Ablation Valley also known as Ablation Bay, is a mainly ice-free valley

Valley

In geology, a valley or dale is a depression with predominant extent in one direction. A very deep river valley may be called a canyon or gorge.The terms U-shaped and V-shaped are descriptive terms of geography to characterize the form of valleys...

 on the east coast of Alexander Island

Alexander Island

Alexander Island or Alexander I Island or Alexander I Land or Alexander Land is the largest island of Antarctica, with an area of lying in the Bellingshausen Sea west of the base of the Antarctic Peninsula, from which it is separated by Marguerite Bay and George VI Sound. Alexander Island lies off...

, 2 miles (3.2 km) long, which is entered immediately south of Ablation Point

Ablation Point

Ablation Point , also known as Punta Ablación, is the east extremity of a hook-shaped rock ridge marking the north side of the entrance to Ablation Valley on the east coast of Alexander Island. First photographed from the air on November 23, 1935, by Lincoln Ellsworth and mapped from these photos...

 and opens on George VI Sound

George VI Sound

George VI Sound or Canal Jorge VI or Canal Presidente Sarmiento or Canal Seaver or King George VI Sound or King George the Sixth Sound is a major bay/fault depression, 300 miles long in the shape of the letter J, which skirts the east and south shores of Alexander Island, separating it from the...

. First photographed from the air on November 23, 1935, by Lincoln Ellsworth

Lincoln Ellsworth

Lincoln Ellsworth was an arctic explorer from the United States.-Birth:He was born on May 12, 1880 to James Ellsworth and Eva Frances Butler in Chicago, Illinois...

 and mapped from these photos by W.L.G. Joerg. First visited and surveyed in 1936 by the British Graham Land Expedition

British Graham Land Expedition

A British expedition to Graham Land led by John Lachlan Cope took place between 1920 and 1922. The British Graham Land Expedition was a geophysical and exploration expedition to Graham Land in Antarctica between 1934 to 1937. Under the leadership of John Riddoch Rymill, the expedition spent two...

 (BGLE), and given the name Ablation

Ablation

Ablation is removal of material from the surface of an object by vaporization, chipping, or other erosive processes. This occurs in spaceflight during ascent and atmospheric reentry, glaciology, medicine, and passive fire protection.-Spaceflight:...

by them because of the relatively small amounts of snow and ice found there.