Eights Coast
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Eights Coast is a portion of the coast of West Antarctica, between Cape Waite and Pfrogner Point. To the west is the Walgreen Coast, and to the east is the Bryan Coast. It is part of
Ellsworth Land Ellsworth Land is a portion of the Antarctica, Antarctic continent bounded on the west by Marie Byrd Land, on the north by the Bellingshausen Sea, on the northeast by the base of the Antarctic Peninsula, and on the east by the western margin of t ...
and stretches between 103°24'W and 89°35'W. This coast is bordered by
Thurston Island Thurston Island () is a largely ice-covered, glacially dissected island, long and wide, lying between Amundsen Sea and Bellingshausen Sea a short way off the northwest end of Ellsworth Land, Antarctica. The island is separated from the mainlan ...
, Abbot Ice Shelf and some islands within the ice shelf, and for most of its length touches the Bellingshausen Sea (west of Thurston Island by the
Amundsen Sea The Amundsen Sea is an arm of the Southern Ocean off Marie Byrd Land in western Antarctica. It lies between Cape Flying Fish (the northwestern tip of Thurston Island) to the east and Cape Dart on Siple Island to the west. Cape Flying Fish ...
). Most of Eights Coast is not claimed by any nation. In the east, Eights Coast borders the sector claimed by
Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...
as part of its southernmost province.
Peter I Island Peter I Island () is an uninhabited volcanic island in the Bellingshausen Sea, from continental Antarctica. It is territorial claims in Antarctica, claimed as a Dependent territory, dependency of Norway and, along with Bouvet Island and Queen Ma ...
, north of the coast, is claimed by
Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...
as a dependency. The coast was sighted by members of the US Antarctic Service by flights from the USS ''Bear'' during February 1940. It was mapped in detail by the
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 Mar ...
from surveys and from
U.S. Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest displacement, at 4.5 million tons in 2021. It has the world's largest aircraft ...
air photographs, 1960–1966. Eights Coast 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
James Eights James Eights (1798–1882) was an American physician, scientist, and artist. He was born in Albany, New York, the son of physician Jonathan Eights and Alida Wynkoop. James also became a physician and was appointed an examiner at a local engineering ...
of
Albany, New York Albany ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. It is located on the west bank of the Hudson River, about south of its confluence with the Mohawk River. Albany is the oldes ...
, a
geologist A geologist is a scientist who studies the structure, composition, and History of Earth, history of Earth. Geologists incorporate techniques from physics, chemistry, biology, mathematics, and geography to perform research in the Field research, ...
on the ship ''Annawan'' during 1830, who performed geological investigations of the
South Shetland Islands The South Shetland Islands are a group of List of Antarctic and subantarctic islands, Antarctic islands located in the Drake Passage with a total area of . They lie about north of the Antarctic Peninsula, and between southwest of the n ...
, and who cruised westward on the ''Annawan'', in company with the ship ''Penguin'', to 103°W. Eights, the earliest American scientist in the Antarctic, discovered the first known
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 preserve ...
s in the Antarctic region, a tree section in the South Shetland Islands. As a result of these investigations Eights, during 1833, published in the ''Transactions of the Albany Institute'' (Vol. 2) what proved to be remarkably accurate observations and conclusions concerning the natural phenomena of the region.


References

Coasts of Antarctica Landforms of Ellsworth Land {{EllsworthLand-geo-stub