Darwin Glacier (Antarctica)

Early exploration and naming

The lower part of the glacier was mapped by the British National Antarctic Expedition, 1901–04 (BrNAE), and the whole area traversed by New Zealand parties of the Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition (1956–58). The glacier was named in association with the Darwin Mountains.

Glaciology

The Darwin Glacier flows relatively slowly compared to other glaciers in the Transantarctic Mountains, at less than 100 m per year. There are small scale fluctuations due to daily tidal cycles downstream from its grounding line. During the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) the Antarctic ice sheet expanded, forming grounded ice in the Ross Sea. This would cause the ice streams flowing into the Ross Sea to be buttressed and thickened, and there is some evidence to support this. However, there is contradictory evidence from the upper Hatherton Glacier that suggests the ice extent there was lower in the LGM than it is today.

Darwin and Hatherton glaciers both thinned steadily by about 500 m during the last deglaciation between 9,000 and 3,000 years ago. It seems that they lost about half their catchment area to the Byrd Glacier and/or Mulock Glacier, and also that convergent ice flowing from the Byrd and Mulock glaciers strongly buttresses the Darwin and Hatherton glaciers.

Course

The Darwin Glacier originates in the Darwin Névé, on the west rim of the polar plateau. It flows east past the Meteorite Hills of the Darwin Mountains to the south. It turns to flow southeast past the Darwin Mountains to the southwest and the Brown Hills of the Cook Mountains to the north. McCleary Glacier drains southward into Darwin Glacier east of Walker Cirque and just west of Tentacle Ridge. It is joined from the north by the Touchdown Glacier between Roadend Nunatak and the Brown Hills. The Diamond Glacier is a reentrant from the Darwin Glacier north into the Brown Hills.

The Hatherton Glacier forms south of the head of the Darwin Glacier, below Turnstile Ridge, and flows southeast. The Lieske Glacier and Hinton Glacier enter the Hatherton Glacier from the south on either side of Dusky Ridge. The Ragotzkie Glacier enters the Hatherton Glacier to the southwest of Junction Spur. The Hatherton Glacier, which has turned to flow northeast, joins the Darwin Glacier east of Junction Spur. The Darwin Glacier flows east through The Nozzle between Diamond Hill to the north and the Gawn Ice Piedmont to the south to enter the Ross Ice Shelf north of MacDonald Point.

Head

Darwin Névé

Circle Icefall

Tributaries

Green Glacier

McCleary Glacier

Touchdown Glacier

Diamond Glacier

A small distributary glacier of the Darwin Glacier, flowing east-northeast into the narrow valley on the north side of Diamond Hill. Mapped by the VUWAE (1962–63) and named after Diamond Hill.

Hatherton Glacier

Overturn Glacier

McCraw Glacier

Lieske Glacier

Hinton Glacier

Ragotzkie Glacier

Ragotzkie Icefall

An icefall 2.5 nmi wide in the east-central part of Ragotzkie Glacier. The icefall is a significant distributary of Ragotzkie ice to Alley Glacier, which occupies the valley to the east. Named by US-ACAN in association with Ragotzkie Glacier.

Alley Glacier

A glacier that drains the north slopes of Britannia Range in the vicinity of Ward Tower and flows north to Darwin Glacier. Named by Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names (US-ACAN) after Richard B. Alley, Department of Geosciences, Pennsylvania State University, U.S. Antarctic Project (USAP) glaciologist who has specialized in the study of ice streams of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet.

Other features

Walker Cirque

Description: A prominent glacier-filled cirque at the west side of the terminus of McCleary Glacier in Cook Mountains. The cirque opens to Darwin Glacier near the head. Named after Carlton Walker, Facilities, Maintenance, and Construction Supervisor at South Pole Station during U.S. Antarctic Project (USAP) South Pole Station Modernization.

Roadend Nunatak

Island Arena

Turnstile Ridge

Junction Spur

Main article: Junction Spur

The Nozzle

Cranfield Icefalls

Gawn Ice Piedmont

MacDonald Point

References

Sources

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