Kottmeier Mesa
# Kottmeier Mesa

Kottmeier Mesa (77°39′S 162°9′E﻿ / ﻿77.650°S 162.150°E﻿ / -77.650; 162.150) is a prominent 2,120-metre (6,960 ft) high mesa, 2.8 nautical miles (5.2 km) northwest of Mount J. J. Thomson in the Asgard Range of Victoria Land, Antarctica.

Almost wholly ice-covered, the mesa is 1.5 nautical miles (3 km) long, averages 0.5 nautical miles (1 km) wide, and rises above the converging heads of David Valley, Bartley Glacier, Matterhorn Glacier, and the north flank of Rhone Glacier, all receiving ice that drains from the mesa.

Kottmeier Mesa was named by the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names (1997) after Steven T. Kottmeier, who as a United States Antarctic Program researcher, 1981–87, investigated sea ice microbial communities in the fast ice of McMurdo Sound, as well as krill associated with ice edge zones in the Bellingshausen, Scotia and Weddell seas. He served as the manager of laboratory facilities at McMurdo Station for ITT Antarctic Services, 1988–90; from 1990 he worked for Antarctic Support Associates, initially as manager of laboratory science, and from 1997 as chief scientist.

