Mount Usborne
Encyclopedia
Mount Usborne is a mountain on East Falkland
. At 705 metres (2,313 ft) above sea level, it is the highest point in the Falkland Islands
.
The mountain is referenced by Charles Darwin
in Chapter 9 of the Zoology of the Voyage of the Beagle and is named after Alexander Burns Usborne, Master's Assistant on HMS Beagle
, the ship that took Darwin on his famous voyage.
The remains of glacial cirque
s can also be seen on Mount Usborne. It is only a few metres taller than Mount Adam
on West Falkland
.
As one of the highest mountains of the Falklands, it experienced some glaciation. The handful of mountains over 2000 feet (609.6 m) have:
East Falkland
East Falkland the largest of the Falkland Islands in the South Atlantic, has an area of and a coastline long. Most of the population of the Falklands live in East Falkland, almost all of them living in the northern half of the island...
. At 705 metres (2,313 ft) above sea level, it is the highest point in the Falkland Islands
Falkland Islands
The Falkland Islands are an archipelago in the South Atlantic Ocean, located about from the coast of mainland South America. The archipelago consists of East Falkland, West Falkland and 776 lesser islands. The capital, Stanley, is on East Falkland...
.
The mountain is referenced by Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin
Charles Robert Darwin FRS was an English naturalist. He established that all species of life have descended over time from common ancestry, and proposed the scientific theory that this branching pattern of evolution resulted from a process that he called natural selection.He published his theory...
in Chapter 9 of the Zoology of the Voyage of the Beagle and is named after Alexander Burns Usborne, Master's Assistant on HMS Beagle
HMS Beagle
HMS Beagle was a Cherokee-class 10-gun brig-sloop of the Royal Navy. She was launched on 11 May 1820 from the Woolwich Dockyard on the River Thames, at a cost of £7,803. In July of that year she took part in a fleet review celebrating the coronation of King George IV of the United Kingdom in which...
, the ship that took Darwin on his famous voyage.
The remains of glacial cirque
Cirque
Cirque may refer to:* Cirque, a geological formation* Makhtesh, an erosional landform found in the Negev desert of Israel and Sinai of Egypt*Cirque , an album by Biosphere* Cirque Corporation, a company that makes touchpads...
s can also be seen on Mount Usborne. It is only a few metres taller than Mount Adam
Mount Adam, Falkland Islands
Mount Adam is a mountain on West Falkland, part of the Hill Cove Mountains range. It is the highest mountain on West Falkland and is one of the highest in the islands. It has the remains of glacial cirques on it, and is of similar height to Mount Usborne on East Falkland...
on West Falkland
West Falkland
West Falkland is the second largest of the Falkland Islands in the South Atlantic. It is a hilly island, separated from East Falkland by Falkland Sound. Its area is and its coastline is long. Including the adjacent small islands the land area is .-Population:The island has fewer than 200...
.
As one of the highest mountains of the Falklands, it experienced some glaciation. The handful of mountains over 2000 feet (609.6 m) have:
- "pronounced corries with small glacial lakeGlacial lakeA glacial lake is a lake with origins in a melted glacier. Near the end of the last glacial period, roughly 10,000 years ago, glaciers began to retreat. A retreating glacier often left behind large deposits of ice in hollows between drumlins or hills. As the ice age ended, these melted to create...
s at the their bases, morainicMoraineA moraine is any glacially formed accumulation of unconsolidated glacial debris which can occur in currently glaciated and formerly glaciated regions, such as those areas acted upon by a past glacial maximum. This debris may have been plucked off a valley floor as a glacier advanced or it may have...
ridges deposited below the corries suggest that the glaciers and ice domes were confined to areas of maximum elevation with other parts of the islands experiencing a periglacial climate"