Whitmer Peninsula is a broad ice-capped

Ice cap

An ice cap is an ice mass that covers less than 50 000 km² of land area . Masses of ice covering more than 50 000 km² are termed an ice sheet....

 peninsula

Peninsula

A peninsula is a piece of land that is bordered by water on three sides but connected to mainland. In many Germanic and Celtic languages and also in Baltic, Slavic and Hungarian, peninsulas are called "half-islands"....

, about 7 nautical miles (13 km) long and wide, between Cheetham Ice Tongue

Cheetham Ice Tongue

Cheetham Ice Tongue is a small ice tongue on the east coast of Victoria Land between Lamplugh Island and Whitmer Peninsula. It projects eastward into the Ross Sea. The tongue appears to be nourished in part by Davis Glacier and partly by ice draining from Lamplugh Island and Whitmer Peninsula...

 and Harbord Glacier Tongue

Harbord Glacier Tongue

Harbord Glacier Tongue is a glacier tongue forming the seaward extension of Harbord Glacier on the coast of Victoria Land. First charted by the British Antarctic Expedition under Shackleton, 1907–09, at which time it extended about 5 nautical miles into the Ross Sea. Named by Shackleton for A.E....

 on the coast 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...

. Mapped 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) from surveys and U.S. Navy air photos, 1957-62. 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 (j.g.) R.D. Whitmer, U.S. Navy, who wintered over at Williams Field

Williams Field

Williams Field or Willy Field is a United States Antarctic Program airfield in Antarctica. Williams Field consists of two snow runways located on approximately 8 meters of compacted snow, lying on top of 80 meters of ice, floating over 550 meters of water...

, 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...

, in 1956. He returned to Antarctica with U.S. Naval Construction Battalion units during Deep Freeze

Deep Freeze

Deep Freeze may refer to:* Operation Deep Freeze, a series of American expeditions to Antarctica beginning in 1955* Deep Freeze Range, a mountain range in Antarctica* Deep Freeze , a protective program...

1966 and 1967.