Thwaites Glacier

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Thwaites Glacier (75°30′S 106°45′W) is a broad glacier flowing into Amundsen Sea about 30 miles east of Mount Murphy, Marie Byrd Land. Though imperfectly delineated, the glacier has tremendous flow and in January 1966 had formed a large floating glacier tongue (40 miles long) and an extensive grounded iceberg tongue (70 miles long). Together, these features extend into Amundsen Sea more than 100 miles and inhibit wast-west navigation by ships.

Thwaites Glacier was mapped by United States Geological Survey (USGS) from surveys and U.S. Navy air photos, 1959-66.

The Thwaites Glacier Tongue (75°0′S 106°50′W) is about 20 miles wide and 40 miles long, and enters the sea about 30 miles east of Mount Murphy. It was delineated from aerial photographs taken by USN Operation Highjump in January 1947, and named by Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names (US-ACAN) for Fredrik T. Thwaites, glacial geologist, geomorphologist and professor emeritus at the University of Wisconsin.

The Thwaites Iceberg Tongue (74°0′S 108°30′W) is a very large and rather compact iceberg tongue which is aground and lies in the Amundsen Sea, about 20 miles northeast of Bear Peninsula. The feature is about 70 miles long and 20 miles wide and in January 1966 its south end was only 3 miles north of Thwaites Glacier Tongue, from whence it had broken off. It was delineated by United States Geological Survey (USGS) from aerial photographs taken by USN Operation Highjump, 1946-47, and USN Operation Deepfreeze, 1959-66.

This article is based on a United States Geological Survey gazetteer.