The Recovery Glacier (-81.16667°N, -28°W) is a glacier, at least 60 nmi long and 40 nmi wide at its mouth, flowing west along the southern side of the Shackleton Range in Antarctica.

Discovery and name

The Recovery Glacier was first seen from the air and examined from the ground by the Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition in 1957. It was so named because of the recovery of the expedition's vehicles which repeatedly broke into bridged crevasses on this glacier during the early stages of the crossing of Antarctica.

Glaciology

Dana Floricioiu and Irena Hajnsek of the German Aerospace Centre spoke on the radar data showing the interior of the Recovery Glacier at the IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium in Cape Town, South Africa, in July 2009. The data comes from the German public-private satellite Terrasar-X and when combined with Radarsat-1 shows the changes in the glacier over 11 years.

Features

Recovery Ice Stream

This ice stream drains part of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet into the glacier. It is nearly 800 km long and feeds the Filchner Ice Shelf over the Weddell Sea. The area contains four subglacial lakes. This causes the ice flow rate to vary dramatically, ranging between 2 and 50 meters per year. The ice stream drains about 35 billion tons of water and ice into the ocean each year. The entire East Antarctic ice sheet releases about 57 billion tons a year.

Glen Glacier

-80.73333°N, -25.26667°W. A glacier at least 7 nmi long, flowing south in the Shackleton Range to join the Recovery Glacier to the west of the Read Mountains. First mapped in 1957 by the Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition (CTAE) and named for Alexander R. Glen, member of the Committee of Management of the CTAE, 1955-58.

Cornwall Glacier

-80.78333°N, -26.26667°W. A glacier 9 nmi long, flowing south from Crossover Pass in the Shackleton Range to join Recovery Glacier east of Ram Bow Bluff. First mapped in 1957 by the CTAE and named for Gen. Sir James Marshall-Cornwall, member of the Committee of Management of the CTAE, 1955-58.

Blackwall Ice Stream

-82.86667°N, -35.35°W. A slightly S-shaped ice stream about 240 nmi long and 12 nmi wide. It descends from about 1900 m high to 730 m high where it joins Recovery Glacier between Argentina Range and Whichaway Nunataks. It was named after Hugh Blackwall Evans (1874-1975), Canadian naturalist with the British Antarctic Expedition, 1898–1900, led by Carsten Borchgrevink.

Whichaway Nunataks

-81.55°N, -28.5°W. A group of rocky nunataks extending for 7 nmi and marking the south side of the mouth of Recovery Glacier. First seen from the air and visited in 1957 by the CTAE and so named because it was uncertain which route from the nunataks would lead furthest inland.

Sources