Murray Monolith

Murray Monolith is a detached part of Torlyn Mountain in Mac.Robertson Land, Antarctica.

It is a steep massif of metasedimentary gneiss and granitic origin, with the adjacent coastline consisting of 40 m high ice cliffs.

[1] It was discovered during the British Australian New Zealand Antarctic Research Expedition (BANZARE), led by Douglas Mawson, 1929–1931, and named after Sir George Murray, Chief Justice of South Australia Chancellor of the University of Adelaide and a patron of the expedition.

[2] As one of the very few pieces of exposed rock on the East Antarctic coast, together with the Scullin Monolith 6 km to the west, it holds the greatest concentration of seabird breeding colonies in East Antarctica, including 160,000 pairs of Antarctic petrels, and 70,000 pairs of Adelie penguins.

[3] Coincident in coverage with ASPA 164, the two monoliths have also been designated an Important Bird Area (IBA) by BirdLife International because of the significant seabird colonies present.