COMPOSITE GAZETTEER OF ANTARCTICA

Continental block lying almost entirely S of the Antarctic Circle and including the offshore islands within the margin of the continental shelf, but excluding South Orkney Islands, South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands. Name was first advocated in 1886 by GBR (USA gaz. 1956; APC, 1981). In December 1959 Article VI of the Antarctic Treaty applied the provisions of the Treaty to the area S of lat.60°S The Treaty refers frequently to Antarctica but does not define the name The Australian Antarctica Act, 1960; the New Zealand Antarctic Treaty Act, 1960; and the United Kingdom Antarctic Treaty Order in Council, 1961, define Antarctica, for the purposes of the Acts and the Order respectively, as the area S of lat 60°S, including all ice shelves, but not including the high seas within that area. These instruments made provision for the implementation of certain clauses of the Treaty; they followed the language of the Treaty and it was not intended to alter the definition of Antarctica that had long been accepted in British official publications (APC, 1982, p.3). For further information see British Antarctic Territory Gazetteer.

The Antarctic continent, together with the islands rising from the continental block, centering roughly on the South Pole and lying almost wholly within the Antarctic Circle. It has an area of about 5.5 million square miles. Antarctica is a relatively high and compact mass and is snow covered except for some coastal areas and the protruding peaks of mountains and mountain ranges. The first sighting of Antarctica is contested but apparently occurred in the 1820's. The term Antarctic has been applied to the southern polar regions of Earth, and Antarctica to the continent, by analogy with the term Arctic, applied to the northern polar regions.

A narrow marine inlet about 12km long, between Mule Peninsula and Broad Peninsula in the Vestfold Hills on the Ingrid Christensen Coast. It extends from McLean Point to Ellis Rapids where there is a distinct change in elevation separating the marine and freshwater