Cook Ice Cap

Cook Ice Cap
Calotte Glaciaire Cook
Aerial view of the ice cap.
Type	Ice cap
Coordinates	49°18′50″S 69°02′29″E / 49.31389°S 69.04139°E / -49.31389; 69.04139Coordinates: 49°18′50″S 69°02′29″E / 49.31389°S 69.04139°E / -49.31389; 69.04139
Area	400 km2 (150 sq mi)
Length	28 kilometres (17 mi)
Thickness	400 m (1,300 ft) average
Terminus	Outlet glaciers
Status	Retreating

The Cook Ice Cap or Cook Glacier (French: Calotte Glaciaire Cook^[1] or Glacier Cook) is a large ice cap in the Kerguelen Islands in the French Southern Territories zone of the far Southern Indian Ocean.

Geography

The Cook Ice Cap reaches a maximum elevation of 1,049 metres (3,442 ft) in its central area.^[2] It had a surface of approximately 500 km² (190 sq mi) in 1963, having shrunk to about 400 km² (150 sq mi) in recent times.^[3]

Named after British explorer James Cook (1728–1779), on French navigational charts of the early 20th century this ice cap appears as 'Glacier Richthofen'^[4]

Location in Grande-Terre (Kerguelen) .

Glacier terminus at the southern end.

Glaciers

About sixty glaciers flow from the inner ice cap in a roughly radial pattern. At the feet of the snout of these outlet glaciers there are often terminal moraines with dammed lakes of varying sizes. Further down the glacial meltwaters have formed numerous outwash plains at certain, mostly inland, locations. Only one of the glaciers originating in the Cook Ice Cap has its terminus in the Indian Ocean at the Anse des Glaçons in southeastern Kerguelen's deeply indented coastline.^[3]

The following are the main glaciers listed clockwise:

See also

• List of glaciers

References