Vestfold Hills Explained

The Vestfold Hills are rounded, rocky, coastal hills, 512km2 in extent,^{[1] [2]} on the north side of Sorsdal Glacier on the Ingrid Christensen Coast of Princess Elizabeth Land, Antarctica. The hills are subdivided by three west-trending peninsulas bounded by narrow fjords. Most of the hills range between 30and in height, with the highest summit reaching nearly 160m (530feet).

Geography

The Vestfold Hills are largely snow- and ice-free and are thus classified as an Antarctic oasis. They contain a great variety of lake systems with over 300 lakes and ponds^[3] including what is possibly the largest concentration of meromictic (stratified) lakes in the world.^[4] This region contains 37 permanently stratified water bodies,^[5] including six marine basins and seven seasonally isolated marine basins (SIMBs). These stratified basins also have great variety. They range in salinity from 4 g L⁻¹ to 235 g L⁻¹, in temperature from -14to, in depth from 5mto110mm (16feetto360feetm), in area from 3.6ha146ha and surface level from 30m (100feet) below to 29m (95feet) above sea level. The region contains a large lake, Lake Burton, as well as the smaller Krok Lake and Camp Lake.

History and naming

The Vestfold Hills were discovered, and a landing was made in the northern portion, on February 20, 1935, by Captain Klarius Mikkelsen together with his wife and seven crew members (including the ship's dentist, Lief Sørsdal) of the Norwegian whaling ship "Thorshavn" sent out by Lars Christensen. Caroline Mikkelsen, thereby became the first woman to set foot on the Antarctic continent.

The Vestfold Hills are named after Vestfold, a county in Norway where Sandefjord, headquarters of the whaling industry, is located. This hill area and its off-lying islands were mapped from air photos taken by the Lars Christensen Expedition (1936–37). Further brief landings were made by Lincoln Ellsworth and several claims were made by Hubert Wilkins in 1939. The area was photographed from the air by USN Operation Highjump (1946–47). Landings were made and exploration carried out in 1954 and 1955 by ANARE (Australian National Antarctic Research Expeditions) led by Phillip Law. Davis Station was established by ANARE in January 1957.^[6]

Further reading

• Beau Riffenburgh, Encyclopedia of the Antarctic, Volume 1, P 680
• Johanna Laybourn-Parry, Jemma L. Wadham, Antarctic Lakes, PP 92 - 93
• DAMIAN B. GORE, I. SNAPE and M.R. LEISHMAN, Glacial sediment provenance, dispersal and deposition, Vestfold Hills, East Antarctica, Antarctic Science 15 (2): 259–269 (2003), DOI: 10.1017/S0954102003001263
• BROLSMA, HENK, Survey Report Vestfold Hills, Australian Antarctic Territory 1984-85, 1985-86 summer season, Australian Antarctic Data Centre
• P.H.G.M.Dirks, J.D.Hoek, C.J.L.Wilson, J.Sims, The Proterozoic deformation of the Vestfold Hills Block, East Antarctica: implications for the tectonic development of adjacent granulite belts, https://doi.org/10.1016/0301-9268(94)90109-0
• Kirkwood, J.M., Burton, H.R., Macrobenthic species assemblages in Ellis Fjord, Vestfold Hills, Antarctica, Mar. Biol. 97, 445–457 (1988). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00397776
• Gibson, J. (1999), The role of ice in determining mixing intensity in Ellis Fjord, Vestfold Hills, East Antarctica, Antarctic Science, 11(4), 419-426. https://doi.org/10.1017/S095410209900053X
• Australian Antarctic Division, Locations of samples from Organic Lake, Deep Lake and Ellis Fjord in the Vestfold Hills, Antarctica, Dataset

External links

• Vestfold Hills on USGS website
• Vestfold Hills on AADC website
• Vestfold Hills on SCAR website
• Visiting Vestfold Hills
• Vimeo video of Vestfold Hills

References

-68.55°N 93°W

Notes and References

1. Web site: Vestfold Hills . Australian Antarctic Data Centre . 24 November 2023.
2. 22 September 2021 . Management Plan for Antarctic Specially Protected Area No. 167: Hawker Island, Vestfold Hills, Ingrid Christensen Coast, Princess Elizabeth Land, East Antarctica . Secretariat of the Antarctic Treaty . 24 November 2023.
3. Swadling . K. M. . Herbert J. G. . Dartnall . John A. E. . Gibson . Émilie . Saulnier-Talbot . Warwick F. . Vincent . 1 . Fossil Rotifers and the Early Colonization of an Antarctic Lake . . 55 . 3 . 380–384 . 2001 . 10.1006/qres.2001.2222 . 129513915 .
4. Gibson . John A. E. . The meromictic lakes and stratified marine basins of the Vestfold Hills, East Antarctica . . 11 . 2 . 175–92 . 1999 . 10.1017/S0954102099000243 . 129631579 .
5. Cavicchioli . Ricardo . Cold-adapted archaea . . 4 . 319–43 . 2006 . 5 . 10.1038/nrmicro1390 . 16715049 . 35226669 .
6. https://www.antarctica.gov.au/about-antarctica/history/stations/davis/ Davis Station: A brief history