Mount Black is a prominent mountain, 3005 metre high, with a gentle snow-covered slope on its southwest side and a steep rock face on its northwest side, forming a part of the polar escarpment just west of Bennett Platform

Bennett Platform

Bennett Platform is a high, nearly flat, snow-free mesa of dark rock, about long and wide, located immediately east of Mount Black, on the west side of Shackleton Glacier. It was discovered and photographed by U.S...

 and the upper reaches of Shackleton Glacier

Shackleton Glacier

Shackleton Glacier is a major Antarctic glacier, over long and from 8 to 16 km wide, descending from the polar plateau from the vicinity of Roberts Massif and flowing north through the Queen Maud Mountains to enter the Ross Ice Shelf between Mount Speed and Waldron Spurs. The Roberts Massif...

. It was discovered and photographed by R. Admiral Byrd on his return flight from the South Pole

South Pole

The South Pole, also known as the Geographic South Pole or Terrestrial South Pole, is one of the two points where the Earth's axis of rotation intersects its surface. It is the southernmost point on the surface of the Earth and lies on the opposite side of the Earth from the North Pole...

 in November 1929, and named by him for Van Lear Black

Van Lear Black

Van Lear Black was an American Publisher and civil aviation pioneer.- Early life :Black was born in Cumberland, Maryland as part of a wealthy family with a linage to the American Revolution. He married Jessie Gary and had four children. Gary was the daughter of James A. Gary, Postmaster General...

, American financier and contributor to the Byrd Antarctic Expedition of 1928–30 and 1933–35.