Canada Glacier is a small

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 ...

flowing south-east into the northern side of Taylor Valley in

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 78th parallel south, 78°00'S, and westward from the Ross Sea to the edge of the Ant ...

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

. It is in the

Ross Dependency The Ross Dependency is a region of Antarctica defined by a circular sector, sector originating at the South Pole, passing along longitudes 160th meridian east, 160° east to 150th meridian west, 150° west, and terminating at latitude 60th para ...

. Its melting season is in the

summer Summer or summertime is the hottest and brightest of the four temperate seasons, occurring after spring and before autumn. At or centred on the summer solstice, daylight hours are the longest and darkness hours are the shortest, with day ...

Description

The glacier receives less than 10 cm of snowfall annually, and is (technically) an ecosystem. Its seasonal melting feeds

Lake Hoare Lake Hoare is a lake about long between Lake Chad and Canada Glacier in Taylor Valley, Victoria Land, Antarctica. Its surface area measures . The lake was named by the 8th Victoria University of Wellington Antarctic Expedition (VUWAE), 1963–6 ...

to the west and Lake Fryxell to the east. At the north side of its head sit the Hothem Cliffs.

History

The glacier was discovered and named in the course of the

Terra Nova Expedition The ''Terra Nova'' Expedition, officially the British Antarctic Expedition, was an expedition to Antarctica which took place between 1910 and 1913. Led by Captain Robert Falcon Scott, the expedition had various scientific and geographical objec ...

(1910–1913), under Robert Scott. Charles S. Wright, a

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

physicist A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate cau ...

, was a member of the party that explored the area.

Antarctic Specially Protected Area

An area of about 1 km² on the eastern side of the glacier is protected under the

Antarctic Treaty System The Antarctic Treaty and related agreements, collectively known as the Antarctic Treaty System (ATS), regulate international relations with respect to Antarctica, Earth's only continent without a native human population. It was the first arms ...

Antarctic Specially Protected Area An Antarctic Specially Protected Area (ASPA) is an area on the continent of Antarctica, or on nearby islands, which is protected by scientists and several different international bodies. The protected areas were established in 1961 under the Antarc ...

(ASPA) No.131 because it contains some of the richest plant growth (

bryophyte Bryophytes () are a group of embryophyte, land plants (embryophytes), sometimes treated as a taxonomic Division (taxonomy), division referred to as Bryophyta ''Sensu#Common qualifiers, sensu lato'', that contains three groups of non-vascular pla ...

s and

algae Algae ( , ; : alga ) is an informal term for any organisms of a large and diverse group of photosynthesis, photosynthetic organisms that are not plants, and includes species from multiple distinct clades. Such organisms range from unicellular ...

) in the

McMurdo Dry Valleys The McMurdo Dry Valleys are a row of largely Antarctic oasis, snow-free valleys in Antarctica, located within Victoria Land west of McMurdo Sound. The Dry Valleys experience extremely low humidity and surrounding mountains prevent the flow of ...

region. It is exceptionally important not only for its ecological and biological values, but also as a reference site for other similar

ecosystem An ecosystem (or ecological system) is a system formed by Organism, organisms in interaction with their Biophysical environment, environment. The Biotic material, biotic and abiotic components are linked together through nutrient cycles and en ...

s. The site comprises sloping ice-free ground with summer ponds and

meltwater Meltwater (or melt water) is water released by the melting of snow or ice, including glaciers, glacial ice, tabular icebergs and ice shelf, ice shelves over oceans. Meltwater is often found during early spring (season), spring when snow packs a ...

streams. It is unusual in receiving more consistent water flows than many other parts of the Dry Valleys region, and is sheltered from strong winds by the 20 m high glacier face.

References

* {{coord, 77, 37, S, 162, 59, E, type:glacier_region:AQ, display=title Antarctic Specially Protected Areas Glaciers of McMurdo Dry Valleys

Description

History

Antarctic Specially Protected Area

See also

Further reading

References