Jump to content

Heilprin Glacier

Coordinates: 77°31′N 65°40′W / 77.517°N 65.667°W / 77.517; -65.667
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Heilprin Glacier
Heilprin Gletscher
View of Heilprin Glacier
Map showing the location of Heilprin Glacier
Map showing the location of Heilprin Glacier
Location within Greenland
TypeTidal outlet glacier
LocationGreenland
Coordinates77°31′N 65°40′W / 77.517°N 65.667°W / 77.517; -65.667
Width8 km (5.0 mi)
TerminusInglefield Fjord
Baffin Bay
StatusRetreating[1]

Heilprin Glacier (Danish: Heilprin Gletscher), is a glacier in northwestern Greenland.[2] Administratively it belongs to the Avannaata municipality.

This glacier was named by Robert Peary after geologist, paleontologist and naturalist Angelo Heilprin (1853 – 1907), curator of the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences, who took part in the Peary expedition to Greenland of 1891–92.[3]

Geography

[edit]

The Heilprin Glacier discharges from the Greenland Ice Sheet into the head of the Inglefield Fjord just east of the Harvard Islands and northeast of Quajaqqisaarsuaq. Its terminus lies between the Smithson Range nunatak that separates it from the Tracy Glacier to the north, and Nunatarsuaq, a plateau dotted with lakes to the south.[2] Both neighboring glaciers drain roughly 12,000 km2 (4,600 sq mi) of the Greenland Ice Sheet.[1]

Although the Heilprin Glacier is contiguous to the Tracy Glacier, both glaciers have a different nature, a fact which has been a source of puzzlement for scientists for over a century.[4]

19th century map of the Inglefield Gulf.

See also

[edit]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ a b Heilprin Glacier, NW Greenland Pinning Point Decline 1987-2017
  2. ^ a b "Heilprin Gletscher". Mapcarta. Retrieved 30 March 2019.
  3. ^ Robert Neff Keely, Gwilym George Davis, In Arctic Seas: the Voyage of the Kite with the Peary Expedition, 2011 p. 373
  4. ^ "NASA Discovered Why Greenland's Glaciers Are Melting at Different Speeds". Inverse. Retrieved 30 March 2019.
[edit]