The Eklund Islands () are a group of islands which rise through the ice near the southwest end of

George VI Sound George VI Sound or Canal Jorge VI or Canal Presidente Sarmiento or Canal Seaver or King George VI Sound or King George the Sixth Sound is a major bay/ fault depression, 300 miles (483 km) long and mainly covered by a permanent ice shelf. I ...

towards the south of the

Antarctic Peninsula The Antarctic Peninsula, known as O'Higgins Land in Chile and Tierra de San Martin in Argentina, and originally as Graham Land in the United Kingdom and the Palmer Peninsula in the United States, is the northernmost part of mainland Antarctica. ...

. The largest island, in extent and rising to , was discovered in December 1940 by

Finn Ronne Finn Ronne (December 20, 1899 – January 12, 1980) was a Norwegian-born U.S. citizen and Antarctic explorer. Background Finn Ronne was born in Horten, in Vestfold county, Norway. His father, Martin Rønne (1861–1932), was a polar explorer ...

and Carl R. Eklund of the

United States Antarctic Service 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 a presence in the ...

during their sledge journey south from

Stonington Island Stonington Island is a rocky island lying northeast of Neny Island in the eastern part of Marguerite Bay off the west coast of Graham Land, Antarctica. It is long from north-west to south-east and wide, yielding an area of . It was formerl ...

to the southwest part of George VI Sound and return. At that time this large island, named by Ronne for Eklund, the ornithologist and assistant biologist of the expedition, was the only land protruding above an area of hummocky ice. V. E. Fuchs and R. J. Adie of the

Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey The Falkland Islands and Dependencies Aerial Survey Expedition (FIDASE) was an aerial survey of the Falkland Islands Dependencies The Falkland Islands Dependencies was the constitutional arrangement from 1843 until 1985 for administering the v ...

sledged to the southwest part of George VI Sound in 1949, at which time, because of a recession of the ice in the sound, they were able to determine that the island discovered by Ronne and Eklund is the largest of a group of mainly ice-covered islands. On the basis of the original discovery, 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 ...

recommends that the name Eklund be applied to the island group rather than the single island discovered by Ronne and Eklund.

References

Islands of Palmer Land {{PalmerLand-geo-stub