
Mount Shinn is a
mountain
A mountain is an elevated portion of the Earth's crust, generally with steep sides that show significant exposed bedrock. Although definitions vary, a mountain may differ from a plateau in having a limited summit area, and is usually higher t ...
4,661 meters in elevation, standing 6 km (4 miles) southeast of
Mount Tyree
Mount Tyree (4852m) is the second highest mountain of Antarctica located 13 kilometres northwest of Mount Vinson (4,892 m), the highest peak on the continent. It surmounts Patton Glacier to the north and Cervellati Glacier to the ...
in the
Sentinel Range
The Sentinel Range is a major mountain range situated northward of Minnesota Glacier and forming the northern half of the Ellsworth Mountains in Antarctica. The range trends NNW-SSE for about and is wide. Many peaks rise over and Vinson Mass ...
,
Ellsworth Mountains
The Ellsworth Mountains are the highest mountain ranges in Antarctica, forming a long and wide chain of mountains in a north to south configuration on the western margin of the Ronne Ice Shelf in Marie Byrd Land. They are bisected by Minneso ...
in
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. ...
. It surmounts
Ramorino Glacier to the north, upper
Crosswell Glacier to the northeast,
Goodge Col to the southeast, and
Branscomb Glacier to the south-southwest. Mount Shinn is thought to be the third-highest peak in Antarctica.
The peak was discovered on
IGY reconnaissance flights in January 1958, and 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 ...
(US-ACAN) for Lieutenant Commander Conrad S. (Gus) Shinn,
U.S. Navy, a pilot on some of these flights. Shinn was pilot of the Navy R4D aircraft carrying Admiral Dufek which, on October 31, 1956, made the first plane landing at the geographic
South Pole
The South Pole, also known as the Geographic South Pole or Terrestrial South Pole, is the point in the Southern Hemisphere where the Earth's rotation, Earth's axis of rotation meets its surface. It is called the True South Pole to distinguish ...
. It had been thought to be over 4800m high, but was re-measured in 2001 by
Damien Gildea and Rodrigo Fica of the Omega Foundation, using a Trimble 5700 GPS receiver and the Australian government's AUSPOS processing system.
Due to its vicinity to the more coveted Mount Vinson, Mt. Shinn has been climbed numerous times as a side trip on a Vinson expedition.
Maps
* Vinson Massif. Scale 1:250 000 topographic map. Reston, Virginia: US Geological Survey, 1988.
Antarctic Digital Database (ADD).Scale 1:250000 topographic map of Antarctica. Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR), 1993–2016.
References
Seven Third Summits
Ellsworth Mountains
Mountains of Ellsworth Land
Four-thousanders of Antarctica
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