Mount Harding (Grove Mountains)

ASPA 168

Antarctica · East Antarctica (Princess Elizabeth Land)

East Antarctica (Princess Elizabeth Land)Declared in 200210 km²

Spotted something wrong?

One of the few almost entirely ice-free granite massifs in the deep interior of East Antarctica

Area

10 km²

Declared in

2002

Region

East Antarctica (Princess Elizabeth Land)

Best time

November to March

Plan your visit

Best time: November to March
Area: 10 km²

Highlight

One of the few almost entirely ice-free granite massifs in the deep interior of East Antarctica

Designated an ASPA in 2002, Mount Harding, in the remote Grove Mountains of the East Antarctic interior, is one of the few rock massifs almost entirely free of ice lying hundreds of kilometres from the coast, a geographical rarity that makes it a scientific reference site for studying communities of lichens and extremophile microorganisms able to survive extremes of aridity and cold with no higher plant cover and no resident vertebrate fauna.