The Recovery Glacier () is a glacier, at least long and wide at its mouth, flowing west along the southern side of the

Shackleton Range The Shackleton Range () is a mountain range in Antarctica that rises to and extends in an east–west direction for about between the Slessor and Recovery Glaciers. Surveys The Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition (CTAE), which in 1956 s ...

in Antarctica.

Discovery and name

The Recovery Glacier was first seen from the air and examined from the ground by the

Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition The Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition (CTAE) of 1955–1958 was a Commonwealth-sponsored expedition that successfully completed the first overland crossing of Antarctica, via the South Pole. It was the first expedition to reach the South ...

in 1957. It was so named because of the recovery of the expedition's vehicles which repeatedly broke into bridged

crevasse A crevasse is a deep crack that forms in a glacier or ice sheet. Crevasses form as a result of the movement and resulting stress associated with the shear stress generated when two semi-rigid pieces above a plastic substrate have different rate ...

s on this glacier during the early stages of the crossing of Antarctica.

Glaciology

Dana Floricioiu and Irena Hajnsek of the German Aerospace Centre spoke on the radar data showing the interior of the Recovery Glacier at the IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium in Cape Town, South Africa, in July 2009. The data comes from the German public-private satellite Terrasar-X and when combined with Radarsat-1 shows the changes in the glacier over 11 years.

Features

Recovery Ice Stream

This

ice stream An ice stream is a region of fast-moving ice within an ice sheet. It is a type of glacier, a body of ice that moves under its own weight. They can move upwards of a year, and can be up to in width, and hundreds of kilometers in length. They t ...

drains part of the

East Antarctic Ice Sheet The East Antarctic Ice Sheet (EAIS) lies between 45th meridian west, 45° west and 168th meridian east, 168° east longitudinally. It was first formed around 34 million years ago, and it is the largest ice sheet on the entire planet, with far gre ...

into the glacier. It is nearly long and feeds the

Filchner Ice Shelf Wilhelm Filchner (13 September 1877 – 7 May 1957) was a German army officer, scientist and explorer. He conducted several surveys and scientific investigations in China, Tibet and surrounding regions, and led the Second German Antarctic Expediti ...

over the

Weddell Sea The Weddell Sea is part of the Southern Ocean and contains the Weddell Gyre. Its land boundaries are defined by the bay formed from the coasts of Coats Land and the Antarctic Peninsula. The easternmost point is Cape Norvegia at Princess Martha C ...

. The area contains four

subglacial lake A subglacial lake is a lake that is found under a glacier, typically beneath an ice cap or ice sheet. Subglacial lakes form at the boundary between ice and the underlying bedrock, where liquid water can exist above the lower melting point of ic ...

s. This causes the

ice flow 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 d ...

rate to vary dramatically, ranging between 2 and 50 meters per year. The ice stream drains about 35 billion

ton Ton is any of several units of measure of mass, volume or force. It has a long history and has acquired several meanings and uses. As a unit of mass, ''ton'' can mean: * the '' long ton'', which is * the ''tonne'', also called the ''metric ...

s of water and ice into the ocean each year. The entire East Antarctic ice sheet releases about 57 billion tons a year.

Glen Glacier

. A glacier at least long, flowing south in the Shackleton Range to join the Recovery Glacier to the west of the

Read Mountains Read Mountains is a group of rocky summits, the highest being Holmes Summit at , lying east of Glen Glacier in the south-central part of the Shackleton Range. Name The Read Mountains were first mapped in 1957 by the Commonwealth Trans-Antarct ...

. First mapped in 1957 by the

(CTAE) and named for Alexander R. Glen, member of the Committee of Management of the CTAE, 1955-58.

Cornwall Glacier

. A glacier long, flowing south from Crossover Pass in the

to join Recovery Glacier east of Ram Bow Bluff. First mapped in 1957 by the CTAE and named for Gen. Sir James Marshall-Cornwall, member of the Committee of Management of the CTAE, 1955-58.

Blackwall Ice Stream

. A slightly S-shaped ice stream about long and wide. It descends from about high to high where it joins Recovery Glacier between

Argentina Range The Argentina Range () is a range of rock peaks and bluffs, long, lying east of the northern part of Forrestal Range in the northeastern portion of the Pensacola Mountains of Antarctica. Discovery and name The Argentina Range was discovered a ...

and

Whichaway Nunataks The Recovery Glacier () is a glacier, at least long and wide at its mouth, flowing west along the southern side of the Shackleton Range in Antarctica. Discovery and name The Recovery Glacier was first seen from the air and examined from the ...

. It was named after Hugh Blackwall Evans (1874-1975), Canadian naturalist with the

British Antarctic Expedition, 1898–1900 The ''Southern Cross'' Expedition, otherwise known as the British Antarctic Expedition, 1898–1900, was the first British venture of the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration, and the forerunner of the more celebrated journeys of Robert Falcon Sc ...

, led by

Carsten Borchgrevink Carsten Egeberg Borchgrevink (1 December 186421 April 1934) was a Norwegian polar explorer and a pioneer of Antarctic travel. He inspired Sir Robert Falcon Scott, Sir Ernest Shackleton, Roald Amundsen, and others associated with the Heroic Age ...

Whichaway Nunataks

. A group of rocky nunataks extending for and marking the south side of the mouth of Recovery Glacier. First seen from the air and visited in 1957 by the CTAE and so named because it was uncertain which route from the nunataks would lead furthest inland.

References

Sources

* * * * * * {{Glaciers of Coats Land Ice streams of Antarctica Glaciers of Coats Land Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf Subglacial lakes