Rotch Dome is the sloping ice dome rising to 360 m immediately east of

Byers Peninsula Byers Peninsula is a mainly ice-free peninsula forming the west end of Livingston Island in the South Shetland Islands of Antarctica. It occupies , borders Ivanov Beach to the northeast and is separated from Rotch Dome on the east by the ridge o ...

, and between

Barclay Bay Barclay Bay () is a bay in Drake Passage between Cape Shirreff and Essex Point on the north side of Livingston Island, in the South Shetland Islands. Its head is fed by Etar Snowfield. The name appears on an 1825 chart of the British sealing e ...

and

Walker Bay Walker Bay is a large bay located in the south-western Western Cape province of South Africa. It is the next major bay between False Bay near Cape Town and Cape Agulhas to the south-east. The bay is famous for having some of the best land based wh ...

Livingston Island Livingston Island (Russian name ''Smolensk'', ) is an Antarctic island in the Southern Ocean, part of the South Shetlands Archipelago, a group of Antarctic islands north of the Antarctic Peninsula. It was the first land discovered south of 60� ...

South Shetland Islands The South Shetland Islands are a group of Antarctic islands with a total area of . They lie about north of the Antarctic Peninsula, and between southwest of the nearest point of the South Orkney Islands. By the Antarctic Treaty of 195 ...

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 ...

. It is bounded by

Urvich Wall Urvich Wall ( bg, Урвичка стена, ‘Urvichka Stena’ \'ur-vich-ka ste-'na\) is the narrow ice-free and crescent-shaped ridge rising to 121 m on Livingston Island in the South Shetland Islands, Antarctica and bounded by Nedelya Point t ...

to the west, surmounting Ivanov Beach to the northwest,

Etar Snowfield Etar Snowfield ( bg, Ледник Етър, lednik Etar, ) is a roughly crescent-shaped snowfield on western Livingston Island in the South Shetland Islands, Antarctica situated west of Urdoviza, Medven and Berkovitsa Glaciers, northwest of Ver ...

to the north-northeast and

Verila Glacier Verila Glacier ( bg, ледник Верила, lednik Verila, ) on Livingston Island in the South Shetland Islands, Antarctica is situated southeast of southern Etar Snowfield, southwest of Berkovitsa and Tundzha Glaciers, and west of ...

to the east-northeast, and is linked by a saddle to Casanovas Peak to the northeast. The slopes of Rotch Dome west of 60º53'45"W were included in 2016 into the

Antarctic Specially Protected Area An Antarctic Specially Protected Area (ASPA) is an area on the continent of Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Sou ...

Byers Peninsula (ASPA 126), with a designated zone comprising the northwestern part of Rotch Dome and the adjacent deglaciated ground on Ivanov Beach placed under greater restriction on access in order to prevent microbial or other contamination by human activity.

Location

The highest point is located at which is 10.4 km southwest of Casanovas Peak, 6.75 km north by west of

Elephant Point Elephant Point is a small predominantly ice-free promontory projecting 2 km into Bransfield Strait at the south extremity of the west half of Livingston Island in the South Shetland Islands, Antarctica. The point forms the southwest side ...

, 6.1 km east of Tsamblak Hill, 5.37 km east-southeast of

Nedelya Point Nedelya Point ( bg, нос Неделя, ‘Nos Nedelya’ \'nos ne-'de-lya\) is a sharp ice-free point at the southwest extremity of Ivanov Beach on the north coast of Livingston Island in the South Shetland Islands, Antarctica projecting 300 m ...

and 4.77 km south by east of

Rowe Point Rowe Point is a sharp, low ice-free point at the northeastern extremity of Ivanov Beach on the southeast coast of Barclay Bay in western Livingston Island in the South Shetland Islands, Antarctica. Mneme Lake is just west of the point. The fe ...

(British mapping in 1968, Bulgarian in 2005, 2009 and 2017).

Maps

* L.L. Ivanov et al. Antarctica: Livingston Island and Greenwich Island, South Shetland Islands. Scale 1:100000 topographic map. Sofia: Antarctic Place-names Commission of Bulgaria, 2005. * L.L. Ivanov
Antarctica: Livingston Island and Greenwich, Robert, Snow and Smith Islands
Scale 1:120000 topographic map. Troyan: Manfred Wörner Foundation, 2009.
Antarctic Digital Database (ADD).
Scale 1:250000 topographic map of Antarctica. Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR). Since 1993, regularly upgraded and updated. * L.L. Ivanov. Antarctica: Livingston Island and Smith Island. Scale 1:100000 topographic map. Manfred Wörner Foundation, 2017.

In fiction

Rotch Dome is part of the mise-en-scène in the 2016 Antarctica

thriller novel Thriller is a genre of fiction, having numerous, often overlapping subgenres. Thrillers are characterized and defined by the moods they elicit, giving viewers heightened feelings of suspense, excitement, surprise, anticipation and anxiety. ...

''The Killing Ship'' by

Simon Beaufort Susanna Gregory is the pseudonym of Elizabeth Cruwys, a Cambridge academic who was previously a coroner's officer. She writes detective fiction, and is noted for her series of mediaeval mysteries featuring Matthew Bartholomew, a teacher of medici ...

, with action spreading westwards from

Hannah Point Hannah Point is a point on the south coast of Livingston Island in the South Shetland Islands, Antarctica. It forms the east side of the entrance to Walker Bay and the west side of the entrance to South Bay. Surmounted by Ustra Peak to th ...

, skirting the dome and eventually reaching

; the feature is shown on a sketch map of Livingston Island illustrating the book.''The Killing Ship.''
Susanna Gregory Website, 2019

Notes

References

Rotch Dome.
SCAR

Composite Antarctic Gazetteer The Composite Gazetteer of Antarctica (CGA) of the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) is the authoritative international gazetteer containing all Antarctic toponyms published in national gazetteers, plus basic information about ...

Landforms of Livingston Island Ice caps of Antarctica {{LivingstonIsland-geo-stub