Placenames are an easy way to describe or identify real world locations, much more intuitive to use than for example geographic coordinates. If someone asks you to which country the station at 62°14'00 S, 58°40'00 E belongs it might be difficult for you to answer. If you were asked which country maintains the station on Potter Peninsula it would presumeably be much easier for you to answer.

There are more than 1000 officially registered placenames on King George Island. Many locations are named by two or more countries. Sometimes the names differ only by the generic part of the name (e.g. Punta Thomas vs. Point Thomas), sometimes the same geographic feature has been given entirely different names by different countries. In addition to the officially registered names there are many more inofficial names used in maps, charts, or publications.

A placename becomes official by being listed in an official gazetteer. A gazetteer is a directory of placenames each of which is associated with information regarding position. Thus each placename in the gazetteer can be related to an identifiable place in the real world. Most countries have an authoritative gazetteer for the officially recognised placenames whithin the respective country's sovereign territory.

On behalf of SCAR the Italian Antarctic Program is maintaining the SCAR Composite Gazetteer of Antarctica (SCAR CGA). The SCAR CGA is a compilation of Antarctic placenames officially recognised by SCAR member countries. Each entry in the SCAR CGA is associated with a reference number for the feature being named, the country that has provided the name, a pair of geographic coordinates, and in many cases a description of the feature and/or the name. For King George Island there are more than 1000 entries in the SCAR CGA.

Unfortunately many coordinates listed in the SCAR CGA are (for various reasons) only approximate. Often even coordinates for the very same feature but originating from different countries vary considerably. This is not only confusing but can even be dangerous if you think of SAR activities.

Using the KGIS data and high resolution satellite images we have started to compile a dataset with new, unique and hopefully more accurate coordinates for each SCAR CGA feature on King George Island. To identify the features we used maps, sketches and gazetteer descritptions from the respective countries.

If you want to view the placenames on King George Island:

You can search for placenames on King George Island using the interactive KGIS mapviewer.

You can see the placenames on King George Island in Google Earth using this Placenames Google Earth Network link.

If you are interested in how the re-positioning was done:

You can use a WFS web service to view and analyze the re-postioning of named features in a GIS client. Connect to the KGIS-WFS-Service and use the Placename_extend layer. The free and open source software Udig is a good client for this purpose.

You can see the re-positioned placenames on King George Island in Google Earth using this Placename_extend Google Earth Network link. It shows all named features with all names, the sources used to identify and re-position the locations, and if applicable any comments related to the re-positoning. Note that this data is presented indepented of scale. You may have to zoom in close enough to actually be able to work with the data.

There is also a GeoRSS-Feed showing this data.

Download a short pdf-report (presented at SCAR XXVIII, Bremen 2004) on the gazetteer project.

Here is the list of ressources used to identfy and (re-)locate the named places:

KGIS data as of 2004-04-01	SCAR King George Island GIS Project topographic data as of 2004-04-01.
map APC Misc 64 10th ed (GBR)	Antarctic Placenames Committee, Foreign an Commonwealth Office: British Antarctic Territory, South Shetland Islands, Sheet 1 King George Island, APC Misc 64,1:100 000, 10th Edition, 1984.
map APC Misc 67 4th ed (GBR)	Antarctic Placenames Committee, Foreign an Commonwealth Office: British Antarctic Territory, South Shetland Islands, Admiralty Bay, APC Misc 64, 1: 50 000, 4th Edition, 1986.
map APC Misc 85 1st ed (GBR)	Antarctic Placenames Committee, Foreign an Commonweaslth Office: British Antarctic Territory, South Shetland Islands, Fildes Peninsula Misc 85, 4th Edition, 1:25 000, 1978.
map Fildes 1:10 000 1996 (CHL)	Isla Rey Jorge - Peninsula Fildes, Instituto Geografico Militar and Instituto Antartico Chileno, 1996.
map Fildes 1:10 000 1997 (URY)	Isla Rey Jorge - Peninsula Fildes, Instituto Antartico Uruguayo, 1997.
map Fildes Orthophoto 1:20 000 1991 (DEU)	Orthophotokarte Fildeshalbinsel, König Georg Insel, 1:20 000, Heidelberger Geographische Arbeiten 89, 1991.
map Lions Rump 1:5 000 1988 (POL)	Cape Lions Rump, 1:5 000, Battke, Z. and J. Czisak, Polish Academy Of Sciences, 1988.
map Potter 1:10 000 2003 (ARG)	Potter Peninsula, 1:10 000, Instituto Antartico Argentino and IAAG Uni Munich, 2003.
map SSSI-8 1:12 500 2002 (POL)	Site of Special Scientific Interest No. 8, 1:12 500, IUNG Pulawy, 2002.
map Zatoka Admiralicji 1:25 000 1980 (POL)	Zatoka Admiralicji, 1:25 000, Furmanczyk, K. and A. Marsz, Polish Academy Of Sciences, 1980.
sketch map Birkenmajer Arctoswki Placenames 1997 (POL)	Birkenmajer, Quaternary geology at Arctowski Station, King George Island, South Shetland Islands (Anatrctica) , Studia Geologica Polonia, 110, 1997, pp 7-26, p 92.
sketch map Birkenmajer Geology of northern coast 1997 (POL)	Birkenmajer, Geology of the northern coast of King George Island, South Shetalnd Islands (West Antarctica), Studia Geologica Polonia, 110, 1997, pp 7-26, p 15ff.
sketch map Birkenmajer Basal ... Polonez cove formation 1995 (POL)	Birkenmajer, K., Basal and intraformational unconformities in Lower Oligocene glacigenic deposits (Polonez Cove Formation), King George Island, South Shetland Islands (West Antartcica), Studia Geologica Polonia, 107, 1995, pp 99-129, p 103.
sketch map Birkenmajer Quarternary Geology Lions Rump 1984 (POL)	Birkenmajer, K., Quaternary Geology at Lions Rump (SSSI No. 34), King George Island, South Shetland Islands (West Antarctica), Bulletin of the Polish Academy of Siences, Earth Siences, 42/3, 1984, pp 207-211, p 208.
sketch map Paulo Geology of the Turret Point 1982 (POL)	Paulo, A. et A.K. Tokarski, Geology of the Turret Point – Three Sisters Point Area, King George Island (South Shetland Islands, Antarctica), Studia Geologica Polonia, 1982, pp 81-103, p 83.
sketch map German Names Barsch et al 1986 (DEU)	Barsch, D. und R. Maeusbacher, Interdisciplinary Science Reviews, 11/2, 1986, p.213.
orthorectified SPOT image 2000-02-23 (IPG Freiburg)	orthorectified SPOT XS image, Acquisition date 2000-02-03, the image was orthorectified using the KGIS DEM (50m resolution) as of 2004-04-01 by IPG Uni Freiburg.
SCAR CGA Description (XYZ) as of 2004-04-01	Placename description in the SCAR Composite Gazetteer of Antarctica as of 2004-04-01, XYZ refers to the respective country.

If you have any questions or comments or want to participate in the King George Island Gazetteer Project don’t hesitate to contact us.