70°35′S 7°51′W / 70.583°S 7.850°W / -70.583; -7.850

Icebreaker RV Polarstern in Atka Bay, serving Germany's Neumayer-Station III

Atka Iceport, also known as Atka Bay, is an iceport about 10 miles (16 km) long and wide, marking a more-or-less permanent indentation in the front of the Ekstrom Ice Shelf on the coast of Queen Maud Land.

Discovery and naming

Atka Iceport was mapped in detail by Norwegian cartographers from surveys and air photographs taken by the Norwegian-British-Swedish Antarctic Expedition (1949-1952), led by John Schjelderup Giæver. It was named by personnel of the USS Atka, under U.S. Navy Commander Glen Jacobsen, which moored here in February 1955 while investigating possible base sites for International Geophysical Year operations.[1]

Station

Atka Bay is the site of Germany's Neumayer-Station III.

Important Bird Area

A 425 ha tract of sea ice in the bay has been identified as an Important Bird Area by BirdLife International because it supports a breeding colony of about 12,000 emperor penguins.[2]

See also

References

  1. ↑ U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Atka Iceport
  2. ↑ "Atka Iceport". BirdLife Data Zone. BirdLife International. 2015. Retrieved 24 October 2020.


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