Minna Bluff
rocky promontory in Antarctica
Minna Bluff (78°31′S 166°25′E) is a narrow, bold peninsula, 25 nautical miles (46 km; 29 mi) long and 3 nautical miles (5.6 km; 3.5 mi) wide, projecting southeast from Mount Discovery into the Ross Ice Shelf, Antarctica. It was discovered by the British National Antarctic Expedition (1901-04) which named it for Minna, the wife of Sir Clements Markham, the "father" of the expedition.
It culminates in a south-pointing hook feature (Minna Hook), and is the subject of research into Antarctic cryosphere history, funded by the National Science Foundation, Office of Polar Programs.
Exploration and naming
The bluff is mentioned repeatedly in the history of Antarctic exploration.
It was first sighted in June 1902, during Captain Robert Falcon Scott's Discovery Expedition, 1901–04.
It was thereafter recognised as a key landmark and location for vital supply depots for southern journeys towards the South Pole. Originally identified simply as "the Bluff", it was later named by Scott after the wife of Royal Geographical Society former president Sir Clements Markham.
Every expedition that followed Scott on this route after his pioneering journey (including Ernest Shackleton in 1908, Scott himself in 1911 and Shackleton's Ross Sea party in 1914-16) used Minna Bluff to position depots and as a critical marker to guide homeward journeys. Because of the state of the ice in its immediate vicinity, the polar route was established some 20 miles (32 km) to its east, depots being laid on this route within sight of the Bluff.
The researches of George Simpson, meteorologist on Scott's Terra Nova Expedition established that Minna Bluff has an effect on polar weather.
The public source identifies “Minna Bluff” as rocky promontory in Antarctica. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Minna, Bluff and rocky.
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This entry incorporates text from “Minna Bluff” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.