Triton Point () is a rocky headland at the east end of the high ridge separating

Venus Glacier Venus Glacier () is a glacier on the east coast of Alexander Island, Antarctica, 10 nautical miles (18 km) long and 6 nautical miles (11 km) wide at its mouth flowing east into George VI Sound lying between Keystone Cliffs and Triton P ...

and

Neptune Glacier Neptune Glacier () is a glacier on the east coast of Alexander Island, Antarctica, 12 nautical miles (22 km) long and 4 nautical miles (7 km) wide, flowing east into George VI Sound and the George VI Ice Shelf to the south of Triton Po ...

on the east coast of

Alexander Island Alexander Island, which is also known as Alexander I Island, Alexander I Land, Alexander Land, Alexander I Archipelago, and Zemlja Alexandra I, is the largest island of Antarctica. It lies in the Bellingshausen Sea west of Palmer Land, Antarcti ...

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. ...

Lincoln Ellsworth Lincoln Ellsworth (May 12, 1880 – May 26, 1951) was an American polar explorer, engineer, surveyor, and author. He led the first Arctic and Antarctic air crossings. Early life Linn Ellsworth was born in Chicago, Illinois on May 12, 1880. His ...

first observed the coast in this vicinity from the air by on 23 November 1935, and it was roughly mapped from photos obtained on that flight by

W.L.G. Joerg Wolfgang Louis Gottfried Joerg, better known as W. L. G. Joerg (February 6, 1885 – January 7, 1952), was an American geographer, and in particular an expert in the geography of the Arctic and Antarctic regions, who exercised broad influence on the ...

. The British Graham Land Expedition roughly surveyed Triton Point in 1936 by the

Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey The Falkland Islands and Dependencies Aerial Survey Expedition (FIDASE) was an aerial survey of the Falkland Islands Dependencies The Falkland Islands Dependencies was the constitutional arrangement from 1843 until 1985 for administering the v ...

more accurately defined it in 1949. The

United Kingdom Antarctic Place-Names Committee The UK Antarctic Place-Names Committee (or UK-APC) is a United Kingdom government committee, part of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, responsible for recommending names of geographical locations within the British Antarctic Territory (BAT) and ...

named it for its association with nearby

Triton Triton commonly refers to: * Triton (mythology), a Greek god * Triton (moon), a satellite of Neptune Triton may also refer to: Biology * Triton cockatoo, a parrot * Triton (gastropod), a group of sea snails * ''Triton'', a synonym of ''Triturus' ...

being one of the

satellite A satellite or an artificial satellite is an object, typically a spacecraft, placed into orbit around a celestial body. They have a variety of uses, including communication relay, weather forecasting, navigation ( GPS), broadcasting, scient ...

s of the planet

Neptune Neptune is the eighth and farthest known planet from the Sun. It is the List of Solar System objects by size, fourth-largest planet in the Solar System by diameter, the third-most-massive planet, and the densest giant planet. It is 17 t ...

, the eighth planet of the

Solar System The Solar SystemCapitalization of the name varies. The International Astronomical Union, the authoritative body regarding astronomical nomenclature, specifies capitalizing the names of all individual astronomical objects but uses mixed "Sola ...

.Stewart, J., 2011. ''Antarctica: An Encyclopedia,'' 2nd ed. Jefferson, North Carolina and London, McFarland & Company, Inc. 1771 pp.

Geology

Triton Point is the type locality of the Triton Point Member of the Neptune Glacier Formation.Moncrieff, A.C.M. and Kelly, S.R.A., 1993. ''Lithostratigraphy of the uppermost Fossil Bluff Group (early Cretaceous) of Alexander Island, Antarctica: history of an Albian regression.'' ''Cretaceous Research'', 14(1), pp.1-15. At Triton Point, the

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 ...

sedimentary Sedimentary rocks are types of rock formed by the cementation of sediments—i.e. particles made of minerals (geological detritus) or organic matter (biological detritus)—that have been accumulated or deposited at Earth's surface. Sedime ...

strata In geology and related fields, a stratum (: strata) is a layer of Rock (geology), rock or sediment characterized by certain Lithology, lithologic properties or attributes that distinguish it from adjacent layers from which it is separated by v ...

of this member of the Neptune Glacier Formation contains numerous, well preserved

Cretaceous The Cretaceous ( ) is a geological period that lasted from about 143.1 to 66 mya (unit), million years ago (Mya). It is the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era (geology), Era, as well as the longest. At around 77.1 million years, it is the ...

plant

fossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserve ...

s, including rare, high-latitude (about 74° degrees paleolatitude), fossil forests composed of in situ, upright standing, fossil tree trunks. Because the non-marine Triton Point Member is overlain and underlain by fossiliferous marine strata, the age of the upright standing, fossil tree trunks can be determined to be late

Albian The Albian is both an age (geology), age of the geologic timescale and a stage (stratigraphy), stage in the stratigraphic column. It is the youngest or uppermost subdivision of the Early Cretaceous, Early/Lower Cretaceous epoch (geology), Epoch/s ...

age.Kelly, S.R.A. and Moncrieff, A.C.M., 1992. ''Marine molluscan constraints on the age of Cretaceous fossil forests of Alexander Island, Antarctica'' ''Geological Magazine'', 129(6), pp.771-778.Cantrill, D., 1995. ''The occurrence of the fern Hausmannia Dunker (Dipteridaceae) in the Cretaceous of Alexander Island, Antarctica.'' ''Alcheringa'', 19(3), pp.243-254.

References

Headlands of Alexander Island Paleontological sites of Antarctica {{AlexanderIsland-geo-stub

Geology

See also

References