Uranus Glacier

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Uranus Glacier (71°24′S 68°20′W / 71.400°S 68.333°W / -71.400; -68.333Coordinates: 71°24′S 68°20′W / 71.400°S 68.333°W / -71.400; -68.333) is a glacier on the east coast of Alexander Island, Antarctica, 20 miles (32 km) long and 6 miles (10 km) wide at its mouth, flowing east into George VI Sound immediately south of Fossil Bluff.

The glacier was probably first seen by Lincoln Ellsworth, who flew directly over it and photographed segments of this coast on November 23, 1935. The portion near the mouth of the glacier was first roughly surveyed in 1936 by the British Graham Land Expedition. It was named by the United Kingdom Antarctic Place-Names Committee for the planet Uranus following the resurvey of its lower portions by the Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey in 1948 and 1949. Although the glacier is named for a planet of the Solar System, it is not named in association with the nearby mountain range Planet Heights. The entire glacier was mapped from air photos taken by the Ronne Antarctic Research Expedition in 1947-48, by Searle of the FIDS in 1960.

See also

 This article incorporates public domain material from the United States Geological Survey document "Uranus Glacier" (content from the Geographic Names Information System).


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