Rayner Glacier

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Rayner Glacier ( 67°40′S48°25′E / 67.667°S 48.417°E / -67.667; 48.417 Coordinates: 67°40′S48°25′E / 67.667°S 48.417°E / -67.667; 48.417 ) is a prominent glacier, 19 kilometres (10 nmi) wide, flowing north to the coast of Enderby Land just west of Condon Hills. It was sighted in October 1956 by Squadron Leader D. Leckie during a flight in an ANARE (Australian National Antarctic Research Expeditions) Beaver aircraft, and named by ANCA for J.M. Rayner, Director of the Bureau of Mineral Resources in the Australian Department of National Development.

Geographic coordinate system Coordinate system

A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are often chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position and two or three of the numbers represent a horizontal position; alternatively, a geographic position may be expressed in a combined three-dimensional Cartesian vector. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation. To specify a location on a plane requires a map projection.

Glacier Persistent body of ice that is moving under its own weight

A glacier is a persistent body of dense ice that is constantly moving under its own weight; it forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its ablation over many years, often centuries. Glaciers slowly deform and flow due to stresses induced by their weight, creating crevasses, seracs, and other distinguishing features. They also abrade rock and debris from their substrate to create landforms such as cirques and moraines. Glaciers form only on land and are distinct from the much thinner sea ice and lake ice that form on the surface of bodies of water.

Enderby Land geographical object

Enderby Land is a projecting land mass of Antarctica. Its shore extends from Shinnan Glacier at about 67°55′S44°38′E to William Scoresby Bay at 67°24′S59°34′E, approximately ​124 of the earth's longitude. It was first documented in western and eastern literature in February 1831 by John Biscoe aboard the whaling brig Tula, and named after the Enderby Brothers of London, the ship's owners who encouraged their captains to combine exploration with sealing.

See also

Ice stream

A fast-moving ice or ice stream is a region of an ice sheet that moves significantly faster than the surrounding ice. Ice streams are a type of glacier. They are significant features of the Antarctic where they account for 10% of the volume of the ice. They are up to 50 kilometres (31 mi) wide, 2 km (1.2 mi) thick, can stretch for hundreds of kilometres, and account for most of the ice leaving the ice sheet.

PD-icon.svg This article incorporates  public domain material from the United States Geological Survey document "Rayner Glacier" (content from the Geographic Names Information System ).

United States Geological Survey Scientific agency of the United States government

The United States Geological Survey is a scientific agency of the United States government. The scientists of the USGS study the landscape of the United States, its natural resources, and the natural hazards that threaten it. The organization has four major science disciplines, concerning biology, geography, geology, and hydrology. The USGS is a fact-finding research organization with no regulatory responsibility.

Geographic Names Information System geographical database

The Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) is a database that contains name and locative information about more than two million physical and cultural features located throughout the United States of America and its territories. It is a type of gazetteer. GNIS was developed by the United States Geological Survey in cooperation with the United States Board on Geographic Names (BGN) to promote the standardization of feature names.


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