Steele Island is a snow-covered island, 12 miles long from east to west and 10 miles wide, rising above the Larsen Ice Shelf

Larsen Ice Shelf

The Larsen Ice Shelf is a long, fringing ice shelf in the northwest part of the Weddell Sea, extending along the east coast of Antarctic Peninsula from Cape Longing to the area just southward of Hearst Island...

 off the east 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...

, 12 miles southeast of Cape Sharbonneau

Cape Sharbonneau

Cape Sharbonneau is a rounded, snow-covered headland forming the south side of the entrance to Lehrke Inlet, on the east coast of Palmer Land. Members of the East Base of the United States Antarctic Service explored this coast in 1940. They charted this feature as an island which they named for...

. The steeply-sloping sides of the island are crevassed, but no rock is exposed. It was discovered by members of East Base of the US Antarctic Service (USAS) in 1940, and named for Clarence E. Steele, tractor driver for the East Base.