Map of Antarctica

Marie Byrd Land is the portion of Antarctica lying east of the Ross Ice Shelf and the Ross Sea and south of the Pacific Ocean, extending eastward approximately to a line between the head of the Ross Ice Shelf and Eights Coast. The inclusion of the area between the Rockefeller Plateau and Eights Coast is based upon the leading role of Rear Admiral Richard E. Byrd in the exploration of this area. The name was originally applied by Admiral Byrd in 1929, in honor of his wife, to the northwestern part of the area, the part that was explored in that year. Due to its remotness, even by Antarctic standards, most of Marie Byrd Land has not been claimed by any sovereign nation, making it by far the largest single unclaimed territory on Earth. Image File history File links Download high resolution version (502x617, 16 KB) File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (502x617, 16 KB) File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Ross Ice Shelf in 1997 Ross Ice Shelf with Royal Society Range in the background, 1999 (NOAA) The Ross Ice Shelf (81°30′S 175°00′W) is the largest ice shelf of Antarctica (an area of half a million square kilometres, and about 800 km across: about the size... Map of Antarctica (click to enlarge) Ice in the Ross Sea, Antarctica The Ross Sea is a deep bay of the Southern Ocean in Antarctica between Victoria Land and Marie Byrd Land. ... Rear Admiral Richard Evelyn Byrd, USN (October 25, 1888 – March 11, 1957) was a pioneering American polar explorer and famous aviator. ... ... One of the most influential doctrines in history is that all humans are divided into groups called nations. ... A territory is a defined area (including land and waters), usually considered to be a possession of an animal, person, organization, or institution. ... Earth, also known as Terra, and Tellus mostly in the 19th century, is the third-closest planet to the Sun. ...

Exploration

While the Amundsen Sea, off eastern Marie Byrd Land represented James Cook's farthest south position on his 1774 Resolution voyage, the detailed exploration of Marie Byrd Land did not begin until the United States Navy's Operation High Jump of 1946-47. Comprehensive aerial photography frrom ski equiped C-47 aircraft provided the first maps of much of Marie Byrd Land. The Amundsen Sea, named for Norwegian polar explorer Roald Amundsen, is an arm of the Southern Ocean off Marie Byrd Land in western Antarctica. ... James Cook, portrait by Nathaniel Dance, c. ... The word resolution has several meanings, depending on context. ... The United States Navy (USN) is the branch of the United States armed forces responsible for naval operations. ... Douglas DC-3 VH-AES at Avalon in 2003. ...

Occupation

Marie Byrd Land formerly hosted the Operation Deep Freeze base Byrd Station (NBY), begining in 1957. Byrd Station was the only major base in the interior of West Antarctica. In 1968, the first ice core to fully penetrate the Antarctic Ice Sheet was drilled here. The year-round station was abandoned in 1972, although many years a temporary summer encampment, Byrd Surface Camp, is opened by the USAP to support operations in northern West Antartica. Categories: Stub | United States | Antarctica ...

Byrd Station provided a template for the doomed Antarctic base in the horror movie John Carpenter's The Thing.

In 1998-99, a camp was operated at the Ford Ranges (FRD) in western Marie Byrd Land, supporting a part of a USAP airborne survey intiatated by UCSB and operated by the University of Texas Institute for Geophysics.

In 2004-05, a large camp, Thwaites (THW) was established by the USAP 150 km north of NBY, in order to support a large airborne geophysical survey of eastern Marie Byrd Land by the University of Texas Institute for Geophysics.

In 2006, a major encampment, WAIS Divide (WSD) was established on the divide between the Ross Sea Embayment and the Amundsen Sea Embayment, in easternmost Marie Byrd Land, in order to drill a high resolution ice core over the following three years. Ice Core sample taken from drill. ...