Heilprin Glacier (), is a

glacier A glacier (; or ) is a persistent body of dense ice, a form of rock, that is constantly moving downhill under its own weight. A glacier forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its ablation over many years, often centuries. It acquires ...

in northwestern

Greenland Greenland is an autonomous territory in the Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark. It is by far the largest geographically of three constituent parts of the kingdom; the other two are metropolitan Denmark and the Faroe Islands. Citizens of Greenlan ...

. Administratively it belongs to the

Avannaata Avannaata (, ) is a municipality of Greenland created on 1 January 2018 from the bulk of the former Qaasuitsup municipality. It encompasses an area of 522,700 km2 and has 10,726 inhabitants. Geography In the south, Avannaata is flanked ...

municipality. This glacier was named by

Robert Peary Robert Edwin Peary Sr. (; May 6, 1856 – February 20, 1920) was an American explorer and officer in the United States Navy who made several expeditions to the Arctic in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He was long credited as being ...

after geologist, paleontologist and naturalist

Angelo Heilprin Angelo Heilprin (March 31, 1853 – July 17, 1907 in science, 1907) was an American geologist, paleontologist, natural history, naturalist, and explorer. He is mostly known for the part he took into the Peary expedition to Greenland of 1891–189 ...

(1853 – 1907), curator of the

Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences The Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University, formerly the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, is the oldest natural science research institution and museum in the Americas. It was founded in 1812, by many of the leading natur ...

, who took part in the

Peary expedition to Greenland of 1891–92 Peary may refer to: People Last name * Danny Peary (born 1949), American film critic and sports writer * Gerald Peary (born 1944), American film critic * Harold Peary (1908–1985), American actor, comedian and singer * Josephine Diebitsch Peary ...

.Robert Neff Keely, Gwilym George Davis, ''In Arctic Seas: the Voyage of the Kite with the Peary Expedition,'' 2011 p. 373

Geography

The Heilprin Glacier discharges from the

Greenland Ice Sheet The Greenland ice sheet is an ice sheet which forms the second largest body of ice in the world. It is an average of thick and over thick at its maximum. It is almost long in a north–south direction, with a maximum width of at a latitude ...

into the head of the

Inglefield Fjord Inglefield Gulf or Inglefield Fjord (; ) is a fjord in northwestern Greenland. To the west, the fjord opens into the Baffin Bay. Administratively it belongs to the Avannaata municipality. Inglefield Gulf was named after English explorer Edward A ...

just east of the

Harvard Islands The Harvard Islands () are an island group east of Qaanaaq in the Avannaata Municipality, northwestern Greenland. They are located near the head of the Inglefield Fjord, north of the mouth of the Academy Fjord and just east of the terminus of th ...

and northeast of Quajaqqisaarsuaq. Its terminus lies between the

Smithson Range Smithson or Smythson is an England, English surname and (less often) a given name. Notable people bearing the name include: Architects *Alison and Peter Smithson, 20th-century British architects *Robert Smythson, 16th-century English architect, fa ...

nunatak A nunatak (from Inuit language, Inuit ) is the summit or ridge of a mountain that protrudes from an ice field or glacier that otherwise covers most of the mountain or ridge. They often form natural pyramidal peaks. Isolated nunataks are also cal ...

that separates it from the Tracy Glacier to the north, and Nunatarsuaq, a plateau dotted with lakes to the south. Both neighboring glaciers drain roughly of the Greenland Ice Sheet. Although the Heilprin Glacier is contiguous to the Tracy Glacier, both glaciers have a different nature, a fact which has been a source of puzzlement for scientists for over a century.

References

External links

NASA - Decline of Two Glaciers in Northwest GreenlandIdentifying Spatial Variability in Greenland's Outlet Glacier Response to Ocean HeatThe recent regimen of the ice cap margin in North Greenland
Glaciers of Greenland {{Greenland-glacier-stub

Geography

See also

References

External links