Mount Joyce is a prominent, dome-shaped mountain

Mountain

Image:Himalaya_annotated.jpg|thumb|right|The Himalayan mountain range with Mount Everestrect 58 14 160 49 Chomo Lonzorect 200 28 335 52 Makalurect 378 24 566 45 Mount Everestrect 188 581 920 656 Tibetan Plateaurect 250 406 340 427 Rong River...

, 1,830 m, standing 8 miles (13 km) northwest of Mount Howard in the Prince Albert Mountains

Prince Albert Mountains

The Prince Albert Mountains are a major mountain group in Antarctica over 320 km long. Located in Victoria Land, they run north-south between the Priestley and Ferrar glaicers....

, 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...

, on the south side of David Glacier

David Glacier

David Glacier is the most imposing outlet glacier in Victoria Land, Antarctica, fed by two main flows which drain an area larger than 200,000 square kilometres of the East Antarctic plateau, with an estimated ice discharge rate of 7.8 +/- 0.7 km³/year...

. It was first mapped by the British Antarctic Expedition

Nimrod Expedition

The British Antarctic Expedition 1907–09, otherwise known as the Nimrod Expedition, was the first of three expeditions to the Antarctic led by Ernest Shackleton. Its main target, among a range of geographical and scientific objectives, was to be first to the South Pole...

, 1907–09, which named it for Ernest Joyce

Ernest Joyce

Ernest Edward Mills Joyce AM was a Royal Naval seaman and explorer who participated in four Antarctic expeditions during the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration, early in the early 20th century. He served under both Robert Falcon Scott and Ernest Shackleton...

 who was in charge of general stores, dogs, sledges, and zoological collections with the expedition and who had earlier been with the Discovery expedition, 1901-04. Joyce was also with the Ross Sea Party

Ross Sea Party

The Ross Sea party was a component of Sir Ernest Shackleton's Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition 1914–17. Its task was to lay a series of supply depots across the Great Ice Barrier from the Ross Sea to the Beardmore Glacier, along the polar route established by earlier Antarctic expeditions...

 of Shackleton's Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition

Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition

The Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition , also known as the Endurance Expedition, is considered the last major expedition of the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration. Conceived by Sir Ernest Shackleton, the expedition was an attempt to make the first land crossing of the Antarctic continent...

, 1914-17.

Geology

Mount Joyce, along with nearby nunatak

Nunatak

A nunatak is an exposed, often rocky element of a ridge, mountain, or peak not covered with ice or snow within an ice field or glacier. The term is typically used in areas where a permanent ice sheet is present...

s, such as the Trio Nunataks, represent the remnants of a tableland of the Jurassic

Jurassic

The Jurassic is a geologic period and system that extends from about Mya to  Mya, that is, from the end of the Triassic to the beginning of the Cretaceous. The Jurassic constitutes the middle period of the Mesozoic era, also known as the age of reptiles. The start of the period is marked by...

 Ferrar Group, which consists of Kirkpatrick lava

Lava

Lava refers both to molten rock expelled by a volcano during an eruption and the resulting rock after solidification and cooling. This molten rock is formed in the interior of some planets, including Earth, and some of their satellites. When first erupted from a volcanic vent, lava is a liquid at...

s and Ferrar dolerite sills

Sill (geology)

In geology, a sill is a tabular sheet intrusion that has intruded between older layers of sedimentary rock, beds of volcanic lava or tuff, or even along the direction of foliation in metamorphic rock. The term sill is synonymous with concordant intrusive sheet...

, alternating with rafts of sandstone

Sandstone

Sandstone is a sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized minerals or rock grains.Most sandstone is composed of quartz and/or feldspar because these are the most common minerals in the Earth's crust. Like sand, sandstone may be any colour, but the most common colours are tan, brown, yellow,...

 of the Paleozoic

Paleozoic

The Paleozoic era is the earliest of three geologic eras of the Phanerozoic eon, spanning from roughly...

 and Mesozoic

Mesozoic

The Mesozoic era is an interval of geological time from about 250 million years ago to about 65 million years ago. It is often referred to as the age of reptiles because reptiles, namely dinosaurs, were the dominant terrestrial and marine vertebrates of the time...

 Beacon SuperGroup

Beacon sandstone

The Beacon sandstone is a geological formation exposed in Antarctica and deposited from the Devonian to the Triassic . The sandstone was originally described as a formation, and upgraded to group and supergroup as time passed. It contains a sandy member known as the Beacon heights...

. The strata

Stratum

In geology and related fields, a stratum is a layer of sedimentary rock or soil with internally consistent characteristics that distinguish it from other layers...

 dip about 1-2 degrees (at most) to the west. On Mt Joyce only three major dolerite sills are observed, with two thin interleaving seams

Stratum

In geology and related fields, a stratum is a layer of sedimentary rock or soil with internally consistent characteristics that distinguish it from other layers...

 of Beacon sediments

Beacon sandstone

The Beacon sandstone is a geological formation exposed in Antarctica and deposited from the Devonian to the Triassic . The sandstone was originally described as a formation, and upgraded to group and supergroup as time passed. It contains a sandy member known as the Beacon heights...