Mount Elkins

Mount Elkins
Map of Antarctica indicating location of Mount Elkins
Highest point
Elevation	2,300 m (7,500 ft)
Coordinates	66°39′S 54°08′E / 66.650°S 54.133°E / -66.650; 54.133Coordinates: 66°39′S 54°08′E / 66.650°S 54.133°E / -66.650; 54.133
Geography
Location	Enderby Land, Australian Antarctic Territory, East Antarctica
Parent range	Napier Mountains
Geology
Age of rock	2837 million years (Archean eon)
Mountain type	Metamorphic
Climbing
First ascent	1960, by a survey party from Mawson Station which included Terence James Elkins, Sydney L. Kirkby, and Neville Joseph Collins
Easiest route	basic snow/ice climb

Mount Elkins, also known as Jökelen (which means "The Glacier") is a dark, steep-sided mountain with three major peaks, the highest 2,300 meters (7,500 ft) above sea level, in the Napier Mountains of Enderby Land. Enderby Land is part of the Australian Antarctic Territory, in East Antarctica. The mountain was named after Terence James Elkins, an ionospheric physicist with the Australian National Antarctic Research Expeditions at Mawson Station in 1960.

Some notable geographic features in the general vicinity of Mount Elkins include Cape Batterbee (92 km to the north), the Young Nunataks (7.4 km to the south), Sørtoppen Nunatak (30 km to the east), the Newman Nunataks (26 km to the west), Mount McMaster (97 km to the west), and Mount Kjerringa (57 km to the northeast). The nearest permanently inhabited place is Mawson Station, an Australian research station to the southeast. Molodyozhnaya Station, a former Soviet research station which was mothballed in 1989, is located to the southwest of Mount Elkins.

Mount Elkins is the highest peak in the Napier Mountains. It is the second highest peak in Enderby Land, behind Mount McMaster, whose summit lies at 2830 metres above sea level.

Much of the East Antarctic craton was formed in the Precambrian period by a series of tectonothermal orogenic events. Napier orogeny formed the cratonic nucleus approximately 4 billion years ago. Mount Elkins is a classic example of Napier orogeny. Napier orogeny is characterized by high-grade metamorphism and plate tectonics. The orogenic events which resulted in the formation of the Napier Complex (including Mount Elkins) have been dated to the Archean Eon. Radiometrically dated to as old as 3.8 billion years, some of the zircons collected from the orthogneisses of the Napier Complex are among the oldest rock specimens found on Earth. Billions of years of erosion and tectonic deformation have exposed the metamorphic rock core of these ancient mountains.