The British Glaciological Society has received the following notice from the Antarctic Place-names Committee. It is understood that official publications in the British Commonwealth will now adopt this terminology.

As a result of discussions between the United Kingdom Government Departments concerned, representatives of the Governments of Australia and New Zealand, and the Royal Geographical Society, and taking into account views expressed by the United States Board on Geographic Names, it has been agreed that the following terminology shall be adopted for United Kingdom official use for describing those ice formations in the Antarctic to which the terms “ice barrier,” “ice shelf,” etc., have been variously applied:

1. • (a) The general term describing any such formation shall be Ice Shelf.

   • (b) The place-name describing a particular feature of this kind shall be a compound which shall include the term Ice Shelf; e.g. “Larsen Ice Shelf.”

2. • (a) The general term describing the floating seaward-facing cliffs of an ice shelf shall be Ice Front.

   • (b) The place-name describing a particular ice front shall be a compound which shall include the term Ice Front together with the date of the appropriate survey; e.g. “Ross Ice Front (1911).”

3. In order to avoid confusion, the word “barrier” shall be excluded from modern usage, but the “Ross Ice Shelf” and the “Filchner Ice Shelf” may have marked under them, in brackets and in smaller lettering, the phrase “Formerly Ross Barrier,” “Formerly Filchner Barrier.”

4. There would be a danger of confusion if the term “shelf ice” were to continue to be used for the description of the material itself, and discussions are taking place between the Royal Geographical Society and the appropriate United States authorities to discover an alternative term to “shelf ice” for this genetic usage.

The following place-names in the Falkland Islands Dependencies are therefore officially accepted:

The Australian and New Zealand Governments have notified their intention to adopt the same ruling for similar formations in the Australian Antarctic Territory and in the Ross Dependency respectively, e.g.