Marie Byrd Land
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Marie Byrd Land is the portion of Antarctica lying east of the Ross Ice Shelf and the Ross Sea and south of the Pacific Ocean, extending eastward approximately to a line between the head of the Ross Ice Shelf and Eights Coast. It stretches between 158°W and 103°24'W. The inclusion of the area between the Rockefeller Plateau and Eights Coast is based upon the leading role of Rear Admiral Richard E. Byrd in the exploration of this area. The name was originally applied by Admiral Byrd in 1929, in honor of his wife, to the northwestern part of the area, the part that was explored in that year. Due to its remotness, even by Antarctic standards, most of Marie Byrd Land (the portion east of 150°W) has not been claimed by any sovereign nation, making it by far the largest single unclaimed territory on Earth, with an area of 1 610 000 km². The portion west of 150°W is part of Ross Dependency.
Five coastal areas are distinguished:
| No. | Sector | Western Border | Eastern Border |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Saunders Coast | 158°00'W | 146°31'W |
| 2 | Ruppert Coast | 146°31'W | 136°50'W |
| 3 | Hobbs Coast | 136°50'W | 127°35'W |
| 4 | Bakutis Coast | 127°35'W | 114°12'W |
| 5 | Walgreen Coast | 114°12'W | 103°24'W |
| Marie Byrd Land | 158°00'W | 103°24'W |
[edit] Exploration
While the Amundsen Sea, off eastern Marie Byrd Land represented James Cook's farthest south position on his 1774 Resolution voyage, the detailed exploration of Marie Byrd Land did not begin until the United States Navy's Operation High Jump of 1946-47. Comprehensive aerial photography from ski equipped C-47 aircraft provided the first maps of much of Marie Byrd Land.
[edit] Occupation
Marie Byrd Land formerly hosted the Operation Deep Freeze base Byrd Station (NBY), beginning in 1957. Byrd Station was the only major base in the interior of West Antarctica. In 1968, the first ice core to fully penetrate the Antarctic Ice Sheet was drilled here. The year-round station was abandoned in 1972, although many years a temporary summer encampment, Byrd Surface Camp, is opened by the USAP to support operations in northern West Antarctica.
Byrd Station provided a template for the doomed Antarctic base in the horror movie John Carpenter's The Thing.
In 1998-99, a camp was operated at the Ford Ranges (FRD) in western Marie Byrd Land, supporting a part of a USAP airborne survey intiatated by UCSB and operated by the University of Texas Institute for Geophysics.
In 2004-05, a large camp, Thwaites (THW) was established by the USAP 150 km north of NBY, in order to support a large airborne geophysical survey of eastern Marie Byrd Land by the University of Texas Institute for Geophysics.
In 2006, a major encampment, WAIS Divide (WSD) was established on the divide between the Ross Sea Embayment and the Amundsen Sea Embayment, in easternmost Marie Byrd Land, in order to drill a high resolution ice core over the following three years.
