Wilkniss Mountains is a prominent group of conical mountain

Mountain

Image:Himalaya_annotated.jpg|thumb|right|The Himalayan mountain range with Mount Everestrect 58 14 160 49 Chomo Lonzorect 200 28 335 52 Makalurect 378 24 566 45 Mount Everestrect 188 581 920 656 Tibetan Plateaurect 250 406 340 427 Rong River...

s, 10 miles (16 km) long running north-south, located 9 miles (14 km) east-southeast of Mount Feather, Quartermain Mountains

Quartermain Mountains

Quartermain Mountains is a group of exposed mountains, about 20 miles long, typical of ice-free features of the McMurdo Dry Valleys, Victoria Land, located south of Taylor Glacier and bounded by Finger Mountain, Mount Handsley, Mount Feather and Tabular Mountain; also including Knobhead, Terra...

, 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. The mountains are 3 miles (4.8 km) wide in the north portion where Mount Blackwelder

Mount Blackwelder

Mount Blackwelder is a sharp, mainly ice-free peak in north Wilkniss Mountains, Victoria Land, rising to 2,340 m west of Vernier Valley and 10 km north of Pivot Peak....

 (2,340 m) and Pivot Peak

Pivot Peak

Pivot Peak is a prominent conical peak, 2,470 m, distinguished by a large northeast cirque and as the highest point in Wilkniss Mountains, Victoria Land. The New Zealand Northern Survey Party of the Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition established a survey station on its summit on January 21,...

 (2,450 m) rise above ice-free valleys. Except for an outlying southwest peak

Pyramidal peak

A pyramidal peak, or sometimes in its most extreme form called a glacial horn, is a mountaintop that has been modified by the action of ice during glaciation and frost weathering...

, the south portion narrows to a series of mainly ice-covered smaller peaks. 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) in 1992 after Peter E. Wilkniss, a chemist who from 1975 has served in various positions at the National Science Foundation

National Science Foundation

The National Science Foundation is a United States government agency that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National Institutes of Health...

, including Deputy Assistant Director of the Directorate for Scientific, Technological, and International Affairs; Director, Division of Polar Programs, 1984–93; senior science associate to the Assistant Director for Geosciences, from 1993.