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Wednesday 5 October 2022

John Glacier is doing OK.....


The glacier is the one on the eastern (top) flank of the Hannah Ridge.

Since I have a sort of proprietorial interest in John Glacier (in the Washington Escarpment  area of the Pensacola Mountains in Antarctica) I like to keep a check on how things are going down there.  All well, as far as I can see.........

I found some more research articles about the area, and it's interesting to read that there is considerable stability in the ice sheet and the ice streams in the region feeding through to the Filchner Ice Shelf.

https://brian-mountainman.blogspot.com/2021/12/john-glacier-all-quiet-on-southern-front.html


Nelson Range and the Washington Escarpment.  The glacier which is the subject of interest is north os Nelson Peak, just above the area shown by the Fig 3 red box.

Away from the coast the effects of global warming are not felt very strongly, and it appears that in places the ice sheet is actually thickening.  This may be because of subtle changes in atmospheric circulation, leading to increased precipitation in some areas where temperatures are pretty well continuously below zero centigrade. What is extraordinary here is the great age of exposed rock surfaces (sometimes millions of years old) and also the great age of blue ice exposed around the nunataks.  My old mate Prof David Sugden has been doing a lot of work on just that topic. 

Ice-free valleys in the Neptune Range of the Pensacola Mountains, Antarctica: glacial geomorphology, geochronology and potential as palaeoenvironmental archives
DAVID SMALL et al, Antarctic Research 2021, 21 pp.

doi:10.1017/S0954102021000237


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Now here's an interesting thought.  If the "Endurance" had not been stuck in the ice in 1915,  Shackleton's polar party would have marched up off the Filchner Ice Shelf, heading onto the Foundation Ice Stream and then directly for the pole, passing the Neptune range.  They might even have marched up John Glacier to quicken their ascent onto the ice sheet proper......... but then Shackleton would probably have named it Wild Glacier or some such thing.....


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