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Queen Elizabeth Land

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File:Queen Elizabeth Land.jpg
Map of Queen Elizabeth Land in Antarctica

Queen Elizabeth Land is the portion of Antarctica situated south of Weddell Sea and between longitudes 20°W and 80°W, stretching from Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf to the South Pole. That territory was unnamed until 2012, though most of it was unofficially known as Edith Ronne Land in 1947–68.

History

The glacier flowing from the Pensacola Mountains onto the Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf

On the occasion of a visit by Her Majesty The Queen to the British Foreign Office in London on 18 December 2012, it was announced there that a 169,000 square mile (437,000 square km) area of the British Antarctic Territory had been named Queen Elizabeth Land after The Queen. The British Foreign Secretary, William Hague, said that the naming was "a fitting tribute at the end of Her Majesty's Diamond Jubilee year".

Description

At 169,000 square miles, Queen Elizabeth Land is nearly twice the size of the United Kingdom and is essentially a triangular segment of Antartica, with one vertex at the South Pole. It is bounded on the North side by the Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf, to the North East by Coats Land, on the East by Queen Maud Land and extending on the West side to a line between the South Pole and Rutford Ice Stream, east of Constellation Inlet. The Pensacola Mountains, discovered in January 1956, run for some 280 miles along a north-east to south-west line along the centre of the territory. The area's name will be included on all British maps.

Reaction

Argentina, whose Argentine Antarctica claim overlaps with the British Antarctic Territory, criticised the naming calling it a "systematic attack" and described it as "provocation" after recent tensions over Argentina's claim to the sovereignty of the British Overseas Territory, the Falkland Islands. Nevertheless, The Guardian pointed out that neither the United Kingdom nor Argentina (or Chile) have been able to gain global legal recognition for their territorial claims on the area.

See also

Notes

  1. Queen Elizabeth Land. SCAR Composite Antarctic Gazetteer.
  2. Ronne Ice Shelf. USGS Geographic Names Information System.
  3. ^ "UK to name part of Antarctica Queen Elizabeth Land". BBC News. BBC. 18 December 2012. Retrieved 18 December 2012.
  4. Queen Elizabeth Land, Foreign & Commonwealth Office. Retrieved 19 December 2012
  5. Rayner, Gordon (18 December 2012). "Part of Antarctica named 'Queen Elizabeth Land' as gift for Diamond Jubilee". The Telegraph. Retrieved 18 December 2012.
  6. Calder, Simon (18 December 2012). "So where exactly is Queen Elizabeth Land?". The Independent. Retrieved 18 December 2012.
  7. "Pensacola Mountains". Antarctica Detail. U.S. Geological Survey. Retrieved 19 December 2012.
  8. "Foreign Office risks diplomatic row with Argentina by naming part of Antarctica after the Queen". Telegraph. 18 December 2012. Retrieved 20 December 2012.
  9. Hannah Strange (20 December 2012). "Argentina fury as Britain names disputed Antarctic territory 'Queen Elizabeth Land'". The Times. Retrieved 20 December 2012.
  10. "Antarctica: why has a bit of it been renamed Queen Elizabeth Land?". The Guardian. 19 December 2012. Retrieved 20 December 2012. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)

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