Vega Island

The northwestern end of the island is a rounded headland called Keltie Head, whose vertical cliffs rise to a small ice dome 395 metres (1,300 ft) high.[1] It was named for Sir John Scott Keltie, Secretary of the Royal Geographical Society.[1] The Vertigo Cliffs are spectacular, 200 m near-vertical cliffs on the island's north coast, spanning about 7 nautical miles (13 km) towards Cape Well-met to the east. They were named allusively by the United Kingdom Antarctic Place-Names Committee (UK-APC) in 1987.[2] Cape Well-met is a dark, conspicuous headland near the center of the island's north side, close south of Trinity Peninsula. Its name commemorates the long-delayed reunion the expedition's winter party and relief party, after twenty months of enforced separation.[3]

Cape Gordon is a jagged headland 330 metres (1,080 ft) high, forming the east end of Vega Island. It was discovered by the Ross expedition of 1839–1843, under James Clark Ross, and named by him for Captain William Gordon, Royal Navy, a Lord Commissioner of the Admiralty.[4]

False Island Point is a headland 1 nautical mile (2 km) long and 0.5 nautical miles (1 km) wide, which is connected to the center of the south side of the island by a low, narrow, almost invisible isthmus. Nordenskiöld's expedition charted it as an island. It was not until 1945 that the Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey (FIDS) determined it to be a part of Vega Island and named it accordingly.[5] To the east of this isthmus, Pastorizo Bay indents the island's south side for a width of 2 nautical miles (3.7 km). This name appears on an Argentine chart of 1959.[6] Mahogany Bluff marks the bay's east side. It was named by UK-APC because of the striking deep red-brown color of the bluff, reminiscent of mahogany wood.[7]

Cape Lamb forms the island's southwestern tip. First discovered by Nordenskiöld's expedition, it was resighted by FIDS personnel, and named after lichenologist Elke Mackenzie (formerly Lamb).[8]

Sandwich Bluff is a flat-topped mountain, 610 m, broken sharply at its west side by a steep dark bluff standing slightly west of center on Vega Island. First discovered by Nordenskiöld's expedition, it was charted by the FlDS, and so named because a horizontal snow-holding band of rock breaks the western cliff giving it the appearance of a sandwich when viewed from the north.[9] Léal Bluff is a rounded bluff rising to 485 metres (1,590 ft), 2 nautical miles (4 km) inland from Cape Lamb. It was named by the Argentine Antarctic Expedition after Major Jorge Léal, deputy leader at Esperanza Station in 1947.[10]