Butler Island is a circular, ice-covered island 6 miles (10 km) wide which rises to 185 metre, lying 7 miles (11.3 km) east of Merz Peninsula

Merz Peninsula

Merz Peninsula is an irregular, ice-covered peninsula, about 15 miles long in an east-west direction and averaging 25 miles wide, between Hilton Inlet and Violante Inlet on the east coast of Palmer Land. It was discovered and photographed from the air in December 1940 by the US Antarctic...

, off the eastern coast of Palmer Land

Palmer Land

Palmer Land is that portion of the Antarctic Peninsula which lies south of a line joining Cape Jeremy and Cape Agassiz. This application of Palmer Land is consistent with the 1964 agreement between US-ACAN and UK-APC, in which the name Antarctic Peninsula was approved for the major peninsula of...

. It was discovered and photographed from the air in December 1940 by the United States Antarctic Service. During 1947 it was photographed from the air by the Ronne Antarctic Research Expedition

Ronne Antarctic Research Expedition

The Ronne Antarctic Research Expedition was an expedition from 1947-1948 which researched the area surrounding the head of the Weddell Sea in Antarctica.-Background:...

, who in conjunction with the Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey (FIDS) charted it from the ground. It was named by FIDS for K.S.P. Butler, FIDS commander in 1947–48.