The Royal Society Range () is a majestic range of mountains in Victoria Land, Antarctica, rising to along the west shore of
McMurdo Sound between the Koettlitz, Skelton and Ferrar Glaciers.
They are south of the
Kukri Hills, southeast of the
Quartermain Mountains, and northeast of the
Worcester Range.
With its
summit
A summit is a point on a surface that is higher in elevation than all points immediately adjacent to it. The topographic terms acme, apex, peak (mountain peak), and zenith are synonymous.
The term (mountain top) is generally used only for ...
at , the massive
Mount Lister forms the highest point in this range. Mount Lister is located along the western shore of
McMurdo Sound between the
Koettlitz,
Skelton and
Ferrar glaciers. Other notable local terrain features include
Allison Glacier, which descends from the west slopes of the Royal Society Range into Skelton Glacier.
Discovery and naming
The range was probably first seen by Captain
James Clark Ross
Sir James Clark Ross (15 April 1800 – 3 April 1862) was a British Royal Navy officer and explorer of both the northern and southern polar regions. In the Arctic, he participated in two expeditions led by his uncle, Sir John Ross, John ...
in 1841.
It was explored by the
British National Antarctic Expedition
The ''Discovery'' Expedition of 1901–1904, known officially as the British National Antarctic Expedition, was the first official British exploration of the Antarctic regions since the voyage of James Clark Ross sixty years earlier (1839–1 ...
(BrNAE; 1901–04) under
Robert Falcon Scott
Captain Robert Falcon Scott (6 June 1868 – ) was a British Royal Navy officer and explorer who led two expeditions to the Antarctic regions: the Discovery Expedition, ''Discovery'' expedition of 1901–04 and the Terra Nova Expedition ...
, who named the range after the
Royal Society
The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...
and applied names of its members to many of its peaks.
For example, Mount Lister was named for
Lord Joseph Lister, President of the Royal Society, 1895–1900.
The Royal Society provided financial support to BrNAE and its members had assisted on the committee which organized the expedition.
Geology
The Royal Society Range consists of a
Precambrian
The Precambrian ( ; or pre-Cambrian, sometimes abbreviated pC, or Cryptozoic) is the earliest part of Earth's history, set before the current Phanerozoic Eon. The Precambrian is so named because it preceded the Cambrian, the first period of t ...
igneous and meta-igneous
basement complex overlain by
Devonian
The Devonian ( ) is a period (geology), geologic period and system (stratigraphy), system of the Paleozoic era (geology), era during the Phanerozoic eon (geology), eon, spanning 60.3 million years from the end of the preceding Silurian per ...
- to
Triassic
The Triassic ( ; sometimes symbolized 🝈) is a geologic period and system which spans 50.5 million years from the end of the Permian Period 251.902 million years ago ( Mya), to the beginning of the Jurassic Period 201.4 Mya. The Triassic is t ...
-age
sandstone
Sandstone is a Clastic rock#Sedimentary clastic rocks, clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of grain size, sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate mineral, silicate grains, Cementation (geology), cemented together by another mineral. Sand ...
s,
siltstone
Siltstone, also known as aleurolite, is a clastic sedimentary rock that is composed mostly of silt. It is a form of mudrock with a low clay mineral content, which can be distinguished from shale by its lack of fissility.
Although its permeabil ...
s and
conglomerates of the
Beacon Supergroup which dip shallowly westward away from the Ross Sea coast.
The entire region is cut by north–south trending longitudinal
faults, east–west trending transverse faults, and structurally related
dike swarms.
Tectonic
Tectonics ( via Latin ) are the processes that result in the structure and properties of the Earth's crust and its evolution through time. The field of ''planetary tectonics'' extends the concept to other planets and moons.
These processes ...
and
fluvial
A river is a natural stream of fresh water that flows on land or inside caves towards another body of water at a lower elevation, such as an ocean, lake, or another river. A river may run dry before reaching the end of its course if it ru ...
activity have featured very heavily in the recent geologic history of the Royal Society Range.
Following the extension of the Ross Sea Basin (c. 55 million years ago), an episode of
uplift drove the creation of the Royal Society Range rift flank. At this time a tectonic (though ''not''
accretionary) wedge, up to 6 km thick on the coast, was present, though it quickly began to erode due primarily to fluvial processes, and the Royal Society Range was cut down near to its present appearance by the
mid-Miocene. Relatively limited glacial action since that time has preserved much of the fluvial architecture of the Range, and though uplift did not cease, its magnitude is such that it has not drastically affected the landscape, having progressed only 67 meters in the last 8 million years.
Koettlitz Glacier Alkaline Province
Neoproterozoic
The Neoproterozoic Era is the last of the three geologic eras of the Proterozoic geologic eon, eon, spanning from 1 billion to 538.8 million years ago, and is the last era of the Precambrian "supereon". It is preceded by the Mesoproterozoic era an ...
tectonic extension along the edge of the
East Antarctic Craton between the
Skelton and
Koettlitz Glaciers resulted in the emplacement of coarse grained alkaline igneous
intrusive rock
Intrusive rock is formed when magma penetrates existing rock, crystallizes, and solidifies underground to form ''Igneous intrusion, intrusions'', such as batholiths, dike (geology), dikes, Sill (geology), sills, laccoliths, and volcanic necks.I ...
s (ranging from gabbro to A-type granite). This area of alkaline intrusives is referred to as the Koettlitz Glacier Alkaline Province.
Ross Orogeny
Cambrian tectonic convergence, continental collision and plate subduction led to the emplacement of calc-alkaline and adakitic granitoids. This period of mountain building is referred to as the Ross Orogeny.
Volcanic history
The Royal Society Range contains over 50 basaltic vents, ranging in size from tiny mounds to
cinder cone
A cinder cone or scoria cone is a steep, volcanic cone, conical landform of loose pyroclastic rock, pyroclastic fragments, such as volcanic ash, clinkers, or scoria that has been built around a volcanic vent. The pyroclastic fragments are forme ...
s up to 300 meters (985 feet) high. Dating of surface material indicates they were active earlier than 15 million years ago (e.g.
Heald Island) and as recently as 80,000 years ago, with glacier-bound
tephra
Tephra is fragmental material produced by a Volcano, volcanic eruption regardless of composition, fragment size, or emplacement mechanism.
Volcanologists also refer to airborne fragments as pyroclasts. Once clasts have fallen to the ground, ...
layers suggesting even more recent
Holocene
The Holocene () is the current geologic time scale, geological epoch, beginning approximately 11,700 years ago. It follows the Last Glacial Period, which concluded with the Holocene glacial retreat. The Holocene and the preceding Pleistocene to ...
activity.
The vast majority of vents are located in the foothills of the Royal Society mountains just north of
Koettlitz Glacier, and most are Quaternary in age. Most emanating flows are 3–10 meters thick and less than 4 kilometers long. The composition, with very few exceptions, is porphyritic
basanite with primarily
olivine
The mineral olivine () is a magnesium iron Silicate minerals, silicate with the chemical formula . It is a type of Nesosilicates, nesosilicate or orthosilicate. The primary component of the Earth's upper mantle (Earth), upper mantle, it is a com ...
and
clinopyroxene phenocrysts, though some phenocrystic
plagioclase
Plagioclase ( ) is a series of Silicate minerals#Tectosilicates, tectosilicate (framework silicate) minerals within the feldspar group. Rather than referring to a particular mineral with a specific chemical composition, plagioclase is a continu ...
is also present.
Location
The Royal Society range borders the
Bowers Piedmont Glacier and the
Blue Glacier to the east.
The Blue Glacier separates the range from the
Denton Hills, which run from north to south along the coast of McMurdo Sound in the northeast, and along the northwest side of the
Koettlitz Glacier further south.
The Pyramid, the southeast tip of the range, is on the north side of the Koettlitz Glacier.
The southwest and west of the range lies to the east of the
Skelton Glacier, which rises in the
Skelton Névé to the west of the range and flows south into the
Ross Ice Shelf
The Ross Ice Shelf is the largest ice shelf of Antarctica (, an area of roughly and about across: about the size of France). It is several hundred metres thick. The nearly vertical ice front to the open sea is more than long, and between high ...
.
The northwest of the range lies to the east and south of the
Ferrar Glacier, which flows east along the north of the range to
New Harbour in McMurdo Sound.
Glaciers
The surrounding glaciers are:
*
Blue Glacier, a large glacier which flows into
Bowers Piedmont Glacier about south of
New Harbour.
*
Koettlitz Glacier, a large glacier lying west of
Mount Morning and
Mount Discovery in the Royal Society Range, flowing from the vicinity of Mount Cocks northeastward between
Brown Peninsula and the mainland into the ice shelf of
McMurdo Sound.
*
Skelton Glacier, a large glacier flowing from the
Antarctic Plateau into the
Ross Ice Shelf
The Ross Ice Shelf is the largest ice shelf of Antarctica (, an area of roughly and about across: about the size of France). It is several hundred metres thick. The nearly vertical ice front to the open sea is more than long, and between high ...
at
Skelton Inlet on the
Hillary Coast
The Hillary Coast is a portion of the coast of Antarctica along the western margin of the Ross Ice Shelf
The Ross Ice Shelf is the largest ice shelf of Antarctica (, an area of roughly and about across: about the size of France). It is sever ...
.
*
Ferrar Glacier, a glacier about long, flowing from the plateau of Victoria Land west of the Royal Society Range to
New Harbour in
McMurdo Sound.
Features
Major features include:
*
Colwell Massif (), a rugged rock
massif
A massif () is a principal mountain mass, such as a compact portion of a mountain range, containing one or more summits (e.g. France's Massif Central). In mountaineering literature, ''massif'' is frequently used to denote the main mass of an ...
, about long, rising to between
Palais Glacier,
Ferrar Glacier, and
Rotunda Glacier.
*
Table Mountain
Table Mountain (; ) is a flat-topped mountain forming a prominent landmark overlooking the city of Cape Town in South Africa.
It is a significant tourist attraction, with many visitors using the Table Mountain Aerial Cableway, cableway or hik ...
(), a large flat mountain rising to over immediately south of the junction of the
Emmanuel Glacier and
Ferrar Glacier in Victoria Land.
*
Cathedral Rocks (), a series of four abrupt cliffs interspersed by short glaciers and surmounted by sharp peaks. The cliffs extend for along the south side of
Ferrar Glacier and form part of the north shoulder of the Royal Society Range.
*
Briggs Hill (), a conspicuous ice-free hill, high, standing on the south side of
Ferrar Glacier between
Descent Glacier and
Overflow Glacier.
*
Bettle Peak (), a peak, high, standing west of
Bowers Piedmont Glacier and north of the
Granite Knolls.
*
Rampart Ridge (), a prominent broken ridge on the west side of the Royal Society Range. It stands north of
Rutgers Glacier and extends from The Spire to Bishop Peak.
*
Mount Lister (), a massive mountain, high, forming the highest point in the Royal Society Range.
*
Mount Rücker' (), a mountain, high, immediately south of
Johns Hopkins Ridge.
*
Radian Ridge (), a ridge extending east from the scarp of the Royal Society Range, along the south side of
Radian Glacier.
*
Mount Dromedary (), a hump-shaped mountain, over high, standing east of
Mount Kempe.
*
Mount Schwerdtfeger (), a peak, high on the ridge at the head of
Renegar Glacier, south of
Mount Kempe.
*
Harvey Summit (), a peak high at the head of
McDermott Glacier.
Gallery
File:Mt Lister, Royal Society Range, Antarctica.jpg, Mount Lister, tallest peak in range seen from McMurdo Station, March 2015
File:Royal Society Range, South Side, Victoria Land, Antarctica.jpg, Royal Society Range seen from South, November 2011
File:Cathedral Rocks Antarctica.jpg, Cathedral Rocks
References
Sources
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External links
*{{cite gvp, name=Royal Society Range, vn=390021, access-date=2021-06-24
Scott Coast
Volcanoes of Victoria Land
Cenozoic volcanism