Coats Land

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Map of Antarctica
Map of Antarctica

Coats Land is a region in Antarctica which lies westward of Queen Maud Land and forms the eastern shore of the Weddell Sea, extending in a general northeast-southwest direction between 20º00´W and 36º00´W. The northeast part was discovered from the Scotia by William S. Bruce, leader of the Scottish National Antarctic Expedition, 1902-04. He gave the name Coats Land for James Coats, Jr., and Major Andrew Coats, the two chief supporters of the expedition.

[edit] Caird Coast

In December 1914 and January 1915, as part of the ill-fated British Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition, Ernest Shackleton continued the exploration southward, joining Bruce's discovery to land which Wilhelm Filchner had discovered from the Deutschland in 1912.

Caird Coast is that portion of the coast of Coats Land lying between the terminus of Stancomb-Wills Glacier, in 20º00´W, and the vicinity of the Hayes Glacier, in 27º54´W. Shackleton named it for Sir James Key Caird, patron of the expedition.

The sheer ice cliffs of the Caird Coast as seen by Shackleton's Expedition in January, 1915
The sheer ice cliffs of the Caird Coast as seen by Shackleton's Expedition in January, 1915