Queen Elizabeth Land
| Queen Elizabeth Land | |
|---|---|
| Coordinates: 84°S 49°W / 84°S 49°WCoordinates: 84°S 49°W / 84°S 49°W | |
| Continent | Antarctica |
| Area | |
| • Total | 437,000 km2 (169,000 sq mi) |
Queen Elizabeth Land is a portion of mainland Antarctica named by the government of the United Kingdom and claimed as part of the British Antarctic Territory, which is the largest of the 14 British Overseas Territories. Situated south of Weddell Sea and between longitudes 20°W and 80°W, stretching from Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf to the South Pole. That territory was unnamed until 2012, though most of it was unofficially known as Edith Ronne Land in 1947–68 and includes areas claimed by the United Kingdom, Chile and Argentina.
On the occasion of a visit by Queen Elizabeth II to the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London on 18 December 2012, it was announced there that a 437,000-square-kilometre (169,000 sq mi) area of the British Antarctic Territory had been named Queen Elizabeth Land after The Queen. The Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, William Hague, said that the naming was "a fitting tribute at the end of Her Majesty's Diamond Jubilee year".
At 437,000 km2 (169,000 sq mi), Queen Elizabeth Land is nearly twice the size of the United Kingdom and is essentially a triangular segment of Antarctica, with one vertex at the South Pole. It is bounded on the North side by the Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf, to the North East by Coats Land, on the East by Queen Maud Land and extending on the West side to a line between the South Pole and Rutford Ice Stream, east of Constellation Inlet. The Pensacola Mountains, discovered in January 1956, run for some 450 km (280 mi) along a north-east to south-west line along the centre of the territory. The area's name will be included on all British maps.
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