Stefansson Strait is an ice-filled strait 35 nautical miles (60 km) long and 3 to 10 nautical miles (18 km) wide, between the east 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...

 and Hearst Island

Hearst Island

Hearst Island is an ice-covered, dome-shaped island lying east of Cape Rymill, in the Weddell Sea, off the eastern coast of Palmer Land. The island is long, in a North-South direction, wide, and rises to ....

. This strait was first sighted by Sir Hubert Wilkins at the south end of his flight of December 20, 1928, and was named by him for Vilhjalmur Stefansson

Vilhjalmur Stefansson

Vilhjalmur Stefansson was a Canadian Arctic explorer and ethnologist.-Early life:Stefansson, born William Stephenson, was born at Gimli, Manitoba, Canada, in 1879. His parents had emigrated from Iceland to Manitoba two years earlier...

. He believed it to be a strait cutting off what is now known to be 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....

 from the main land mass of Antarctica. The true orientation of the strait was determined by members of the United States Antarctic Service (USAS) who charted this coast by land and from the air in 1940.