Rutford Ice Stream () is a major Antarctic

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 ...

, about long and over wide, which drains southeastward between the

Sentinel Range The Sentinel Range is a major mountain range situated northward of Minnesota Glacier and forming the northern half of the Ellsworth Mountains in Antarctica. The range trends NNW-SSE for about and is wide. Many peaks rise over and Vinson Mass ...

Ellsworth Mountains The Ellsworth Mountains are the highest mountain ranges in Antarctica, forming a long and wide chain of mountains in a north to south configuration on the western margin of the Ronne Ice Shelf in Marie Byrd Land. They are bisected by Minneso ...

and

Fletcher Ice Rise Fletcher Ice Rise (), or Fletcher Promontory, is a large ice rise, long and wide, at the southwest side of the Ronne Ice Shelf, Antarctica. The feature is completely ice covered and rises between Rutford Ice Stream and Carlson Inlet. The ice r ...

into the southwest part of Ronne Ice Shelf. Named by US-ACAN for geologist Robert Hoxie Rutford, a member of several USARP expeditions to Antarctica; leader of the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota Twin Cities (historically known as University of Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint ...

Ellsworth Mountains Party, 1963-1964. Rutford served as Director of the Division of Polar Programs,

National Science Foundation The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) is an Independent agencies of the United States government#Examples of independent agencies, independent agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government that su ...

, 1975-1977. The ice stream is situated in a deep trough which is a tectonic feature between the Ellsworth Mountains and the Fletcher Promontory. Because of this the ice stream position may have been stable for millions of years. The bed of the ice stream reaches below

sea level Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an mean, average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal Body of water, bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical ...

. Therefore, between the bed of the ice stream and the height of the Ellsworth Mountains there is a vertical

relief Relief is a sculpture, sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces remain attached to a solid background of the same material. The term ''wikt:relief, relief'' is from the Latin verb , to raise (). To create a sculpture in relief is to give ...

of over a distance of only . At the upper (inland) end of the ice stream the ice thickness reaches falling to around in the trough. Flow speed reaches a maximum of around per year about inland from where the ice stream meets the Ronne Ice Shelf and starts to float on the sea. The speed of the Rutford ice stream varies by as much as 20% every two weeks, in response to variations in the

tides Tides are the rise and fall of sea levels caused by the combined effects of the gravitational forces exerted by the Moon (and to a much lesser extent, the Sun) and are also caused by the Earth and Moon orbiting one another. Tide tables ...

.ScienceDaily, ''Tidal Motion Influences Antarctic Ice Sheet'' Dec. 24, 2006
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Tributary glaciers

* Yamen Glacier * Vicha Glacier * Newcomer Glacier * Vit Ice Piedmont * Embree Glacier * Young Glacier *

Ranuli Ice Piedmont Ranuli Ice Piedmont (, ) is the glacier extending in south-southeast to north-northwest direction and in west-southwest to east-northeast direction on the east side of Sentinel Range in Ellsworth Mountains, Antarctica. It is draining the ea ...

Ellen Glacier The Ellen Glacier is a glacier in the central Sentinel Range of the Ellsworth Mountains of Antarctica. It drains the eastern slopes of Mount Anderson and Long Gables and flows generally southeast for to Barnes Ridge, where it leaves the ran ...

* Lardeya Ice Piedmont * Guerrero Glacier * Hough Glacier *

Remington Glacier Remington Glacier is a steep glacier about long in Doyran Heights in the Sentinel Range of Ellsworth Mountains, Antarctica. It rises just north of McPherson Peak and flows east-southeast to debouch between the terminus of Hough Glacier and ...

* Thomas Glacier * Razboyna Glacier * Drama Glacier * Gabare Glacier * Divdyadovo Glacier * Minnesota Glacier * Union Glacier

References

{{authority control West Antarctica Ellsworth Mountains Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf Ice streams of Queen Elizabeth Land

Tributary glaciers

See also

Further reading

References