Eratosthenes Point (, ) is the ice-covered, rock-tipped northwest entrance point to Digges Cove on the north coast of

Elephant Island Elephant Island is an ice-covered, mountainous island off the coast of Antarctica in the outer reaches of the South Shetland Islands, in the Southern Ocean. The island is situated north-northeast of the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula, west-so ...

in 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 ...

Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean (also known as the Antarctic Ocean), it contains the geographic South Pole. ...

situated just west of the

terminus Terminus may refer to: Ancient Rome *Terminus (god), a Roman deity who protected boundary markers Transport *Terminal train station or terminus, a railway station serving as an end destination *Bus terminus, a bus station serving as an end des ...

of Snellius Glacier. The area was visited by early 19th century

sealers Sealer may refer either to a person or ship engaged in seal hunting, or to a sealant; associated terms include: Seal hunting * Sealer Hill, South Shetland Islands, Antarctica * Sealers' Oven, bread oven of mud and stone built by sealers around 1800 ...

.A. Gurney. ''Below the Convergence: Voyages Toward Antarctica, 1699-1839.'' New York: Penguin Books, 1998. 315 pp. The feature is named after the Greek mathematician and geographer

Eratosthenes Eratosthenes of Cyrene (; ; – ) was an Ancient Greek polymath: a Greek mathematics, mathematician, geographer, poet, astronomer, and music theory, music theorist. He was a man of learning, becoming the chief librarian at the Library of A ...

(c. 276-194 BC) who was the first to calculate the circumference of the Earth; in association with other names in the area deriving from the early development or use of

geodetic Geodesy or geodetics is the science of measuring and representing the geometry, gravity, and spatial orientation of the Earth in temporally varying 3D. It is called planetary geodesy when studying other astronomical bodies, such as planets ...

instruments and methods.

Location

Eratosthenes Point is located at ,Bulgarian Antarctic Gazetteer.
Antarctic Place-names Commission which is 17.2 km east-southeast of

Cape Yelcho Cape Yelcho is the northwestern extremity of Elephant Island in the South Shetland Islands of Antarctica. It was named by the UK Joint Services Expedition, 1970–71,Point Wild Point Wild is a point west of Cape Valentine, east of Saddleback Point, and directly adjacent to the Furness Glacier on the north coast of Elephant Island. It was named "Cape Wild" by the Shackleton Endurance expedition 1914–16, but Point ...

. British mapping of the area in 1822,1972 and 2009.

Maps

Chart of South Shetland including Coronation Island, &c.
from the exploration of the sloop Dove in the years 1821 and 1822 by George Powell Commander of the same. Scale ca. 1:200000. London: Laurie, 1822.
Elephant Island: From a survey by the Joint Services Expedition, December 1970.
Scale 1:132000 topographic map. Royal Geographical Society (UK), 1972.
British Antarctic Territory.
Scale 1:200000 topographic map. DOS 610 Series, Sheet W 61 54. Directorate of Overseas Surveys, Tolworth, UK, 1972.
South Shetland Islands: Elephant, Clarence and Gibbs Islands.
Scale 1:220000 topographic map. UK Antarctic Place-names Committee, 2009.
Antarctic Digital Database (ADD).
Scale 1:250000 topographic map of Antarctica. Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR). Since 1993, regularly upgraded and updated.

Notes

References

Bulgarian Antarctic Gazetteer.

Antarctic Place-names Commission The Antarctic Place-names Commission was established by the Bulgarian Antarctic Institute in 1994, and since 2001 has been a body affiliated with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Bulgaria), Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Bulgaria. The Commis ...

. (details in Bulgarian
basic data
in English)

External links

Eratosthenes Point.
Adjusted Copernix satellite image Headlands of the South Shetland Islands Elephant Island Bulgaria and the Antarctic {{ElephantIsland-geo-stub