George VI Sound

The Creswick Peaks across the George VI Sound

George VI Sound or King George VI Sound is a long sea strait in the British Antarctic Territory separating the mainland of Palmer Land (the southern part of the Antarctic Peninsula) from Alexander Island. As the greater part of the sound is permanently covered in ice, its northern end is more in the nature of a bay wahen ice-free.

The sound is formed by a geological fault.

The George VI Sound is 300 miles long and in the shape of the letter J, skirting the east and south shores of Alexander Island, separating it from Palmer Land, with the island to the west and the English Coast of Palmer Land to the east. Various lakes are found adjacent to the sound, which lakes receive large amounts of ice flowing from George VI Ice Shelf into the mouth of these lakes. These include Hodgson Lake, Moutonnee Lake and Ablation Lake.

Several glaciers also flow eastward into the sound from the east interior of Alexander Island: the vast majority of these glaciers are situated south of Planet Heights, where all of these glaciers are named after moons, satellites and planets of the solar system (by association with nearby Planet Heights, named by the United Kingdom Antarctic Place-Names Committee in 1977).

The sound and Alexnder Island

The Sound is largely covered by the George VI Ice Shelf whose ice varies from about 15 miles to more than 40 miles wide.

The George VI Sound was discovered by Lincoln Ellsworth who flew over it in 1935. It was explored by the British Graham Land Expedition in 1936-1937 and by the United States Antarctic Service in 1940. It was named by John Riddoch Rymill, leader of the British Graham Land Expedition, for King George VI, who came to the throne in the year of the expedition of 1936.

Location

• Location map:71°0’0"S, 68°0’0"W

See also

• George VI Ice Shelf
• Alexander Island