Part 47Antarctic specially protected area No. 147

Part 47 Antarctic specially protected area No. 147

  Ablation Valley-Ganymede Heights, Alexander Island.

  Latitude 70 45 S to 70 55 S, longitude 68 21 W to 68 40 W.

  Ablation Valley-Ganymede Heights (between latitudes 70° 45 S and 70° 55 S and longitudes 68° 21 W and 68° 40 W, approximately 180 km2) is situated on the east side of Alexander Island, the largest island off the western coast of Palmer Land, Antarctic Peninsula. The Area has a central west-east extent of about 10 km and a north-south extent of about 18 km, flanked to the west by the upper part of Jupiter Glacier, to the east by the permanent ice shelf in George VI Sound, to the north by Grotto Glacier and to the south by the lower reaches of Jupiter Glacier.

  The designated Area comprises the entire Ablation Valley-Ganymede Heights massif, bounded in the west by the principal ridge dividing Jupiter Glacier from the main Ablation-Moutonnée-Flatiron valleys. In the east, the boundary is defined by the western margin of George VI Ice Shelf. The northern boundary of the Area is defined as the principal ridge dividing Grotto Glacier from Erratic Valley and other tributary valleys feeding into Ablation Valley, immediately to the south. In the north-west of the Area, the boundary extends across the mostly-glaciated col separating upper Jupiter Glacier from Ablation Valley. The southern boundary of the Area, from east of the principal ridge on the west side of Flatiron Valley to where Jupiter Glacier joins George VI Ice Shelf, is defined as the northern lateral margin of Jupiter Glacier. As the margin between Ablation Lake and George VI Ice Shelf is in places indistinct, the eastern boundary of the Area at Ablation Valley is defined as a straight line extending due south from the eastern extremity of Ablation Point to where the ice shelf abuts land, and from where the eastern boundary follows the land/ice shelf margin. The physiography is similar further south at Moutonnée Lake, and the eastern boundary in this locality is defined as a straight line extending from the eastern extremity of the point on the northern side of (and partially enclosing) Moutonnée Lake to the locality of a prominent meltwater pool where the ice shelf abuts land, and from where the boundary follows the land/ice shelf margin south to where Jupiter Glacier and George VI Ice Shelf adjoin. The Area thus includes the entirety of Ablation and Moutonnée lakes and those parts of the ice shelf behind which they are impounded.

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