Pensacola Mountains

The Pensacola Mountains are a large group of mountain ranges of the Transantarctic Mountains System, located in the Queen Elizabeth Land region of Antarctica.

Pensacola Mountains
Highest point
PeakEngland Peak[1]
Elevation2,150 m (7,050 ft)
Coordinates82°37′S 52°49′W 
Dimensions
Length450 km (280 mi)
Area86,850 km2 (33,530 sq mi)
Geography
Location in Antarctica
ContinentAntarctica
RegionQueen Elizabeth Land
Range coordinates84°2′S 61°22′W
Parent rangeTransantarctic Mountains

Geography

They extend 450 km (280 mi) in a NE-SW direction. Subranges of the Pensacola Mountains include: Argentina Range, Forrestal Range, Dufek Massif, Cordiner Peaks, Neptune Range, Patuxent Range, Rambo Nunataks and Pecora Escarpment. These mountain units lie astride the extensive Foundation Ice Stream and Support Force Glacier which drain northward to the Ronne Ice Shelf.[2]

Naming

Discovered and photographed on January 13, 1956 in the course of a transcontinental nonstop plane flight by personnel of US Navy Operation Deep Freeze I from McMurdo Sound to Weddell Sea and return. Named by US-ACAN for the U.S. Naval Air Station, Pensacola, Florida, in commemoration of the historic role of that establishment in training aviators of the U.S. Navy. The mountains were mapped in detail by USGS from surveys and US Navy air photos, 1956–67.[2]

Geology

The Pensacola Mountains were originally continuous with the Ventana Mountains near Bahía Blanca in Argentina, Cape Fold Belt in South Africa, the Ellsworth Mountains (West Antarctica) and the Hunter-Bowen orogeny in eastern Australia.

The Ordovician-Devonian Neptune Group rests unconformably on a Cambrian succession, and is overlain disconformably by the Dover Sandstone of the Beacon Supergroup. Within the Neptune Group is the Brown Ridge Conglomerate, Elliott Sandstone, Elbow Formation, and the Heiser Sandstone.[3]

Features

Geographical features include:

Neptune Range
Main article: Neptune Range

Williams Hills
Main article: Williams Hills

Schmidt Hills
Main article: Schmidt Hills

Other features

Forrestal Range
Main article: Forrestal Range

Patuxent Range
Main article: Patuxent Range

Anderson Hills
Main article: Anderson Hills

Thomas Hills
Main article: Thomas Hills

Other features

Argentina Range
Main article: Argentina Range

Schneider Hills
Main article: Schneider Hills

Panzarini Hills
Main article: Panzarini Hills

Other features

Cordiner Peaks
Main article: Cordiner Peaks

Rambo Nunataks
Main article: Rambo Nunataks

Pecora Escarpment
Main article: Pecora Escarpment

Dufek Massif
Main article: Dufek Massif

Boyd Escarpment
Main article: Boyd Escarpment

Other features

Other Pensacola Mountains features

Further reading
• Gunter Faure, Teresa M. Mensing, The Transantarctic Mountains: Rocks, Ice, Meteorites and Water, P 233
• M.J.Bentley, A.S.Hein, D.E.Sugden, P.L.Whitehouse, R.Shanks, S.Xu, S.P.H.T.Freeman, Deglacial history of the Pensacola Mountains, Antarctica from glacial geomorphology and cosmogenic nuclide surface exposure dating, Quaternary Science Reviews Volume 158, 15 February 2017, Pages 58–76, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2016.09.028
• JOHN C. BEHRENDT, JOHN R. HENDERSON, LAURENT ElSTER, and WILLIAM L. RAMBO, Geophysical Investigations of the Pensacola Mountains and Adjacent Glacierized Areas of Antarctica, GEOLOGICAL SURVEY PROFESSIONAL PAPER 844
• Curtis, M. (2002), Palaeozoic to Mesozoic polyphase deformation of the Patuxent Range, Pensacola Mountains, Antarctica, Antarctic Science, 14(2), 175–183. https://doi:10%5B%5D.1017/S0954102002000743
• Myrl E. Beck, Palaeomagnetism and Magnetic Polarity Zones in the Jurassic Dufek Intrusion, Pensacola Mountains, Antarctica, Geophysical Journal International, Volume 28, Issue 1, May 1972, Pages 49–63, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-246X.1972.tb06110.x
• Hodgson, Dominic A Bentley, Michael J, Lake highstands in the Pensacola Mountains and Shackleton Range 4300–2250 cal. yr BP: Evidence of a warm climate anomaly in the interior of Antarctica, https://doi.org/10.1177/0959683612460790
• Karolien Peeters (UGent), Dominic A Hodgson, Peter Convey and Anne Willems (UGent), Culturable diversity of heterotrophic bacteria in Forlidas Pond (Pensacola Mountains) and Lundström Lake (Shackleton Range), Antarctica, (2011) MICROBIAL ECOLOGY. 62(2). p. 399-413

References
  1. "Pensacola Mountains". Peakbagger. Retrieved 23 May 2017.
  2. "Pensacola Mountains". Geographic Names Information System. United States Geological Survey. Retrieved 2004-11-03.
  3. Laird, M.G. (1991). Thomson, M.R.A.; Crame, J.A.; Thomson, J.W. (eds.). Lower-mid-Palaeozoic sedimentation and tectonic patterns on the palaeo-Pacific margin of Antarctica, in Geological Evolution of Antarctica. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 179. ISBN 9780521372664.
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