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NO. 18, OCTOBER 1969
AUSTIN, TEXAS
Editor: Angel D. Leshikar
The Mackin Table
Deep in Antarctica lies a windswept, snow-covered, table topped mountain which has been named for the late J. Hoover Mackin. This table makes up the central mass of the Patuxent Range, Pensacola Mountains, and was one of the few large areas of extensively exposed rock in Antarctica which had not been visited by man prior to 1962. Seen in the skyline in the photograph above is the Polar Ice Plateau; its ice drains to the left around the Patuxent Range on its ways to the Weddell Sea. In the past the continental ice was much higher and de posited moraines on top of the table. The Patuxent Formation underlies the area and consists of interbedded sandstone and slate of late Precambrian age; it is deformed into open con tinuous folds with subhorizontal fold axes. On the center right,
in the long "S"-shaped nunatak, characteristic rhythmic bed ding and folds of the formation are seen. At least once during the Pleistocene glaciers from the Polar ice plateau nearly inun dated the Patuxent Mountains and were probably more than 1500 feet thicker than at present. The maximum altitude on the top of the table is 2136 meters and the steep sides of the table are as much as 1000 meters high.
The recommendation to name the table for Hoover was made by former students of his, Dwight L. Schmidt, A. B. Ford, Paul Williams; and a Mr. Nelson of the U.S.G.S. Both Dr. Schmidt and Dr. Ford were members of the U.S. Geological Survey field party who mapped the area in 1962.
