Peacock Sound

Peacock Sound is an ice-filled sound, 216 kilometres (134 mi) long and 64 km (40 mi) wide, separating Thurston Island from the Eights Coast of Ellsworth Land in Antarctica. The sound is occupied by the western part of the Abbot Ice Shelf, and is therefore not navigable by ships.

Peacock Sound is located in Antarctica
Peacock Sound
Peacock Sound
Location of Peacock Sound in Antarctica

The feature was discovered by members of the United States Antarctic Program in flights from the ship USS Bear in February 1940, and was further delineated from air photos taken by US Navy Operation HIGHJUMP in December 1946. The sound was first noted to parallel the entire south coast of Thurston Island, thereby establishing insularity, by the USN Bellingshausen Sea Expedition in February 1960. Named after the sloop-of-war USS Peacock in which Captain William L. Hudson, in company with the tender USS Flying Fish under Lt. William M. Walker, both of the United States Exploring Expedition, 1838–42, sailed along the edge of the pack ice to the north of Thurston Island for several days in March 1839.

Further reading
  • Defense Mapping Agency 1992, Sailing Directions (planning Guide) and (enroute) for Antarctica, P 382
  • Andrew J. Hund, Antarctica and the Arctic Circle: A Geographic Encyclopedia of the Earth's Polar Regions, P 374
  • M.J. Hambrey, P.F. Barker, P.J. Barrett, V. Bowman, B. Davies, J.L. Smellie, M. Trantern, Antarctic Palaeoenvironments and Earth-Surface Processes, P 242
  • Gohl, K. (2010): Tectonics and ice sheet dynamics of West Antarctic margins, EGU General Assembly, ViennaMay .
  • Gohl, K., D. Teterin, G. Eagles, G. Netzeband, J. W. G. Grobys, N. Parsiegla, P. Schlüter, V. Leinweber, R. D. Larter, G. UenzelmannNeben, and G. B. Udintsev (2007), Geophysical survey reveals tectonic structures in the Amundsen Sea embayment, West Antarctica, in Antarctica: A Keystone in a Changing World – Online Proceedings of the 10th ISAES, edited by A. K. Cooper and C. R. Raymond et al., USGS Open-File Report 2007–1047, Short Research Paper 047, 4 p.; doi:10.3133/of2007-1047.srp047
  • Katharina Hochmuth and Karsten Gohl, Glaciomarine sedimentation dynamics of the Abbot glacial trough of the Amundsen Sea Embayment shelf, West Antarctica, Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 381, 233–244, 24 July 2013, doi:10.1144/SP381.21

References

72°47′S 99°05′W


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