American Highland

The American highlands (English: American Highland ) is a region in Ostantarktika. It is a mostly flat ice surface with an area of ​​about 200,000 km ². The American high country lies between 70 ° E and 100 ° E and between 85 ° S and about 70 ° S. In the east it borders the Lambert Glacier, in the west it merges into the Wilke country. In the south, it merges into the Polar Plateau.

The ice cap of Antarctica reached in the American Highland has a thickness of 2000 to 3000 m. Therefore, in recent years has intensified the research enterprise. In particular, climatologists are interested in the region because of the climate ice core from the past can be reconstructed.

The northern part of the area is also divided from east to west into three parts:

West of Princess Elizabeth Land is located at 75-73 ° E, a small chain of mountains called the Grove Mountains.

Were discovered and explored parts of the American high country by the U.S. polar explorer Lincoln Ellsworth during a flight over the interior of the Antarctic continent on 11 January 1939. This named the area is also American Highland. During the Cold War, however, the name came to a curiosity, because in the eastern region, the Soviet Union established the research stations Vostok and Komsomolskaya Pionerskaya. However, it was not a political decision to build these stations in the American highlands, but a purely scientific.

Officially Australia rises right to the American highlands. By the Antarctic Treaty, this claim is, however, currently put on hold.