Lafond Bay Explained

Coordinates:-63.45°N -68°W
Type:Bay
Pushpin Map:Antarctica

Lafond Bay (-63.45°N -68°W) is a bay, wide, which lies south of the Cockerell Peninsula, Trinity Peninsula, Antarctica.

Location

Lafond Bay is in Graham Land on the north coast of the Trinity Peninsula, which forms the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula. It is east of Bone Bay and west of Huon Bay, from which it is separated by the Cockerell Peninsula and Cape Ducorps.It is southeast of Astrolabe Island, in the Bransfield Strait.The Louis Philippe Plateau is to the south and the Laclavère Plateau is to the southeast.

Exporation and name

The bay was surveyed by the Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey (FIDS; 1960–61), and was named by the UK Antarctic Place-Names Committee (UK-APC) after Lieutenant Pierre Lafond, a French naval officer on the Astrolabe during her Antarctic voyage (1837–40).

Features

Cockerell Peninsula

-63.4°N -66°W. An ice-covered, bulb-shaped peninsula between Lafond Bay and Huon Bay on the north coast of Trinity Peninsula. Discovered by the French Antarctic Expedition, 1837-40, under Captain Jules Dumont d'Urville. Named in 1977 by the UK-APC after Sir Christopher (Sydney) Cockerell, British pioneer of the hovercraft.

Cape Ducorps

-63.3833°N -67°W. A point marking the north end of Cockerell Peninsula on the north coast of Trinity Peninsula. Discovered by a French expedition, 1837-40, under Captain Jules Dumont d'Urville, and named by him for Louis Ducorps, a member of the expedition.

Sestrimo Glacier

-63.5°N -66°W. The long and wide glacier on Trinity Peninsula east of Mount D'Urville. Flowing northwards to enter Bransfield Strait at Lafond Bay. Named after the settlement of Sestrimo in Southern Bulgaria.

Nearby features

Peralta Rocks

-63.2667°N -66°W. A group of about eight small rocks covering an area 4by, lying N of Cape Ducorps. Named by the Chilean Antarctic Expedition, 1949-50, for Lt. Roberto Peralta Bell, second-in-command of the oil tanker Lientur.

Tupinier Islands

See main article: Tupinier Islands. -63.3667°N -74°W. Group of pyramid-shaped islands lying off the north coast of Trinity Peninsula, about west of Cape Ducorps. Discovered by the French expedition under Captain Jules Dumont d'Urville, 1837-40, and named after the Baron Tupinier (1779-1850), an official of the French Navy Dept. who was instrumental in obtaining government support for the expedition. The islands were recharted by the FIDS, 1946.

Molina Rocks

-63.3667°N -85°W. A small group of rocks west of Tupinier Islands. The name appears on a Chilean government chart of 1951.

Sources