The Denton Hills (78°05′00″S 163°55′00″E/78.0833333°S 163.9166667°E/ -78.0833333; 163.9166667(Denton Hills)) are a group of rugged foothills, 24 nautical miles (44 km; 28 mi) long southwest–northeast and 9 nautical miles (17 km; 10 mi) wide, to the east of the Royal Society Range on the Scott Coast, Victoria Land, Antarctica.

The Denton Hills comprise a series of eastward-trending ridges and valleys circumscribed by Howchin Glacier, Armitage Saddle, Blue Glacier, the coast, and Walcott Bay. The highest summits, Mount Kowalczyk at 1,703 metres (5,587 ft), and Goat Mountain at 1,634 metres (5,361 ft), rise from Hobbs Ridge in the northern part of the foothills. Elevations decrease southward as in Kahiwi Maihao Ridge, 1,045 metres (3,428 ft) high near the center of the group and the Xanadu Hills, 820 metres (2,690 ft) high at the southern end. The principal glaciers (Hobbs, Blackwelder, Salmon, Garwood, Joyce, Rivard, Miers, Adams, Ward) flow east but have receded, leaving several dry valleys.

Exploration

The Denton Hills were discovered and roughly mapped by the British National Antarctic Expedition, 1901–04, under Robert Falcon Scott. The hills were mapped in detail by United States Antarctic Research Program (USARP) and New Zealand Antarctic Research Programme (NZARP) personnel in the years following the International Geophysical Year, 1957–58.

Name

The hills were named by the United States Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names (US-ACAN; 1999) after Professor George H. Denton of the Department of Geological Sciences and the Institute for Quaternary Studies, University of Maine, who conducted geological research in the Transantarctic Mountains and Victoria Land (including work in these hills), 1958–99, making more than 25 visits to Antarctica. Denton Glacier is also named after him.

Major features

Denton Hills south of Blue Glacier, beside McMurdo Sound, in south of map
Denton Hill to the north of map, above Heald Island

Major features include, from north to south:

  • Keble Hills 77°59′39″S 164°08′53″E/77.994296°S 164.14803°E/ -77.994296; 164.14803(Keble Hills), an imposing line of granite hills rising to 1,300 metres (4,300 ft), including from west to east Murphy Peak, Handley Hill, Auger Hill and Coral Hill. The hills separate Salmon Glacier and Garwood Valley.
  • Péwé Peak 78°2′S 163°40′E/78.033°S 163.667°E/ -78.033; 163.667(Péwé Peak), a bedrock peak, 860 metres (2,820 ft) high, composed of granite and topped with a dolerite sill. The peak is immediately south of Joyce Glacier and is surrounded by glacial ice except on the south side.
  • Marshall Valley 78°4′S 164°12′E/78.067°S 164.200°E/ -78.067; 164.200(Marshall Valley), a small valley in Antarctica, ice free except for Rivard Glacier at its western head. It is 12.5 kilometres (7.8 mi) long, and 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) wide, and lies between Garwood Valley and Miers Valley.
  • Hidden Valley 78°10′S 163°52′E/78.167°S 163.867°E/ -78.167; 163.867(Hidden Valley), the ice-free valley next south of Miers Valley through which an alpine glacier formerly moved to coalesce with Koettlitz Glacier. The mouth of the valley is completely blocked by the Koettlitz moraine, the only one of the numerous valleys tributary to the Koettlitz isolated in this fashion. The main valley is hidden not only from the coast but from most of the surrounding ridges.

Sources

This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the United States Geological Survey.