The Alph River is a small river in Antarctica, running into Walcott Bay, Victoria Land. It is in an ice-free region at the west of the Koettlitz Glacier, Scott Coast. The Alph emerges from Trough Lake and flows through Walcott Lake, Howchin Lake, and Alph Lake. It ends in a subglacial flow beneath Koettlitz Glacier to McMurdo Sound.[1]

The river was named by Thomas Griffith Taylor, member of the Terra Nova Expedition of 1911–1913, who explored the portion north of Pyramid Trough. He took the name from the opening passage of Samuel Taylor Coleridge's poem Kubla Khan, as the stream continues north a considerable distance under moraine and ultimately subglacially beneath Koettlitz Glacier to the Ross Sea. The nearby Xanadu Hills are named from the same poem. The name was officially recognised by the New Zealand government on 11 May 2012.[2]

See also

References

  1. ↑ S.J. De Mora, R.F. Whitehead and M. Gregory. Aqueous geochemistry of major constituents in the Alph River and tributaries in Walcott Bay, Victoria Land, Antarctica. Antarctic Science, (1991), 3, pp 73–86 doi:10.1017/S0954102091000111
  2. ↑ "VALID ANTARCTIC NAMES PURSUANT TO THE NEW ZEALAND GEOGRAPHIC BOARD (NGĀ POU TAUNAHA O AOTEAROA) ACT 2008" (PDF). Land Information New Zealand. 2012-05-12. Retrieved 2023-11-12.

78°12′S 163°45′E / 78.200°S 163.750°E / -78.200; 163.750


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