Elephant Moraine () is an isolated

moraine A moraine is any accumulation of unconsolidated debris ( regolith and rock), sometimes referred to as glacial till, that occurs in both currently and formerly glaciated regions, and that has been previously carried along by a glacier or ice sh ...

, long, located west of Reckling Peak, to the west of the head of

Mawson Glacier Mawson Glacier () is a large glacier on the east coast of Victoria Land, Antarctica, descending eastward from the Antarctic Plateau to the north of Trinity Nunatak and the Kirkwood Range, to enter the Ross Sea, where it forms the Nordenskjöld Ic ...

Victoria Land Victoria Land is a region in eastern Antarctica which fronts the western side of the Ross Sea and the Ross Ice Shelf, extending southward from about 70°30'S to 78°00'S, and westward from the Ross Sea to the edge of the Antarctic Plateau. I ...

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 co ...

. The moraine, described in some reports as an ice core moraine, is situated along a long, narrow patch of bare ice that extends west from Reckling Peak for . The feature was noted in U.S. satellite imagery of 1973, and in aerial photographs obtained subsequently, by

William R. MacDonald William is a masculine given name of Norman French origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conques ...

of the

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, ...

, who originally described it to

William A. Cassidy William A. Cassidy (3 January 1928 – 22 March 2020) was an American geologist and professor emeritus of Geology and Planetary Science at the University of Pittsburgh. Cassidy was responsible for recognizing that Antarctica represented the greate ...

as "a possible nunatak having an outline similar to an elephant." Several

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 ...

field parties led by Cassidy collected meteorites at this moraine during the 1979–80

ANSMET ANSMET (Antarctic Search for Meteorites) is a program funded by the Office of Polar Programs of the National Science Foundation that looks for meteorites in the Transantarctic Mountains. This geographical area serves as a collection point for met ...

season, including the Martian meteorite

EETA 79001 Elephant Moraine 79001, also known as EETA 79001, is a Martian meteorite. It was found in Elephant Moraine, in the Antarctic during the 1979–1980 collecting season. The meteorite is classified as a shergottite and is primarily basaltic ...

. The descriptive name was approved 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 ...

in 1989.

References

Moraines of Antarctica Landforms of Oates Land {{OatesLand-geo-stub