Denton Hills

Denton Hills

The Denton Hills (78°5′S 163°55′E / 78.083°S 163.917°E / -78.083; 163.917) are a group of rugged foothills, 24 nautical miles (44 km) long SW-NE and 9 nautical miles (17 km) wide, to the east of Royal Society Range on Scott Coast, Victoria Land. The feature comprises a series of E-trending ridges and valleys circumscribed by Howchin Glacier, Armitage Saddle, Blue Glacier, the coast, and Walcott Bay. The highest summits, Mount Kowalczyk (1,703 m) and Goat Mountain (1,634 m) rise from Hobbs Ridge in the north part of the foothills. Elevations decrease southward as in Kahiwi Maihao Ridge (1,045 m) near the center of the group and Xanadu Hills (820 m) at the south end. The principal glaciers (Hobbs, Blackwelder, Salmon, Garwood, Joyce, Rivard, Miers, Adams, Ward) flow east but have receded, leaving several dry valleys.

The Denton Hills were discovered and roughly mapped by the Discovery expedition, 1901–04, under R.F. Scott. The hills were mapped in detail by United States Antarctic Research Program (USARP) and New Zealand Antarctic Research Program (NZARP) personnel in the years following the IGY, 1957-58.

The hills were named by the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names (US-ACAN) (1999) after Professor George H. Denton (Denton Glacier) of the Department of Geological Sciences and Institute for Quaternary Studies, University of Maine, Orono, 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.

 This article incorporates public domain material from the United States Geological Survey document "Denton Hills" (content from the Geographic Names Information System).