Astrolabe 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 ...
wide and long, flowing north-northeast from the continental ice and terminating at the coast in a prominent tongue at the east side of
Géologie Archipelago
The Géologie Archipelago, also known as the Pointe Géologie Archipelago, Geology Archipelago or Cape Geology Archipelago, is a small archipelago of rocky islands and rocks close to the north of Cape Géodésie and Astrolabe Glacier Tongue, ext ...
.
History
It was first sighted in 1840 by the French expedition under Captain
Jules Dumont d'Urville
Jules Sébastien César Dumont d'Urville (; 23 May 1790 – 8 May 1842) was a French List of explorers, explorer and French Navy, naval officer who explored the south and western Pacific, Australia, New Zealand and Antarctica. As a botanist an ...
, although no glaciers were noted on d'Urville's chart of this coast but a formidable icy dike with perpendicular flanks of 37.7 m high according to the joined plate, corresponding to the glacier tongue.
''Prise de possession de la Terre Adélie'' (plate 171 of ''Voyage au Pôle sud et dans l'Océanie sur les corvettes "l'Astrolabe" et "la Zélée"''), site of Secretariat of the Antarctic Treaty, Documents, Historic Sites and Monuments : view from the west towards the glacier tongue on January 22, 1840.
/ref> The glacier was photographed from the air by U.S. Navy Operation Highjump
Operation HIGHJUMP, officially titled The United States Navy Antarctic Developments Program, 1946–1947, (also called Task Force 68), was a United States Navy (USN) operation to establish the Antarctic research base Little America (exploration b ...
in January 1947. It was charted by the French Antarctic Expedition
The French Antarctic Expedition is any of several French expeditions in Antarctica.
1837–1840
In 1837, during an 1837–1840 expedition across the deep southern hemisphere, Captain Jules Dumont d'Urville sailed his ship ''Astrolabe'' alo ...
, 1949–51, and named after d'Urville's flagship, the ''Astrolabe''.
Glacier Tounge
The Astrolabe Glacier Tongue () is a prominent glacier tongue about wide and long, extending northeast from Astrolabe Glacier.
Located in the Terre Adélie-George V Land section of East Antarctica, Astrolabe Glacier streams out from the interior of Antarctica to dump ice into the sea.
See also
* List of glaciers in the Antarctic
There are many glaciers in the Antarctic. This set of lists does not include ice sheets, ice caps or ice fields, such as the Antarctic ice sheet, but includes glacial features that are defined by their flow, rather than general bodies of ice ...
* Glaciology
Glaciology (; ) is the scientific study of glaciers, or, more generally, ice and natural phenomena that involve ice.
Glaciology is an interdisciplinary Earth science that integrates geophysics, geology, physical geography, geomorphology, clim ...
References
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Footnotes
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Glaciers of Adélie Land
Glaciers of Antarctica