Murray Snowfield

The Murray Snowfield is a snowfield in the north of South Georgia, centred two nautical miles south of Possession Bay.

The Second German Antarctic Expedition of 1911–12 under Wilhelm Filchner gave the name "John Murray-Gletscher" ('John Murray Glacier') to a glacier flowing into the head of Possession Bay, probably after Sir John Murray (1841-1914), British marine biologist and oceanographer, and the naturalist in HMS Challenger 1872-76 . However, in 1955-56 the South Georgia Survey reported that there is no true glacier in this position, but that the nearby snowfield required a name, so they adopted Murray's name for the snowfield.

In May 1916, Shackleton and his party crossed the snowfield then without a name) and from here Possession Bay.

Location

• Location map: 54°8’60"S, 37°9’3"W

References

• Gazetteer and Map of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands: Murray Snowfield