Tracy Glacier (Greenland)

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

Tracy Glacier
Tracy Gletscher
Location within Greenland
TypeTidal outlet glacier
LocationGreenland
Coordinates77°39′N 66°2′W
Width4 km (2.5 mi)
TerminusInglefield Fjord
Baffin Bay
StatusRetreating[1]

This glacier was named by Robert Peary after Benjamin F. Tracy (1830 – 1915), United States Secretary of the Navy, who granted him three years' leave in order to engage in Arctic explorations.[3]

Geography

The Tracy Glacier discharges from the Greenland Ice Sheet into the head of the Inglefield Fjord just east of Josephine Peary Island. Its terminus lies between two nunataks. Mount Lee, the northern one, separates it from the Farquhar Glacier to the northwest and a larger nunatak, the Smithson Range, separates it from the Heilprin Glacier to the south.[2]

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

Map of Northwestern Greenland
19th century map of the Inglefield Gulf.

See also

References


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