Cranton Bay is a bay

Bay

A bay is an area of water mostly surrounded by land. Bays generally have calmer waters than the surrounding sea, due to the surrounding land blocking some waves and often reducing winds. Bays also exist as an inlet in a lake or pond. A large bay may be called a gulf, a sea, a sound, or a bight...

 about 20 nautical miles (37 km) long and wide, lying south of Canisteo Peninsula

Canisteo Peninsula

Canisteo Peninsula is an ice-covered peninsula, about long and wide, which projects between Ferrero Bay and Cranton Bay into the eastern extremity of the Amundsen Sea. It was delineated from air photos taken by U.S...

 at the east end of Amundsen Sea

Amundsen Sea

The Amundsen Sea is an arm of the Southern Ocean off Marie Byrd Land in western Antarctica. It is bounded by Cape Flying Fish, the northwestern tip of Thurston Island to the east and Cape Dart on Siple Island to the west. East of Cape Flying Fish starts the Bellingshausen Sea. West of Cape Dart is...

. The south limit of the bay is formed by the Backer Islands

Backer Islands

Backer Islands are a chain of small islands at the south side of Cranton Bay. The islands trend northwest for from the ice shelf which forms the southern limit of the bay. They were mapped by the United States Geological Survey from surveys and from U.S. Navy air photos, 1960–66, and named...

 and an ice shelf

Ice shelf

An ice shelf is a thick, floating platform of ice that forms where a glacier or ice sheet flows down to a coastline and onto the ocean surface. Ice shelves are only found in Antarctica, Greenland and Canada. The boundary between the floating ice shelf and the grounded ice that feeds it is called...

 which separates this bay from Pine Island Bay. Mapped from air photos taken by U.S. Navy Operation Highjump, 1946-47. Named by Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names

Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names

The Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names is an advisory committee of the United States Board on Geographic Names responsible for recommending names for features in Antarctica...

 (US-ACAN) for Lieutenant Elmer M. Cranton, U.S. Navy, medical officer and officer in charge at Byrd Station

Byrd Station

Byrd Station refers to a research station established by the United States during the International Geophysical Year by the U.S. Navy during Operation Deep Freeze II in West Antarctica at 80°, 120°W...

, 1967.