The Royal Society Range (78°10′S 162°40′E) is a majestic mountain range

Mountain range

A mountain range is a single, large mass consisting of a succession of mountains or narrowly spaced mountain ridges, with or without peaks, closely related in position, direction, formation, and age; a component part of a mountain system or of a mountain chain...

 in 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...

, Antarctica. With its summit

Summit (topography)

In topography, a summit is a point on a surface that is higher in elevation than all points immediately adjacent to it. Mathematically, a summit is a local maximum in elevation...

 at 4025 metres (13,205.4 ft), the massive Mount Lister

Mount Lister

Mount Lister is a massive mountain, high, forming the highest point in the Royal Society Range of Victoria Land. It was discovered by the British National Antarctic Expedition which named it for Lord Joseph Lister, President of the Royal Society, 1895–1900....

 forms the highest point in this range. Mount Lister is located along the western shore of McMurdo Sound

McMurdo Sound

The ice-clogged waters of Antarctica's McMurdo Sound extend about 55 km long and wide. The sound opens into the Ross Sea to the north. The Royal Society Range rises from sea level to 13,205 feet on the western shoreline. The nearby McMurdo Ice Shelf scribes McMurdo Sound's southern boundary...

 between the Koettlitz

Koettlitz Glacier

The Koettlitz Glacier is a large Antarctic glacier lying west of Mount Morning and Mount Discovery, flowing from the vicinity of Mount Cocks northeastward between Brown Peninsula and the mainland into the ice shelf of McMurdo Sound....

, Skelton

Skelton Glacier

Skelton Glacier is a large glacier flowing from the polar plateau into the Ross Ice Shelf at Skelton Inlet on the Hillary Coast, south of Victoria Land, Antarctica.-Discovery and naming:...

 and Ferrar

Ferrar Glacier

The Ferrar Glacier is an Antarctic glacier about long, flowing from the plateau of Victoria Land west of the Royal Society Range to New Harbour in McMurdo Sound. The glacier makes a right turn northeast of Knobhead, where it is apposed, i.e., joined in Siamese-twin fashion, to Taylor Glacier...

 glaciers. Other notable local terrain features include Allison Glacier

Allison Glacier (Antarctica)

Allison Glacier is a small glacier in Victoria Land, Antarctica. Its head is located just north of Mount Huggins, descending from the west slopes of Royal Society Range into Skelton Glacier...

, which descends from the west slopes of the Royal Society Range into Skelton Glacier.

Discovery and naming

The range was probably first seen by Captain James Clark Ross

James Clark Ross

Sir James Clark Ross , was a British naval officer and explorer. He explored the Arctic with his uncle Sir John Ross and Sir William Parry, and later led his own expedition to Antarctica.-Arctic explorer:...

 in 1841.

The range was explored by the British National Antarctic Expedition

Discovery Expedition

The British National Antarctic Expedition, 1901–04, generally known as the Discovery Expedition, was the first official British exploration of the Antarctic regions since James Clark Ross's voyage sixty years earlier...

 (BrNAE) under Robert Falcon Scott

Robert Falcon Scott

Captain Robert Falcon Scott, CVO was a Royal Navy officer and explorer who led two expeditions to the Antarctic regions: the Discovery Expedition, 1901–04, and the ill-fated Terra Nova Expedition, 1910–13...

, who named the range after the Royal Society

Royal Society

The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, known simply as the Royal Society, is a learned society for science, and is possibly the oldest such society in existence. Founded in November 1660, it was granted a Royal Charter by King Charles II as the "Royal Society of London"...

 and applied names of its members to many of its peaks. For example, Mount Lister was named for Lord Joseph Lister

Joseph Lister, 1st Baron Lister

Joseph Lister, 1st Baron Lister OM, FRS, PC , known as Sir Joseph Lister, Bt., between 1883 and 1897, was a British surgeon and a pioneer of antiseptic surgery, who promoted the idea of sterile surgery while working at the Glasgow Royal Infirmary...

, President of the Royal Society, 1895-1900. The Royal Society provided financial support to the expedition and its members had assisted on the committee which organized the expedition.