Desko Mountains
Coordinates: 69°37′S 72°23′W / 69.617°S 72.383°W The Desko Mountains are a west-northwest–east-southeast mountain range on Rothschild Island, off northwest Alexander Island. The range spans 20 nautical miles (37 km) from Bates Peak to Overton Peak and rises to about 1,000 metres (3,300 ft) at Enigma Peak, Fournier Ridge.[1] Other mountains included are Goward Peak, Schenck Peak, Morrill Peak and Thuma Peak.[2][3] To the east lies Lazarev Bay, a rectangular bay that separates the east side of Rothschild Island from the north-west coast of Alexander Island.
The mountains were seen (in part) from a distance by F. Bellingshausen in 1821, and by Jean-Baptiste Charcot in 1909, but the nature of the feature remained obscure. The range was photographed from the air by U.S. Navy Operation Highjump and the Ronne Antarctic Research Expedition in 1947 and mapped from these air photographs by D. Searle of the Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey in 1960. The range was further defined in U.S. Navy air photographs, 1966, and Landsat imagery, 1975. It was named by the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names for Commander Daniel A. Desko, U.S. Navy, Commanding Officer, Squadron VXE-6, Operation Deep Freeze, 1977, and LC-130 aircraft commander, 1976.[1]
References
This article incorporates public domain material from the United States Geological Survey document "Desko Mountains" (content from the Geographic Names Information System).