Black Face is the south wall of an east-west ridge in Arena Valley

Arena Valley

Arena Valley is an ice-free valley, between East Beacon and New Mountain, which opens to the south side of Taylor Glacier in Victoria Land. It was given this descriptive name by the Victoria University of Wellington Antarctic Expedition , 1958–59....

, 1 miles (1.6 km) south of East Beacon

East Beacon

East Beacon is the prominent eastern peak, rising to 2,265 m in Beacon Heights, in the Quartermain Mountains, Victoria Land. Named East Beacon by the New Zealand Geological Survey Antarctic Expedition , 1958-59....

, in the Quartermain Mountains

Quartermain Mountains

Quartermain Mountains is a group of exposed mountains, about 20 miles long, typical of ice-free features of the McMurdo Dry Valleys, Victoria Land, located south of Taylor Glacier and bounded by Finger Mountain, Mount Handsley, Mount Feather and Tabular Mountain; also including Knobhead, Terra...

, Victoria Land

Victoria Land

Victoria Land is a region of Antarctica bounded on the east by the Ross Ice Shelf and the Ross Sea and on the west by Oates Land and Wilkes Land. It was discovered by Captain James Clark Ross in January 1841 and named after the UK's Queen Victoria...

. The feature is a prominent landmark and is formed by a dolerite dike

Dike (geology)

A dike or dyke in geology is a type of sheet intrusion referring to any geologic body that cuts discordantly across* planar wall rock structures, such as bedding or foliation...

 which rises over 300 metre above the floor of the valley. It was named by the New Zealand Antarctic Place-Names Committee

New Zealand Antarctic Place-Names Committee

New Zealand Antarctic Place-Names Committee is an adjudicating committee established to authorize the naming of features in the Ross Dependency on the Antarctic continent. It is composed of the members of the New Zealand Geographic Board plus selected specialists on Antarctica...

 from the color of the rock following geological work in the area by C.T. McElroy, G. Rose, and K.J. Whitby in 1980–81.