Beardmore Glacier
| Beardmore Glacier | |
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Aerial view of the Beardmore Glacier in 1956
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 Transantarctic Mountains, Antarctica
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| Type | Valley glacier |
| Coordinates | Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. |
| Length | Lua error in Module:Convert at line 1851: attempt to index local 'en_value' (a nil value). |
| Width | 40 km (25 mi) |
| Terminus | Ross Ice Shelf |
The Beardmore Glacier in Antarctica is one of the largest valley glaciers in the world, being Lua error in Module:Convert at line 1851: attempt to index local 'en_value' (a nil value). long and having a width of 40 km (25 mi).[1] It descends about 2,200 m (7,200 ft)[1] from the Antarctic Plateau to the Ross Ice Shelf and is bordered by the Commonwealth Range of the Queen Maud Mountains on the eastern side and the Queen Alexandra Range of the Central Transantarctic Mountains on the western.[2]
The glacier is one of the main passages through the Transantarctic Mountains to the great polar plateau beyond, and was one of the early routes to the South Pole despite its steep upward incline.
The glacier was discovered and climbed by Ernest Shackleton during his Nimrod Expedition of 1908. Although Shackleton turned back before reaching the South Pole, he established the first proven route towards the pole and, in doing so, became the first person to set foot upon the polar plateau. In 1911–1912, Captain Scott and his Terra Nova Expedition team reached the South Pole by similarly climbing the Beardmore. However, they reached the pole a month after Roald Amundsen and his team, who had chosen a route up the previously unknown Axel Heiberg Glacier.
Beardmore Glacier was named by Shackleton after Sir William Beardmore, a Scottish industrialist and expedition sponsor born in 1856.
See also
References
This article incorporates public domain material from the United States Geological Survey document "Beardmore Glacier" (content from the Geographic Names Information System).
