Eklund Islands

The Eklund Islands are a group of islands and ice-rises pushing through the ice of the in George VI Ice Shelf near the south-west end of George VI Sound towards the south of Palmer Land in the British Antarctic Territory. They are part of the English Coast of Palmer Land.

The largest island, 5 nautical miles in extent and rising to 1,345 feet, was discovered in December 1940 by Finn Ronne and Carl R. Eklund of the United States Antarctic Service during their 1,097-mile sledge journey south from Stonington Island to the southwest part of George VI Sound and return.

The islands are named after Eklund, the ornithologist and assistant biologist of the Ronne expedition. Ronne gave the name to the largest island, which was the only land protruding above an area of hummocky ice.

V. E. Fuchs and R. J. Adie of the Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey sledged to the southwest part of George VI Sound in 1949, at which time, because of a recession of the ice in the sound, they were able to determine that the island discovered by Ronne and Eklund is the largest of a group of mainly ice-covered islands. On the basis of the original discovery, the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names recommends that the name Eklund be applied to the island group rather than the single island discovered by Ronne and Eklund.

Location

• Location map: 73°12’12"S, 71°50’18"W

References

• Gazetteer and Map of The British Antarctic Territory: Eklund Islands