Skelton Glacier is a large

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

flowing from the

polar plateau The Antarctic Plateau, Polar Plateau or King Haakon VII Plateau is a large area of East Antarctica which extends over a diameter of about , and includes the region of the geographic South Pole and the Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station. This h ...

into the

Ross Ice Shelf The Ross Ice Shelf is the largest ice shelf of Antarctica (, an area of roughly and about across: about the size of France). It is several hundred metres thick. The nearly vertical ice front to the open sea is more than long, and between h ...

Skelton Inlet The Skelton Inlet is an ice-filled inlet at the terminus of the Skelton Glacier, along the western edge of the Ross Ice Shelf in Antarctica. The feature is about 16 km (10 mi) wide at the entry points between Cape Timberlake and Fishtai ...

on the

Hillary Coast The Hillary Coast is a portion of the coast of Antarctica along the western margin of the Ross Ice Shelf between Minna Bluff and Cape Selborne. It was named by the New Zealand Antarctic Place-Names Committee in 1961 for Sir Edmund Hillary, the ...

, south of

Victoria Land Victoria Land is a region in eastern Antarctica which fronts the western side of the Ross Sea and the Ross Ice Shelf, extending southward from about 70°30'S to 78°00'S, and westward from the Ross Sea to the edge of the Antarctic Plateau. I ...

Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean, it contains the geographic South Pole. Antarctica is the fifth-largest co ...

Discovery and naming

Named after the Skelton Inlet by the

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 List of islands of New Zealand, smaller islands. It is the ...

party of the CTAE, 1956–58. The glacier was chosen in 1957 as the New Zealand party's route from the

to the

in support of the main expedition led by

Vivian Fuchs Sir Vivian Ernest Fuchs ( ; 11 February 1908 – 11 November 1999) was an English scientist-explorer and expedition organizer. He led the Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition which reached the South Pole overland in 1958. Biography Fuchs ...

to make the first overland crossing of the continent.

Allison Glacier Allison Glacier () is an ice stream on the west side of Heard Island in the southern Indian Ocean. Allison Glacier flows from Big Ben massif down to the sea to the south of Cape Gazert. To the north of Allison Glacier is Vahsel Glacier, whose ...

descends from the west slopes of

Royal Society Range The Royal Society Range () is a mountain range in Victoria Land, Antarctica. With its summit at , the massive Mount Lister forms the highest point in this range. Mount Lister is located along the western shore of McMurdo Sound between the Koet ...

into Skelton Glacier. It was also the route of the four month Victoria Land Traverse 1959-1960 which ascended the Skelton Glacier from the Ross Ice Shelf to make the first entry into the deep interior of Victoria Land from the head of the Skelton Glacier to the French Adelie Land Traverse of 1958-1959 near

Dumont d'Urville Station The Dumont d'Urville Station (french: Base antarctique Dumont-d'Urville) is a French scientific station in Antarctica on Île des Pétrels, archipelago of Pointe-Géologie in Adélie Land. It is named after explorer Jules Dumont d'Urville, whos ...

George V Coast George V Coast () is that portion of the coast of Antarctica lying between Point Alden, at 148°2′E, and Cape Hudson, at 153°45′E. Portions of this coast were sighted by the US Exploring Expedition in 1840. It was explored by members of t ...

, and thence to the

Transantarctic Mountains The Transantarctic Mountains (abbreviated TAM) comprise a mountain range of uplifted (primarily sedimentary) rock in Antarctica which extend, with some interruptions, across the continent from Cape Adare in northern Victoria Land to Coats Land. ...

in the vicinity of the

USARP Mountains The Usarp Mountains are a major Antarctic mountain range, lying west of the Rennick Glacier and trending north to south for about . The feature is bounded to the north by Pryor Glacier and the Wilson Hills. These mountains were discovered and ...

Discovery and naming

See also

References

Further reading