Endeavour Massif is a huge, flat-topped massif

Massif

In geology, a massif is a section of a planet's crust that is demarcated by faults or flexures. In the movement of the crust, a massif tends to retain its internal structure while being displaced as a whole...

 on the Scott Coast

Scott Coast

Scott Coast is that portion of the coast of Victoria Land between Cape Washington and Minna Bluff. Named by New Zealand Antarctic Place-Names Committee in 1961 after Captain Robert Falcon Scott, Royal Navy, leader of the Discovery expedition and the British Antarctic Expedition , who lost his...

 of Victoria Land

Victoria Land

Victoria Land is a region of Antarctica bounded on the east by the Ross Ice Shelf and the Ross Sea and on the west by Oates Land and Wilkes Land. It was discovered by Captain James Clark Ross in January 1841 and named after the UK's Queen Victoria...

. The massif extends south from Pa Tio Tio Gap

Pa Tio Tio Gap

Pa Tio Tio Gap is a glacier-filled gap at 1,000 m. It trends east-west between Robertson Massif and Endeavour Massif in Kirkwood Range, Victoria Land. "Pa Tio Tio" is a Maori word meaning "frozen over"....

 to Fry Glacier

Fry Glacier

Fry Glacier is a glacier draining the slopes at the northeast corner of the Convoy Range and flowing along the south end of the Kirkwood Range into Tripp Bay, Victoria Land. First charted by the British Antarctic Expedition and named for A.M. Fry, a contributor to the expedition....

 and forms the south block of the Kirkwood Range

Kirkwood Range

Kirkwood Range is a massive coastal range extending north-south between the Fry and Mawson Glaciers. A broad low-level platform on the seaward side of the range is occupied by the Oates Piedmont Glacier...

 (Robertson Massif

Robertson Massif

Robertson Massif is a rugged, mainly ice-covered massif, 7 miles long, located north of Pa Tio Tio Gap. The feature includes Mount Gauss and Mount Chetwynd and forms the north segment of Kirkwood Range...

 forms the north block). Shoulder Mountain

Shoulder Mountain

Shoulder Mountain is a prominent, triangular rock buttress over 1,000 m, on the north side of the lower Fry Glacier and close south of Mount Creak in Victoria Land. Mapped and given this descriptive name by the 1957 New Zealand Northern Survey Party of the Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition,...

, Mount Belgrave

Mount Belgrave

Mount Belgrave is a prominent rock summit that rises over 1200 m about 1.5 miles west of Mount Creak. The feature overlooks the north side of Fry Glacier at the south extremity of Kirkwood Range. Named after Vince Belgrave, surveyor or leader in several surveys and geodetic projects for NZAP,...

 and Mount Creak

Mount Creak

Mount Creak is a sharp peak, 1,240 m, just north of Shoulder Mountain in the south end of the Kirkwood Range. Discovered by the Discovery expedition which named this peak for Captain E.W. Creak, Director of Compasses at the Admiralty....

 rise from the south part of the massif. Steep coastal cliff

Cliff

In geography and geology, a cliff is a significant vertical, or near vertical, rock exposure. Cliffs are formed as erosion landforms due to the processes of erosion and weathering that produce them. Cliffs are common on coasts, in mountainous areas, escarpments and along rivers. Cliffs are usually...

s and projecting ridges mark the east margin, but there is a gentle slope west from the massif's broad, plateau

Plateau

In geology and earth science, a plateau , also called a high plain or tableland, is an area of highland, usually consisting of relatively flat terrain. A highly eroded plateau is called a dissected plateau...

like snow summit. This feature was originally named Mount Endeavour

Mount Endeavour

Mount Endeavour is an 1810 m summit 1 mile . north of the base of Ketchum Ridge in the south part of Endeavour Massif, Kirkwood Range, Victoria Land. The name Mount Endeavour was given to the south block of the Kirkwood Range by the New Zealand Northern Survey Party of Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic...

 by the New Zealand Northern Survey Party of Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition

Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition

The 1955–58 Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition was a Commonwealth-sponsored expedition that successfully completed the first overland crossing of Antarctica, via the South Pole...

 in October 1957, but on subsequent New Zealand

New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

 and U.S. maps the name is identified as an 1800 m summit 3.5 miles (6 km) northwest of Mount Creak. Following additional mapping by United States Geological Survey

United States Geological Survey

The United States Geological Survey is a scientific agency of the United States government. The scientists of the USGS study the landscape of the United States, its natural resources, and the natural hazards that threaten it. The organization has four major science disciplines, concerning biology,...

 (USGS) in 1999 and consultation between 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) and New Zealand Geographic Board

New Zealand Geographic Board

The New Zealand Geographic Board is constituted under the New Zealand Geographic Board Act 2008, formerly under the New Zealand Geographic Board Act 1946. Although an independent institution, it is responsible to the Minister for Land Information...

 (NZGB), the name of the south block of Kirkwood Range was amended to Endeavour Massif to provide terminology better suited to the complex nature of the feature. For the sake of historical continuity the name Mount Endeavour has been retained for the summit northwest of Mount Creak. Both features are named after HMNZS Endeavour

HMNZS Endeavour (1956)

HMNZS Endeavour was a Royal New Zealand Navy Antarctic support vessel that made five voyages to the Antarctic. She was the first of three ships in the Royal New Zealand Navy to bear that name....

 (formerly John Biscoe), supply ship to the 1957 New Zealand Northern Survey Party.