located_on_terrain_feature south shetland islands
In geology , bedrock is the lithified rock that lies under the loose softer material ( regolith ) at the surface of the ___MASK14___ or other terrestrial planet . The broken and weathered regolith includes soil and subsoil . The surface of the bedrock beneath soil cover is known as rockhead in engineering geology and its identification by digging , drilling or geophysical methods is an important task in most civil engineering projects . Superficial deposits ( also known as drift ) can be extremely thick , such that the bedrock lies hundreds of meters below the surface . The Eklund Islands are a group of islands which rise through the ice near the southwest end of George VI Sound towards the south of the ___MASK36___ . The Drake Passage or Mar de Hoces  Sea of Hoces  is the body of water between ___MASK48___ ' s Cape Horn and the South Shetland Islands of Antarctica . It connects the southwestern part of the Atlantic Ocean ( Scotia Sea ) with the southeastern part of the Pacific Ocean and extends into the ___MASK39___ . ___MASK35___ ( US English , UK English or ) is ___MASK14___ ' s southernmost continent . It contains the geographic South Pole and is situated in the Antarctic region of the Southern Hemisphere , almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle , and is surrounded by the ___MASK39___ . At , it is the fifth - largest continent . For comparison , ___MASK35___ is nearly twice the size of Australia . About 98 % of ___MASK35___ is covered by ice that averages in thickness , which extends to all but the northernmost reaches of the Antarctic Peninsula . The ___MASK36___ is the northernmost part of the mainland of Antarctica , located at the base of the Southern Hemisphere . At the surface , it is the biggest , most prominent peninsula in Antarctica as it extends from a line between Cape Adams ( Weddell Sea ) and a point on the mainland south of Eklund Islands . Beneath the ice sheet which covers it , the ___MASK36___ consists of a string of bedrock islands ; these are separated by deep channels whose bottoms lie at depths considerably below current sea level . They are joined together by a grounded ice sheet . Tierra del Fuego , the southernmost tip of ___MASK48___ , lies only about away across the Drake Passage . The ___MASK91___ is part of the ___MASK39___ and contains the Weddell Gyre . Its land boundaries are defined by the bay formed from the coasts of Coats Land and the Antarctic Peninsula . The easternmost point is Cape Norvegia at Princess Martha Coast , Queen Maud Land . To the east of Cape Norvegia is the King Haakon VII Sea . Much of the southern part of the sea is covered by a permanent , massive ice shelf field , the Filchner - Ronne Ice Shelf ( not pack ice ). The sea is contained within the two overlapping Antarctic territorial claims of Argentina , ( Argentine ___MASK35___ ) and Britain ( British Antarctic Territory ), and also resides partially within the territorial claim of Chile ( Antarctic Chilean Territory ). At its widest the sea is around across , and its area is around . Various ice shelves , including the Filchner - Ronne Ice Shelf , fringe the Weddell sea . Some of the ice shelves on the east side of the Antarctic Peninsula , which formerly covered roughly of the ___MASK91___ , had completely disappeared by 2002 ; see " ___MASK35___ " at Retreat of glaciers since 1850 . Whilst a dramatic event , the area that disappeared was far smaller than the total area of ice shelf that remains . Cape Adams is an abrupt rock scarp marking the south tip of Bowman Peninsula and forming the north side of the entrance to Gardner Inlet , on the east ___MASK95___ of Palmer Land in Antarctica . It was discovered by the Ronne Antarctic Research Expedition ( RARE ), 1947  48 , under Ronne , and named by him for Lt . Charles J . Adams of the then USAAF , pilot with the expedition . Tierra del Fuego (; Spanish for " Land of Fire ") is an archipelago off the southernmost tip of the South American ___MASK12___ , across the Strait of Magellan . The archipelago consists of the main island , Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego , with an area of , and a group of many islands , including Cape Horn and Diego Ramírez Islands . Tierra del Fuego is divided between Chile and Argentina , with the latter controlling the eastern half of the main island and the former the western half plus the islands south of Beagle Channel . The southernmost extent of the archipelago is at about latitude 55 S . ___MASK48___ is a continent located in the western hemisphere , mostly in the southern hemisphere , with a relatively small portion in the northern hemisphere . It is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas , which is the model used in nations that speak Romance languages . The reference to ___MASK48___ instead of other regions ( like Latin America or the Southern Cone ) has increased in the last decades due to changing geopolitical dynamics ( in particular , the rise of Brazil ). An ice sheet is a mass of glacier ice that covers surrounding terrain and is greater than , thus also known as continental glacier . The only current ice sheets are in ___MASK35___ and Greenland ; during the last glacial period at Last Glacial Maximum ( LGM ) the Laurentide ice sheet covered much of ___MASK88___ , the Weichselian ice sheet covered northern Europe and the Patagonian Ice Sheet covered southern ___MASK48___ . The ___MASK18___ are a group of Antarctic islands , lying about 120 kilometres ( 75 mi ) north of the ___MASK36___ , with a total area of 3 , 687 square kilometres ( 1 , 424 sq mi ) . By the Antarctic Treaty of 1959 , the islands ' sovereignty is neither recognized nor disputed by the signatories and they are free for use by any signatory for non - military purposes . The islands have been claimed by the United Kingdom since 1908 and to be part of the British Antarctic Territory since 1962 . They are also claimed by the governments of Chile ( since 1940 , as part of the Antártica Chilena province ) and by Argentina ( since 1943 , as part of Argentine Antarctica , Tierra del Fuego Province ) . Several countries maintain research stations on the islands . Most of them are situated on King George Island , benefitting from the airfield of the Chilean base Eduardo Frei . There are sixteen research stations to date in different parts of the islands , with Chilean stations being the greatest in number . Research is often a shared duty of nations , with the Chilean - United States Shirreff Base being one example .