The Colbert Hills () are a line of hills and bluffs, including Coalsack Bluff, lying east of Lewis Cliffs, between Law Glacier and

Walcott Névé Lennox-King Glacier is a large valley glacier, about long that flows east into the Ross Ice Shelf. Location Lennox-King Glacier drains Bowden Névé and flows northeast between the Holland Range and the Queen Alexandra Range of Antarctica t ...

in Antarctica. The hills trend southwest for from Mount Sirius.

Exploration and name

The Colbert Hills are named for Edwin H. Colbert, curator of vertebrate paleontology at the American Museum of Natural History, leader of the paleontology team with the Ohio State University Geological Expedition, 1969–70, which discovered ''

Lystrosaurus ''Lystrosaurus'' (; 'shovel lizard'; proper Ancient Greek is ''lístron'' ‘tool for leveling or smoothing, shovel, spade, hoe’) is an extinct genus of herbivorous dicynodont therapsids from the late Permian and Early Triassic epochs (arou ...

'' fossils in these hills. The discovery is one of the truly significant fossil finds, with great implications on calculations concerning

Gondwanaland Gondwana ( ; ) was a large landmass, sometimes referred to as a supercontinent. The remnants of Gondwana make up around two-thirds of today's continental area, including South America, Africa, Antarctica, Australia, Zealandia, Arabia, and the ...

Location

The Colbert Hills are to the east of the

Antarctic Plateau The Antarctic Plateau, Polar Plateau or King Haakon VII Plateau is a large area of East Antarctica that extends over a diameter of about , and includes the region of the geographic South Pole and the Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station. Thi ...

and south of Law Glacier, which separates them from the Queen Elizabeth Range. The

is to the south, and the

Queen Alexandra Range The Queen Alexandra Range () is a major mountain range about long, bordering the entire western side of Beardmore Glacier from the Polar Plateau to the Ross Ice Shelf. The range is in the Transantarctic Mountains System, and is located in the Ross ...

to the east. Features include Coalsack Bluff, Bauhs Nunatak and Mount Sirius. Nearby features to the west include Jacobs Nunatak, Morse Nunataks, MacAlpine Hills and Mount Achernar.

Features

Coalsack Bluff

. A small rock bluff standing at the northern limits of Walcott Neve, west-southwest of Bauhs Nunatak. So named by the

New Zealand Geological Survey Antarctic Expedition The New Zealand Geological Survey Antarctic Expedition (NZGSAE) describes a series of scientific explorations of the continent Antarctica. The expeditions were notably active throughout the 1950s and 1960s. Features named by the expeditions 19 ...

(NZGSAE) (1961–62) because of the coal seams found running through the bluff.

Bauhs Nunatak

. A prominent nunatak, high, at the north side of Walcott Névé, about south-southeast of Mount Sirius. Named by the United States

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 Luvern R. Bauhs, United States ArmyRP ionospheric scientist at South Pole Station, 1959.

Mount Sirius

. A peak, high, surmounting a prominent, wedge-shaped, ice-free spur between Walcott Névé and

Bowden Névé Lennox-King Glacier is a large valley glacier, about long that flows east into the Ross Ice Shelf. Location Lennox-King Glacier drains Bowden Névé and flows northeast between the Holland Range and the Queen Alexandra Range of Antarctica t ...

, north of Bauhs Nunatak. Named by the NZGSAE (1961–62) for the star Sirius which was used in fixing the baseline in the area.

Nearby features

Jacobs Nunatak

. A nunatak on the west side of Mac Alpine Hills, just west of the head of Sylwester Glacier. Named by US-ACAN for Willis S. Jacobs, USARP geomagnetist and seismologist at South Pole Station, 1959.

Morse Nunataks

. Isolated rock nunataks standing south of Mount Achernar, between Lewis Cliff and MacAlpine Hills. Named by US-ACAN for Oliver C. Morse III, USARP ionospheric scientist at South Pole Station, 1960.

MacAlpine Hills

. A chain of mainly ice-free, bluff-type hills extending from Mount Achernar southwest along the south side of Law Glacier, to

Sylwester Glacier Lennox-King Glacier is a large valley glacier, about long that flows east into the Ross Ice Shelf. Location Lennox-King Glacier drains Bowden Névé and flows northeast between the Holland Range and the Queen Alexandra Range of Antarctica ...

. Named by US-ACAN for Ens. Kenneth D. MacAlpine, United States Navy Reserve. A member of United States Navy Squadron VX-6, MacAlpine was injured in an airplane crash at McMurdo Sound, October 1956.

Mount Achernar

. A peak forming the northeast end of Mac Alpine Hills, on the south side of Law Glacier. Named by the NZGSAE (1961–62) after the star Achemar used in fixing the survey baseline.

Lewis Cliff

. An irregular cliff, about long, extending south from Mount Achernar along the west side of Walcott Névé. Named by US-ACAN for Richard E. Lewis, Aviation Electronics Technician, United States Navy, who was injured during United States Navy

Operation Deep Freeze Operation Deep Freeze is the code name for a series of United States missions to Antarctica, beginning with "Operation Deep Freeze I" in 1955–56, followed by "Operation Deep Freeze II", "Operation Deep Freeze III", and so on. (There was an init ...

II, 1956–57.

References

Sources

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