Dorsey Island

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Dorsey Island

Alexander Island Group
(British Antarctic Territory)

Location

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Location: 70°21’21"S, 71°36’8"W
Highest point: Mount Snell, 1,640 feet
Data

Dorsey Island is a mainly ice-covered island, 12 nautical miles long, lying in Wilkins Sound, and within the Wilkins Ice Shelf, off the west coast of Alexander Island, in the British Antarctic Territory.

The highest point of the island is Mount Snell which rises to about 1,640 feet.

The island was discovered and roughly mapped from aircraft by members of East Base of the United States Antarctic Service, 1939–41, and was named after Herbert G. Dorsey, Jr., of the U.S. Weather Bureau, a meteorologist at East Base who devised a method of predicting with exceptional accuracy the periods in which weather would be suitable for flying.

The island was remapped in 1960 by D. Searle of the Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey in 1960, from air photos taken by the Ronne Antarctic Research Expedition of 1947–1948. The position of the island and its outline were corrected from Landsat imagery of 1973–75 and 1979.

References

  • Gazetteer and Map of The British Antarctic Territory: Dorsey Island