Wilkes Land, is a coastal region in Antarctica,and it extends along the Indian Ocean from longitude 102° East to 142°20' East.

This land  is named after Lieutenant Charles Wilkes , later become a Rear Admiral, the American explorer who commanded the 1838–42 United States Exploring Expedition.The picture below is that of Lieutenant Charles Wilkes

This naming in recognition of Wilkes' , who discovered continental margin over a distance of 2,400 km (1,500 miles) of coast, and enable to prove a  substantial proof that Antarctica is a continent.

But  this definition of extent excludes the area east of 142°02' E, George V Land, which was sighted by Wilkes but has been shown by later expeditions to be further south than the original position assigned by him.

This region lies between George V Coast on the east and Queen Mary Coast on the west. Not taking into consideration of  Adelie Coast, which is said to claimed by France, all of Wilkes Land and the adjoining hinterland form part of the Antarctic claims of Australia.

Wilkes Land is also famous as it was  featured prominently in the 1998 film The X-Files.

In this film Fox Mulder travels to Antarctica so as  to save his partner Dana Scully, as she was being held there against her will and in the process discovering a huge secret lab under the surface, which was run by the Cigarette-Smoking Man.

In the year 2006, a team of researchers which was  led by Ralph von Frese and Laramie Potts used gravity measurements by NASA's GRACE satellites and discovered  the 300-mile-wide Wilkes Land crater, which probably said ti have formed about 250 million years ago and the image of Ralph Von Frese is shown below