Mercury Glacier () is a

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 as ...

on the east coast of

Alexander Island Alexander Island, which is also known as Alexander I Island, Alexander I Land, Alexander Land, Alexander I Archipelago, and Zemlja Alexandra I, is the largest island of Antarctica. It lies in the Bellingshausen Sea west of Palmer Land, Antarc ...

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 cont ...

, long and wide, flowing east into

George VI Sound George VI Sound or Canal Jorge VI or Canal Presidente Sarmiento or Canal Seaver or King George VI Sound or King George the Sixth Sound is a major bay/ fault depression, 300 miles (483 km) long and mainly covered by a permanent ice shelf. It ...

between the Waitabit Cliffs and Keystone Cliffs. The glacier was probably first sighted from a distance by

Lincoln Ellsworth Lincoln Ellsworth (May 12, 1880 – May 26, 1951) was a polar explorer from the United States and a major benefactor of the American Museum of Natural History. Biography Lincoln Ellsworth was born on May 12, 1880, to James Ellsworth and Eva F ...

, who flew near it and photographed segments of this coast on November 23, 1935. It was named by the

UK Antarctic Place-Names Committee The UK Antarctic Place-Names Committee (or UK-APC) is a United Kingdom government committee, part of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, responsible for recommending names of geographical locations within the British Antarctic Territory (BAT) and ...

for the planet Mercury following rough surveys from George VI Sound by the

Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey The British Antarctic Survey (BAS) is the United Kingdom's national polar research institute. It has a dual purpose, to conduct polar science, enabling better understanding of global issues, and to provide an active presence in the Antarctic o ...

(FIDS) in 1948 and 1949. The glacier was mapped in detail from air photos taken by the Ronne Antarctic Research Expedition, 1947–48, by

D. Searle D. or d. may refer to, usually as an abbreviation: * Don (honorific), a form of address in Spain, Portugal, Italy, and their former overseas empires, usually given to nobles or other individuals of high social rank. * Date of death, as an abbreviati ...

of the FIDS in 1960. Although Mercury Glacier is not located within the Planet Heights, it is named in association with the heights along with many other nearby glaciers named after planets of the

Solar System The Solar System Capitalization of the name varies. The International Astronomical Union, the authoritative body regarding astronomical nomenclature, specifies capitalizing the names of all individual astronomical objects but uses mixed "Solar ...

References

Glaciers of Alexander Island {{AlexanderIsland-glacier-stub

See also

References