Denton Hills Explained
| Denton Hills |
| Country Type: | Continent |
| Region Type: | Region |
| Region: | Victoria Land |
| Map: | Antarctica |
The Denton Hills are a group of rugged foothills, long southwest–northeast and wide, to the east of the Royal Society Range on the Scott Coast, Victoria Land, Antarctica.
The Denton Hills comprise a series of eastward-trending ridges and valleys circumscribed by Howchin Glacier, Armitage Saddle, Blue Glacier, the coast, and Walcott Bay. The highest summits, Mount Kowalczyk at, and Goat Mountain at, rise from Hobbs Ridge in the northern part of the foothills. Elevations decrease southward as in Kahiwi Maihao Ridge, high near the center of the group and the Xanadu Hills, high at the southern end. The principal glaciers (Hobbs, Blackwelder, Salmon, Garwood, Joyce, Rivard, Miers, Adams, Ward) flow east but have receded, leaving several dry valleys.
Exploration
The Denton Hills were discovered and roughly mapped by the British National Antarctic Expedition, 1901–04, under Robert Falcon Scott. The hills were mapped in detail by United States Antarctic Research Program (USARP) and New Zealand Antarctic Research Programme (NZARP) personnel in the years following the International Geophysical Year, 1957–58.
Name
The hills were named by the United States Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names (US-ACAN; 1999) after Professor George H. Denton of the Department of Geological Sciences and the Institute for Quaternary Studies, University of Maine, who conducted geological research in the Transantarctic Mountains and Victoria Land (including work in these hills), 1958–99, making more than 25 visits to Antarctica. Denton Glacier is also named after him.
Major features
Major features include, from north to south:
- Hobbs Ridge -77.8833°N 221°W, a prominent arc-shaped ridge which circumscribes Hobbs Glacier to the north and northwest and forms the divide with the lower part of Blue Glacier, on the Scott Coast of Victoria Land, Antarctica.
- Keble Hills -77.9943°N 164.148°W, an imposing line of granite hills rising to, including from west to east Murphy Peak, Handley Hill, Auger Hill and Coral Hill. The hills separate Salmon Glacier and Garwood Valley.
- Garwood Valley -78.0333°N 171°W is a valley opening on the coast of Victoria Land, just south of Cape Chocolate. It is largely ice-free, but is occupied near its head by Garwood Glacier.
- Péwé Peak -78.0333°N 203°W, a bedrock peak, high, composed of granite and topped with a dolerite sill. The peak is immediately south of Joyce Glacier and is surrounded by glacial ice except on the south side.
- Marshall Valley -78.0667°N 176°W, a small valley in Antarctica, ice free except for Rivard Glacier at its western head. It is long, and wide, and lies between Garwood Valley and Miers Valley.
- Miers Valley, a valley just south of Marshall Valley and west of Koettlitz Glacier. The valley is ice-free except for Miers Glacier in its upper (western) part and Lake Miers near its center.
- Hidden Valley -78.1667°N 215°W, the ice-free valley next south of Miers Valley through which an alpine glacier formerly moved to coalesce with Koettlitz Glacier. The mouth of the valley is completely blocked by the Koettlitz moraine, the only one of the numerous valleys tributary to the Koettlitz isolated in this fashion. The main valley is hidden not only from the coast but from most of the surrounding ridges.
- Ward Valley, an ice-free valley that lies between Porter Hills and Xanadu Hills and east of the snout of Ward Glacier.
- Alph River -78.2°N 163.75°W, a small river, flowing in summertime, on the northern side of Koettlitz Glacier. It rises from Koettlitz ice at the upper end of Pyramid Trough and from south to north includes Pyramid Ponds, Trough Lake, Walcott Lake, Howchin Lake, and Alph Lake.
Sources
- antarid . 17052 . . Alph River.
- antarid . 17588 . . Denton Hills.
- antarid . 17239 . . Keble Hills.
- antarid . 17293 . . Ward Valley.
