Shotton Snowfield

Shotton Snowfield (80°35′S 23°15′W / 80.583°S 23.250°W / -80.583; -23.250) is a large snowfield between Herbert Mountains and Pioneers Escarpment on the north and Read Mountains on the south, in the Shackleton Range of Antarctica.

The Shackleton Range is an ice-covered plateau between 1,200 and 1,600 metres (3,900 and 5,200 ft) high that rises between two large glaciers. It is a rectangular horst rising above major fault zones now under the Slessor Glacier to the north and Recovery Glacier glacier to the south. The center of the range is covered by a long ice cap stretching from the Fuchs Dome in the west to Shotton Snowfield in the east, and bounded by cliffs as high as 400 metres (1,300 ft).

The Shotton Snowfield extends east from the Gordon Glacier, which separates it from Fuchs Dome. The Read Mountains separate it from the Recovery Glacier to the south. The Herbert Mountains are northwest of the snowfield, and further east the Pioneers Escarpment lies between it and the Slessor Glacier to the north. The snowfield stretches eastward until it merges into the Antarctic ice sheet.

Shotton Snowfield, Fuchs Dome and the table mountains that surround them are the remnants of a peneplain. The southern edges of the snowfield have flat rocky areas against cliffs that rise for up to 400 metres (1,300 ft). The ice in most of the snowfield flows north, over the escarpment and into the Slessor Glacier. Ice from a small area in the southwest of the snowfield flows south between the Read Mountains and the Stephenson Bastion into the Recovery Glacier.

The Shackleton Range Metamorphic Complex forms the metamorphic basement of almost the entire Shackleton Range. It seems to be part of the Antarctic Shield. It is formed from sedimentary rocks that have been metamorphosed in some regions, more in the south than the north of the range. The Flett Crags formation, part of the Turnpike Bluff Group, mainly consists of slate, but contains some bands of quartzite and pebbly conglomerate. It can be seen in the nunataks north of the Read Mountains escarpment. It is probably over 1,500 metres (4,900 ft) thick, and may be assumed to extend northward under the Shotton Snowfield. The Turnpike Bluff group rests unconformably on the Shackleton Range Metamorphic Complex. It has not been directly dated, but is probably late Precambrian or perhaps in part Cambrian.

The United States Navy obtained aerial photographs of the feature in 1967 and it was surveyed by British Antarctic Survey (BAS), 1968–71. It was named by the United Kingdom Antarctic Place-Names Committee (UK-APC), 1971, in association with the names of glacial geologists grouped in this area, after Frederick William Shotton (1906–90), British Quaternary geologist and Professor of Geology, University of Birmingham, 1949–74. Not: Shottonfonna.

Isolated nunataks in the snowfield that are named on the 1983 United States Geological Survey map are (west to east):

80°28′S 24°53′W / 80.467°S 24.883°W / -80.467; -24.883. An isolated nunatak rising to c. 1,450 metres (4,760 ft) to the southeast of Herbert Mountains in the Shackleton Range. Photographed from the air by the U.S. Navy, 1967, and surveyed by BAS, 1968-71. In association with the names of pioneers of polar life and exploration grouped in this area, named by the UK-APC in 1971 after Douglas W. Freshfield (1845-1934), English geographer and mountaineer in the Caucasus Mountains and the Himalayas.