MacKenzie Bay

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MacKenzie Bay ( 68°38′S, 70°35′E) is a relatively small embayment of the western extremity of the Amery Ice Shelf, about 20 miles northeast of Foley Promontory. On February 10, 1931, the British Australian New Zealand Antarctic Research Expedition (BANZARE) (1929-31) sighted a much larger embayment here and made an airplane flight to sketch its limits. They named it "MacKenzie Sea" after Captain K.N. MacKenzie, master of the expedition's ship Discovery in 1930-31. Breakout of a large part of Amery Ice Shelf has drastically reduced the size of this feature; in 1968 the bay was 15 miles wide. Several Norwegian whaling ships sighted the original embayment nearly simultaneously with BANZARE; the whale-catcher Seksern (Captain Brunvoll) reached this area on January 13, 1931, the Torlyn (Capt. Klarius Mikkelsen) on February 13, 1931.

This article is based on a United States Geological Survey gazetteer.