Mount Falconer

Mount Falconer (-77.58333°N, 163.13333°W) is a mountain, 810 m high, surmounting Lake Fryxell on the north wall of Taylor Valley, between Mount McLennan and Commonwealth Glacier in Antarctica. It was named by the Western Journey Party, led by Thomas Griffith Taylor, of the British Antarctic Expedition, 1910–13.

Location
Mount Falconer is in the southeast of the Asgard Range. The Commonwealth Glacier forms to its north and flows east and then south into the Taylor Valley. Lake Fryxell in the Taylor Valley is to the south of the mountain, and Canada Glacier flows southeast into Taylor Valley to the west of Mount Falconer. Mount McLennan is to the northwest.



Features
Named features include, from west to east:

Perk Summit
-77.57926°N, 162.90596°W. A mountain peak, 1,750 m high, that is the highest elevation on the ridge between Mount McLennan and Mount Keohane. Named by the United States Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names (US-ACAN) (1997) after Henry Perk, Chief Pilot, Kenn Borek Air, Ltd., Calgary, Canada, who has flown Twin Otter aircraft in the McMurdo Sound region and in many remote parts of the continent in direct support of the United States Antarctic Program from 1989.

Mount Keohane
-77.59127°N, 162.99974°W. A peak immediately northwest of Lake Fryxell, rising to 1,250 m high between Canada Glacier and Huey Gully on the north side of Taylor Valley. Named in 1997 by US-ACAN after Petty Officer Patrick Keohane, R.N., of the British Antarctic Expedition (BrAE), 1910-13. Keohane was a member of Robert Falcon Scott's South Pole Journey Support Party that reached the Upper Glacier Depot on Beardmore Glacier before returning to headquarters on Cape Evans.

Huey Gully
-77.58185°N, 163.02188°W. A high, deeply incised gully between Mount Keohane and Mount Falconer in the north wall of Taylor Valley. Containing some glacial ice from Commonwealth Glacier, the gully provides meltwater to Huey Creek, which descends south to Lake Fryxell, Taylor Valley. Named by US-ACAN in 1997.

Scholars Peak
-77.58105°N, 163.08327°W. A peak rising to 750 m high 0.5 mile west of Mount Falconer. The peak stands at the southwest end of Tarn Valley and was named by New Zealand Geographic Board (NZGB) (1998) in association with the prominent universities for which nearby tarns are named.

Tarn Valley
-77.57224°N, 163.13661°W. An elevated ice-free valley, 1.5 nmi long, containing four tarns named after American universities, Yale, Harvard, Princeton, and Penn (Pennsylvania), located at the north side of lower Taylor Valley, north of Mount Falconer. This valley was visited in the 1965-66 field season by Victoria University of Wellington Antarctic Expedition (VUWAE) (Edward D. Ghent, leader) which named the tarns. The valley was named in association with the tarns by Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names (US-ACAN) in 1997.

Princeton Tarn
-77.57801°N, 163.11214°W. A tarn at the northwest side of Mount Falconer and 0.1 nmi south of Penn Tarn in the southwest part of Tarn Valley. The feature is one of four tarns in the valley named after American universities by the VUWAE 1965-66.

Penn Tarn
-77.57422°N, 163.11976°W. A tarn 0.1 nmi north of Princeton Tarn in the southwest part of Tarn Valley. The feature is one of four tarns in the valley named by the VUWAE, 1965-66, after American universities. Penn is a colloquial form of reference to the University of Pennsylvania.

Harvard Tarn
-77.57055°N, 163.14584°W. A tarn 0.2 nmi southwest of Yale Tarn in central Tarn Valley. The feature is one of four tarns in the valley named after American universities by the VUWAE, 1965-66.

Yale Tarn
-77.57055°N, 163.14584°W. A tarn 0.2 nmi southwest of Yale Tarn in central Tarn Valley. The feature is one of four tarns in the valley named after American universities by the VUWAE, 1965-66.

Ghent Ridge
-77.56886°N, 163.12145°W. A ridge that parallels the south flank of Commonwealth Glacier, 0.5 nmi north of Mount Falconer. The VUWAE 1965-66, called this feature "Smith Ridge," presumably after I. Smith, a member of the VUWAE field party, but that toponym is already in use for other features. It is therefore recommended that it not be approved and that this ridge be named after Edward D. Ghent, leader of the 1965-66 VUWAE, later with the Department of Geology, University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

Henderson Hill
-77.57257°N, 163.19071°W. An ice free summit 0.8 nmi northeast of Mount Falconer, rising to 700 m high on the north side of Taylor Valley. The name Henderson Hill appears in a 1968 report and geologic sketch map of the area prepared by the VUWAE, 1965-66, and is presumably named after Robert A. Henderson, a member of the VUWAE field party, later with the Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts.