Queen Elizabeth Land
Queen Elizabeth Land is part of the British Antarctic Territory on the continent of Antactica, defined as follows:
- Queen Elizabeth Land is bounded:
- on the North side by the Ronne and Filchner ice shelves,
- to the North East by Coats Land,
- on the East by Dronning Maud Land (the Norwegian Antarctic Territory) and
- extending on the West side to a line between the South Pole and Rutford Ice Stream, east of Constellation Inlet.[1]
Queen Elizabeth Land is around 169,000 square miles, making up just under a third of the whole land mass of the British Antarctic Territory. It is almost twice the size of the UK, which stands at 94,000 square miles.[1]
Name
This part of the territory was unnamed until 18 December 2012, when it was given a name in honour of the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II in 2012, celebrating 60 years of Her Majesty's reign. The name was announced during Her Majesty's visit to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office on that day; her last official engagment for the Jubilee.
The United Kingdom claimed territory in Antarctica in 1908, and the British Antarctic Territory was created as a discrete territory in 1962 during Her Majesty's reign, which has thus extended over the whole lifetime of the territory so far and over 60 of the 104 years since the Antarctic was annexed.
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Press Release: Queen Elizabeth Land - Foreign and Commonwealth Office
