Quartz Hills
Quartz Hills () is an arcuate cluster of largely ice-free hills and peaks found immediately south of Colorado Glacier and along the west side of Reedy Glacier. They are part of the Transantarctic Mountains. the United States Geological Survey (USGS) mapped them using ground surveys and U.S. Navy air photos between 1960 and 1964. John H. Mercer, United States Antarctic Research Program (USARP) geologist, proposed this name based upon the abundance of rose quartz that occurs in the superficial deposits of these hills. Geomorphology The Quartz Hills occupies an area about long and between wide that lies on the left side of the Reedy Glacier. Its landscape exhibits mature, steep, alpine relief, including horns, arêtes, cirques, and glacially carved valleys. They range from , the surface elevation of Reedy Glacier, to about in elevation. In part, the Quartz Hills contains an extensive, low-angled slope, known as the Quartz Hills bench. It rises southward over a distance of about from about to more than in elevation. Within the Quartz Hills, ice cover is limited to perennial patches with the exception of one small, isolated glacier. Well-preserved drift sheets and moraines form a veneer across the ice-free areas of the Quartz Hills.