The Meteorite Hills () are a group of hills, long, forming the western portion of the

Darwin Mountains The Darwin Mountains () are a group of mountains between the Darwin Glacier and Hatherton Glacier in Antarctica. They were discovered by the British National Antarctic Expedition (1901–04) and named for Major Leonard Darwin, at that time Honora ...

in Antarctica. The hills are located between the heads of Darwin Glacier and

Hatherton Glacier The Darwin Glacier () is a large glacier in Antarctica. It flows from the polar plateau eastward between the Darwin Mountains and the Cook Mountains to the Ross Ice Shelf. The Darwin and its major tributary the Hatherton are often treated as one s ...

Name

The name was proposed by John O. Annexstad of the Meteorite Working Group at the

Johnson Space Center The Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center (JSC) is NASA's center for human spaceflight in Houston, Texas (originally named the Manned Spacecraft Center), where human spaceflight training, research, and flight controller, flight control are conducted. ...

Houston, Texas Houston ( ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of ...

, in association with field work carried out in this vicinity by the Antarctic Search for Meteorites, led by

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 ...

of the

University of Pittsburgh The University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) is a Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. The university is composed of seventeen undergraduate and graduate schools and colle ...

, during the 1978–79 season.

Location

The Meteorite Hills are in the northwest of the Darwin Mountains. The

Darwin Névé The Darwin Glacier () is a large glacier in Antarctica. It flows from the polar plateau eastward between the Darwin Mountains and the Cook Mountains to the Ross Ice Shelf. The Darwin and its major tributary the Hatherton are often treated as one ...

and Darwin Glacier lie to their north. Turnstile Ridge is to the southwest, and the head of the

is to the south.

Features

Mason Nunatak

. A

nunatak A nunatak (from Inuit language, Inuit ) is the summit or ridge of a mountain that protrudes from an ice field or glacier that otherwise covers most of the mountain or ridge. They often form natural pyramidal peaks. Isolated nunataks are also cal ...

long at the northwest end of the Meteorite Hills. Named after Brian Mason of the Department of Mineral Sciences,

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums, Education center, education and Research institute, research centers, created by the Federal government of the United States, U.S. government "for the increase a ...

, Washington, DC, who examined and classified meteorites collected by United States Antarctic Project (USAP) field parties directed by W.A. Cassidy in seven austral summers, 1977-78 through 1983-84.

Score Ridge

. A rock ridge northwest of Lindstrom Ridge in north-central Meteorite Hill. Named after Roberta Score, manager of the Antarctic Meteorite Laboratory, NASA Johnson Space Center, Houston, TX, 1978-96; member of ANSMET meteorite search teams in several areas of the Transantarctic Mountains, 1984-85 and 1988-89 field seasons; supervisor, Crary Science and Engineering Center (McMurdo), 1996-2001.

Lindstrom Ridge

. A ridge on the west side of Green Glacier. The ridge is long and forms the east end of Meteorite Hills. Named after Marilyn Lindstrom, curator of Antarctic meteorites at the NASA Johnson Space Center, Houston, Texas, for many years up to 2000.

Tether Rock

. A rock outlier north of Lindstrom Ridge. The rock marks the north margin of ice-covered Access Slope, a route through the Circle Icefall of upper Darwin Glacier. Named in association with Lindstrom Ridge, to which Tether Rock appears to be subglacially connected.

Access Slope

. An ice slope between the north end of Lindstrom Ridge and Tether Rock. The slope is at the west end of the Circle Icefall in Darwin Glacier and appears to be the only route through the icefall. Descriptively named by the Darwin Glacier Party of the Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition (CTAE), 1956-58, which made the first descent of the glacier.

References

Sources

* * * * * * * {{Include-USGov , agency=United States Geological Survey Hills of Oates Land