Posadowsky Glacier (german: Posadowskygletscher, ) 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#Glaciology, ablation over many years, often Century, centuries. It acquires dis ...

about long, flowing north to Posadowsky Bay immediately east of

Gaussberg Gaussberg (or Schwarzen Berg, Mount Gauss) is an extinct, high volcanic cone in East Antarctica fronting on Davis Sea immediately west of Posadowsky Glacier. It is ice-free and conical in nature, having formed subglacially about 55,000 y ...

. Posadowsky Bay is an open embayment, located just east of the

West Ice Shelf The West Ice Shelf is a prominent ice shelf extending about in an east–west direction along the Leopold and Astrid Coast in East Antarctica between Barrier Bay and Posadowsky Bay, and up to 120 km northwards from the continental mar ...

and fronting on the

Davis Sea Davis Sea is an area of the sea along the coast of East Antarctica between West Ice Shelf in the west and the Shackleton Ice Shelf in the east, or between 82° and 96°E. The name "Davis Sea" appears in most leading geographically authoritati ...

Kaiser Wilhelm II Land Kaiser Wilhelm II Land is a part of Antarctica lying between Cape Penck at 87° 43'E and Cape Filchner at 91° 54'E. Princess Elizabeth Land is located to the west, and Queen Mary Land to the east. The area is claimed by Australia ...

. Kaiser Wilhelm II Land is the part of

East Antarctica East Antarctica, also called Greater Antarctica, constitutes the majority (two-thirds) of the Antarctic continent, lying on the Indian Ocean side of the continent, separated from West Antarctica by the Transantarctic Mountains. It lies almost ...

lying between

Cape Penck Cape Penck is an ice-covered point fronting on the West Ice Shelf about 35 miles west-northwest of Gaussberg, separating the Leopold and Astrid Coast from the Wilhelm II Coast. It was roughly charted by the Western Base Party of the Australasian A ...

, at 87°43'E, and

Cape Filchner Cape Filchner is an ice-covered cape fronting on Davis Sea, 17 miles west-northwest (WNW) of Adams Island. Cape Filchner is located at {{Coord, 66, 27, S, 91, 54, E, display=inline,title. Cape Filchner is the division between Wilhelm II Coast and ...

, at 91°54'E, and is claimed by

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

as part of the

Australian Antarctic Territory The Australian Antarctic Territory (AAT) is a part of East Antarctica claimed by Australia as an external territory. It is administered by the Australian Antarctic Division, an agency of the federal Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Env ...

. Other notable geographic features in this area include

Drygalski Island Drygalski Island is an ice-capped island that is long and rises to in the Davis Sea of the Southern Ocean, about north of the coast of Queen Mary Land and north-northeast of Cape Filchner. The island has an area of . Drygalski Island was f ...

(), located 45 mi NNE of Cape Filchner in the Davis Sea, and

Mirny Station The Mirny Station (russian: Мирный, literally ''Peaceful'') is a Russian (formerly Soviet) first Antarctic science station located in Queen Mary Land, Antarctica, on the Antarctic coast of the Davis Sea. The station is managed by the Ar ...

(), a

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

n scientific research station.

Discovery and naming

The glacier was observed in February 1902 from the summit of Gaussberg by the

Gauss expedition The ''Gauss'' expedition of 1901–1903 (also known as the ''Deutsche Südpolar-Expedition 1901–1903)'' was the first German expedition to Antarctica. It was led by geologist Erich von Drygalski in the ship , named after the mathematician and ...

under

Erich von Drygalski Erich Dagobert von Drygalski (; February 9, 1865 – January 10, 1949) was a German geographer, geophysicist and polar scientist, born in Königsberg, East Prussia. Between 1882 and 1887, Drygalski studied mathematics and natural science at t ...

. The U.S.

Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names The Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names (ACAN or US-ACAN) is an advisory committee of the United States Board on Geographic Names responsible for recommending commemorative names for features in Antarctica. History The committee was established ...

(US-ACAN) named the glacier after Drygalski's Posadowsky Bay in 1955 following studies of the aerial photographs taken by

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

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 IV. The opera ...

, 1946–47. Posadowsky Bay, in turn, was named for Count

Arthur von Posadowsky-Wehner Arthur Adolf, Count of Posadowsky-Wehner, Baron of Postelwitz (german: Arthur Graf von Posadowsky-Wehner Freiherr von Postelwitz, 3 June 1845 – 23 October 1932) was a German conservative statesman. He served as the secretary for the Treasury (18 ...

Secretary of the Interior Secretary of the Interior may refer to: * Secretary of the Interior (Mexico) * Interior Secretary of Pakistan * Secretary of the Interior and Local Government (Philippines) * United States Secretary of the Interior See also

*Interior ministry ...

of the

German Empire The German Empire (),Herbert Tuttle wrote in September 1881 that the term "Reich" does not literally connote an empire as has been commonly assumed by English-speaking people. The term literally denotes an empire – particularly a hereditary ...

, who secured a government grant to cover the cost of the Drygalski expedition.

Notes

References

External links

Australian Antarctic DivisionAustralian Antarctic GazetteerComposite Gazetteer of AntarcticaAustralian Antarctic Names and Medals Committee (AANMC)United States Geological Survey, Geographic Names Information System (GNIS)Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR)
Glaciers of Kaiser Wilhelm II Land {{KaiserWilhelmIILand-geo-stub