Did you know? - In Antarctica there's a place named after a Canadian snowmobile

Skidoo Nunatak* isn't the only place in Antarctica with a Canadian connection. There are 103 more.

Canada doesn't have a research base in Antarctica. But Canadians have been making valuable contributions to other countries' Antarctic expeditions for decades.

Some of those Canadians - as well as some famous Canadian products that Antarctic expeditions have depended on - are honoured in Antarctic place-names. Here are a few:

Taylor Glacier - named after Thomas Griffith Taylor, geologist on Captain Robert Falcon Scott's ill-fated Terra Nova expedition (1910-13).

Mount Bursey - named after Jacob Bursey, a dog team driver on the Byrd Antarctic Expedition (1928-30) and on United States Antarctic Service (1938-41).

Fred Cirque - named after Ernest Frederick Roots, chief geologist on the Norwegian-British-Swedish Antarctic Expedition of 1949-52. Dr. Roots helped create the Canadian Polar Commission and the Canadian Committee on Antarctic Research. There are two more places in Antarctica named after him.

Bombardier Glacier - named after Joseph-Armand Bombardier, snowmobile engineer.

Beaver Lake - named by the Australian National Antarctic Research Expeditions after their Canadian de Havilland Beaver aircraft.

More information on Canadians in Antarctic place names [PDF-1.15 MB]

*Cool name, but what's a nunatak?

Glad you asked. A nunatak (it's an Inuktitut word) is a mountain peak sticking out of a glacier or ice shelf.

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