**4. Larsemann Hills/Prydz Bay Area**

The Larsemann Hills represents one of the largest coastal ice free area of Antarctica, located in the Prydz Bay Region on the Ingrid Christensen Coast. The area is comparatively free of ice shelf with hills protruding in the sea as two prominent peninsulas- Broknes and Stornes Peninsula. In between these two, smaller landmasses namely Grovnes and Brattnevet promontory and several smaller islands (McLeod, Fisher, and Bens etc.) dot this region (**Figure 7**). The area exposes Proterozoic felsic/gneissic basement, overlain by a pelitic and psammitic paragniesses rocks, dominated by medium to coarse grained garnet bearing gneisses as compared to Archean gneisses with s crossing cutting mafic dykes found in Vestfold Hills.
