Balham Valley is an ice-free valley between the Insel Range and the Apocalypse Peaks, in Victoria Land, Antarctica. It was named by the Victoria University of Wellington Antarctic Expedition (1958–59) for R.W. Balham, biologist with the New Zealand party of the Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition who did the first freshwater biology in this area in 1957–58.
An area of 480 km2 (190 sq mi), comprising parts of both Balham Valley and the adjacent Barwick Valley, is protected under the Antarctic Treaty System as Antarctic Specially Protected Area (ASPA)-123 because it is one of the least disturbed or contaminated of the McMurdo Dry Valleys. It is consequently important as a reference base for measuring changes in the similar polar desert ecosystems of the other Dry Valleys where scientific investigations are conducted.[1]
