1980. In 1996, McKnight transitioned to the University of Colorado Boulder, where she became one ...
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Ventifact
A ventifact (also wind-faceted stone, windkanter) is a rock (geology), rock that has been abraded, pitted, etched, grooved, or polished by wind-driven sand or ice crystals. The word "Ventifact" is derived from the Latin word "Ventus" meaning 'wind'. These geomorphic features are most typically found in arid environments where there is little vegetation to interfere with aeolian processes, aeolian particle transport, where there are frequently strong winds, and where there is a steady but not overwhelming supply of sand. Ventifacts can be Abrasion (geology), abraded to eye-catching natural sculptures such as the main features of the White Desert National Park near Farafra Oasis in Egypt. In moderately tall, isolated rock outcrops, mushroom-shaped pillars of Rock (geology), rock may form as the outcrop is eroded by Saltation (geology), saltating sand grains. This occurs because, even in strong winds, sand grains cannot be continuously held in the air. Instead, the particles bounce a ...
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Lake Bonney 2015 02
A lake is often a naturally occurring, relatively large and fixed body of water on or near the Earth's surface. It is localized in a basin or interconnected basins surrounded by dry land. Lakes lie completely on land and are separate from the ocean, although they may be connected with the ocean by rivers. Lakes, as with other bodies of water, are part of the water cycle, the processes by which water moves around the Earth. Most lakes are fresh water and account for almost all the world's surface freshwater, but some are salt lakes with salinities even higher than that of seawater. Lakes vary significantly in surface area and volume of water. Lakes are typically larger and deeper than ponds, which are also water-filled basins on land, although there are no official definitions or scientific criteria distinguishing the two. Lakes are also distinct from lagoons, which are generally shallow tidal pools dammed by sandbars or other material at coastal regions of oceans or large la ...
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Riegel (glacial)
A riegel (from German, literally ''crossbar'') is a transverse ridge of bedrock that has been exposed by glacial erosion. Riegels are also known as rock bars, thresholds, and verrous. They are found in glaciated valleys, and are often associated with waterfall A waterfall is any point in a river or stream where water flows over a vertical drop or a series of steep drops. Waterfalls also occur where meltwater drops over the edge of a tabular iceberg or ice shelf. Waterfalls can be formed in seve ...s and zones of rapids when streams are present. When multiple riegels are stacked in a series they are referred to as a ''glacial stairway''. Most riegels can be identified by having smooth faces on the up-valley sides, while the down-valley sides show signs of having been plucked (eroded by the removal of rocks and blocks from the bedrock). References {{reflist www.proz.com, March 5th, 2007
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Asgard Range
The Asgard Range () is a mountain range in Victoria Land, Antarctica. It divides Wright Valley from Taylor Glacier and Taylor Valley. It is south of the Olympus Range and north of the Quartermain Mountains and the Kukri Hills. Name The Asgard Range was named by the Victoria University of Wellington Antarctic Expedition (1958–59) after Asgard, the home of the Norse gods. Location The Asgard Range extends in a west–east direction from Wright Upper Glacier, below the Antarctic Plateau, to Mount Newall above the Wilson Piedmont Glacier, which extends along the west coast of the Ross Sea. To the north, the Asgard Range is separated from the Olympus Range by the Wright Upper Glacier and the Wright Valley, from which the Wright Lower Glacier flows into the Wilson Piedmont Glacier. To the south, the Taylor Glacier and Taylor Valley separate the Asgard Range from the Quartermain Mountains and the Kukri Hills. Surrounding major glaciers and valleys * Wright Upper Glacie ...
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Pyramid Trough
The Pyramid () is a small but distinctive peak in Antarctica just south of Pyramid Trough, at the west side of the Koettlitz Glacier. The descriptive name appears to have been first used by the British Antarctic Expedition, 1910–13 (BrAE). Location The Pyramid is on a promontory on the west side of Koettlitz Glacier Koettlitz Glacier () is a large Antarctic glacier lying west of Mount Morning and Mount Discovery in the Royal Society Range, flowing from the vicinity of Mount Cocks northeastward between Brown Peninsula and the mainland into the ice shelf of ... between Renegar Glacier to the southwest and Walcott Bay to the northeast. Dromedary Glacier is to the northwest. Nearby features include The Almond, Pyramid Trough and The Bulwark. The Alph River flows north through the Pyramid Trough. Features The Almond . A bare, almond-shaped ridge of granite which separates the two coalescing channels of Pyramid Trough, located just west of The Pyramid on the west side of K ...
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Beacon Valley
Beacon Valley () is an ice-free valley between Pyramid Mountain and Beacon Heights, in the Quartermain Mountains of Victoria Land, Antarctica. It was mapped by the British Antarctic Expedition, 1910–13, and named by the Victoria University of Wellington Antarctic Expedition The Antarctic Research Centre (ARC) is part of the School of Geography, Environment and Earth Sciences at Victoria University of Wellington. Its mission is to research " Antarctic climate history and processes, and their influence on the global cl ... (VUWAE) (1958–59) after Beacon Heights. Astrobiological characteristics The central region of Beacon valley is considered to be one of the best terrestrial analogues for the current conditions on Mars. There is snowdrift and limited melting around the edges and occasionally in the central region, but for the most part, moisture is only found as thin films of brine around permafrost structures. It has slightly alkaline salt rich soil. See also * McMurdo ...
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