Spaatz Island is a large ice-covered island

Island

An island or isle is any piece of sub-continental land that is surrounded by water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, cays or keys. An island in a river or lake may be called an eyot , or holm...

 of Antarctica. It lies south west 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...

 and west of the base of the Antarctic Peninsula

Antarctic Peninsula

The Antarctic Peninsula is the northernmost part of the mainland of Antarctica. It extends from a line between Cape Adams and a point on the mainland south of Eklund Islands....

, close to the coast of Palmer Land

Palmer Land

Palmer Land is that portion of the Antarctic Peninsula which lies south of a line joining Cape Jeremy and Cape Agassiz. This application of Palmer Land is consistent with the 1964 agreement between US-ACAN and UK-APC, in which the name Antarctic Peninsula was approved for the major peninsula of...

, 30 miles (48 km) east of Smyley Island

Smyley Island

Smyley Island is an Antarctic island lying off the Antarctic Peninsula at coordinates .-See also:* Composite Antarctic Gazetteer* List of Antarctic and sub-Antarctic islands* List of Antarctic islands south of 60° S* SCAR...

. It is 50 miles (80 km) long and 25 miles (40 km) wide, and covers an area of around 4100 km² (1,583 sq mi).

The north side of the island forms a portion of the south margin of Ronne Entrance

Ronne Entrance

Ronne Entrance is a broad southwest entrance of the George VI Sound where it opens on Bellingshausen Sea at the southwest side of Alexander Island. It was discovered on a sledge journey through the sound in December 1940 by U.S. Polar explorer Finn Ronne and Carl Eklund of the US Antarctic Service...

; the remainder of the island is surrounded by the ice shelves of Stange Sound

Stange Sound

Stange Sound is a sound about 60 nautical miles long and 25 nautical miles wide along the coast of Palmer Land. An ice shelf occupies the sound, which is bounded on the west by Smyley and Case Islands, on the south by the mainland, on the east by Spaatz Island and on the north by open water in...

 and 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...

. Finn Ronne

Finn Ronne

Finn Ronne was a U.S. Antarctic explorer.-Background:Finn Ronne was born in Horten, in Vestfold county, Norway. His father, Martin Rønne , was a polar explorer and served in Roald Amundsen's successful expedition to the South Pole...

 and Carl Eklund of the US Antarctic Service (USAS) (1939-41) sledged along the north side of this feature in December 1940. It was photographed from the air and first mapped as an island by the Ronne Antarctic Research Expedition

Ronne Antarctic Research Expedition

The Ronne Antarctic Research Expedition was an expedition from 1947-1948 which researched the area surrounding the head of the Weddell Sea in Antarctica.-Background:...

 (RARE) (1947-48) under Finn Ronne. It was named by Ronne for Gen. Carl Spaatz, Chief of Staff, USAAF, who gave assistance in providing an airplane for use of RARE.

See also

• Composite Antarctic Gazetteer
• List of Antarctic and sub-Antarctic islands
• List of Antarctic islands south of 60° S
• SCAR
  Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research
  The Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research is an interdisciplinary body of the International Council for Science . It was established in February 1958 to continue the international coordination of Antarctic scientific activities that had begun during the International Geophysical Year of 1957-58...
  
  
• Territorial claims in Antarctica

External links