Wilkes Land is a large district of land in eastern Antarctica, formally claimed by Australia as part of the Australian Antarctic Territory, though the validity of this claim has been placed for the period of the operation of the Antarctic Treaty, to which Australia is a signatory. It fronts on the southern Indian Ocean between Queen Mary Coast and Adelie Land, extending from Cape Hordern in 100°31' E to Pourquoi Pas Point, in 136°11' E. The region extends as a sector about 2600 km towards the South Pole, with an estimated land area of 2,600,000 km², mostly glaciated. It is further subdivided in the following coastal areas which can also be thought of as sectors extending to the South Pole:
- Knox Land: 100°31' E to 109°16' E
- Budd Land: 109°16' E to 115°33' E
- Sabrina Land: 115°33' E to 122°05' E
- Banzare Land: 122°05' E to 130°10' E
- Clarie Land: (Wilkes Coast) 130°10' E to 136°11' E
In a wider sense, Wilkes Land extends further East to Point Alden in 142°02' E, thereby including Adelie Land, which is claimed by France.
Read more about Wilkes Land: Name, Geology, Wilkes Land in Popular Culture
Famous quotes containing the word land:
“They commonly celebrate those beaches only which have a hotel on them, not those which have a humane house alone. But I wished to see that seashore where man’s works are wrecks; to put up at the true Atlantic House, where the ocean is land-lord as well as sea-lord, and comes ashore without a wharf for the landing; where the crumbling land is the only invalid, or at best is but dry land, and that is all you can say of it.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)