West Antarctica glaciers

Glaciers in West Antarctica thinned much faster in 2002 and 2003 than in the 1990s. 

The Sentinel Range of the Ellsworth Mountains in West Antarctica (Fig. 2.1) includes the Vinson Massif which contains the highest peak in Antarctica at 4,901 m (Stonehouse 2002). The highest peaks of the Transantarctic reach an elevation of 4,528 m in the Queen Alexandra Range along the north side of the Beardmore Glacier (National Geographic Society 1990). 

Given the variation in the speed and direction of the wind on Ross Island, the particles in the Erebus plume are dispersed widely such that their surface concentration is below detection. Deposits of volcanic ash that do occur in the East Antarctic ice sheet as well as locally on the surface of valley glaciers and ice caps formed during volcanic eruptions not only of Mt. Erebus but also of the other volcanoes and vents in the Transantarctic Mountains of Victoria Land and in Marie Byrd Land of West Antarctica (Keys et al. 1977 Palais et al. 1982,1983a, b Palais and Legrand 1985 Palais et al. 1989 Radke 1982 Kyle et al. 1982b). 

A third party consisting of Raymond Priestley, Bertram Army tage, and Sir Philip Brocklehurst explored the Ferrar Glacier and the ice-free valleys of southern Victoria Land west of Ross Island. Both parties were picked up by the Nimrod and, after Shackleton and his men had returned from their trek, the Nimrod headed north and landed safely in Lyttelton Harbor on the South Island of New Zealand. Ernest Shackleton was knighted by the King of England for his achievements in Antarctica, but his career of geographic exploration did not end there. 

Fig. 10.14 The southern part of the Queen Alexandra Range in Fig. 10.13 exposes the Fremouw and Falla formations of the Beacon Supergroup as well as the overlying Prebble Formation and Kirkpatrick Basalt of the Ferrar Group. This part of the Queen Alexandra Range is located west of the Beardmore Glacier and east of the Walcott Nive. Excerpt of the Buckley Island (S V 61-60/3) and Cloudmaker (SV 51-60/4) topographic maps of Antarctica. US Geological Survey, 1967, Washington, DC...

Antarctica undoubtedly contains mineral deposits that formed in the course of its long geologic history. The vast amount of ice on the continent (Section 2.6) and the coal seams that are interbedded with the rocks of the Beacon Supergroup have already been mentioned in Section 10.3.5. In addition, Ravich et al. (1982) described Precambrian iron deposits in the Prince Charles Mountains located west of the Lambert Glacier... 

In February 2009, a team of British and American scientists deployed Autosub3 from the US research vessel Nathaniel B. Palmer. The aim of this international collaboration was to smdy the dynamic of the Pine Island glacier, Antarctica and to better understand the effects of climate change on the melting of the West Antarctic Ice sheet. 

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