Piccard Cove

Piccard Cove (-64.75°N, -62.31667°W) is a cove forming the southernmost part of Wilhelmina Bay, along the west coast of Graham Land, Antarctica.

Location
Wilhelmina Bay is on the Danco Coast on the west side of the Antarctic Peninsula. Piccard Cove in the south of Wilhelmina Bay is bordered by the Arctowski Peninsula to the northwest and Forbidden Plateau to the northeast. To the north, Wilhelmina Bay opens into the Gerlache Strait.

Mapping and name
Piccard Cove was charted by the Belgian Antarctic Expedition (BelgAE) under Adrien de Gerlache, 1897–99. It was named by the UK Antarctic Place-Names Committee (UK-APC) in 1960 for Auguste Piccard, Swiss physicist, stratosphere pioneer who reached a height of 9.5 nmi in a hydrogen-filled balloon in 1931.

Features
Features, clockwise from the east, include

Sophie Cliff
-64.73333°N, -62.25°W. Conspicuous granite cliff at the east side of the entrance to Piccard Cove, Wilhelmina Bay, on the west coast of Graham Land. First charted and named by the BelgAE under Gerlache in 1898.

Balis Ridge
-64.77861°N, -62.14417°W. A rocky, partly ice-covered ridge extending 7 km in SE-NW direction, 1.9 km wide and rising to 1292 m high in the north foothills of Forbidden Plateau. Situated 5.55 km east of Bacho Kiro Peak, 5.34 km south-southwest of Pishtachev Peak. Surmounts Rozier Glacier to the northeast, Montgolfier Glacier to the sputhwest, and Wilhelmina Bay and its southwesterly part Piccard Cove to the northwest where the ridge ends in Sophie Cliff. Named after the Thracian god Balis.

Montgolfier Glacier
-64.78333°N, -62.25°W. Glacier flowing to Piccard Cove between Rozier and Woodbury Glaciers on the west coast of Graham Land. Mapped by the Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey (FIDS) from photos taken by Hunting Aerosurveys Ltd. in 1956-57. Named by the UK-APC in 1960 for the Montgolfier brothers, Joseph M. Montgolfier (1740-1810) and his brother Etienne J. Montgolfier (1745–99), French papermakers, inventors of the hot-air balloon, 1782–83, and pioneer balloonists.

Bacho Kiro Peak
-64.78389°N, -62.26°W. A rocky, partly ice-free peak rising to 1419 m high between Woodbury Glacier and Montgolfier Glacier. Situated 4.35 km east of The Downfall, 5.55 km south-southwest of Sophie Cliff, and 2.9 km north of Mechit Buttress. Named after the Bulgarian enlightener and revolutionary Bacho Kiro (Kiro Zanev, 1835-1876).

Mechit Buttress
-64.80944°N, -62.26444°W. An ice-covered buttress rising to 1891 m high between Moser Glacier, Woodbury Glacier and Montgolfier Glacier, linked by a saddle to Forbidden Plateau to the southeast. Situated 4.65 km southeast of The Downfall, and 2.9 km south of Bacho Kiro Peak. Named after Mechit Peak in Rila Mountain, Bulgaria.

Woodbury Glacier
-64.78333°N, -62.33333°W. Glacier just west of Montgolfier Glacier, flowing into Piccard Cove. Mapped by the FIDS from air photos taken by Hunting Aerosurveys Ltd. in 1956-57. Named by the UK-APC in 1960 for Walter B. Woodbury (1834–85), English pioneer of photomechanical printing in 1865 and of serial film cameras for use in balloons and kites in 1877.

O'Neal Point
-64.7°N, -62.3°W. A point on the east side of Arctowski Peninsula. The point stands between the entrances of Beaupré Cove and Piccard Cove in Wilhelmina Bay. Named after James D. O'Neal, cartographer, Special Maps Branch, United States Geological Survey, who was United States Observer with the Chilean Antarctic Expedition, October 1956-April 1957, working in the South Shetland Islands and northwestern Antarctic Peninsula.