COMPOSITE GAZETTEER OF ANTARCTICA

W side of Ronne Ice Shelf, between Fowler Peninsula and Fletcher Peninsula, with its upper reaches lying outside BAT, was seen from the air on a C-130 aircraft flight from McMurdo Sound to "Eights Station" across Ellsworth Mountains, 14-15 December 1961; mapped by USGS from US LANDSAT imagery of February 1974 and traversed by BAS on a radio echo-sounding flight from "Siple Station", Ellsworth Land, in January 1975; named after Lieut. (later Cdr) Ronald F. Carlson, USN, of Antarctic Development Squadron 6, commanding the aircraft on the 1961 flight (USGS satellite image map, Ellsworth Mountains, 1976; Swithinbank and others, 1976, p.296; Alberts, 1977, p.40; APC, 1980, p.3; BAS sheet Misc. 2, 1981).

An ice-filled inlet, 100 mi long and 25 mi wide, lying between Fletcher Ice Rise and Fowler Ice Rise in the SW part of Ronne Ice Shelf. Named by US-ACAN for Lt. Ronald F. Carlson, USN, pilot of R4D-8 and C-130 aircraft with Squadron VX-6, who made innumerable flights in support of IGY and USARP field parties in the 1950s and 1960s. On Dec. 14, 1961, he commanded a C-130 Hercules flight from McMurdo Station across the Ellsworth Mountains, during which he observed, photographed and roughly sketched this inlet.