Top 10 Glaciers in Antarctica
Antarctica holds about 60% of the world's fresh water locked as ice. The "continent" is really a single ice sheet up to 4,000 m thick, moving outward in slow rivers we call ice streams and glaciers. Tourist trips visit only the Antarctic Peninsula and a handful of sub-Antarctic islands; most of these glaciers are visited only by scientists. But knowing them is essential to following the climate-and-ice story over the next century.
Thwaites
The "Doomsday Glacier" — about the size of Britain, draining a deep basin that connects to much of West Antarctica. Loss of Thwaites alone could raise sea level by around 65 cm; loss of the broader basin, several metres.
Pine Island
The fast-moving neighbour of Thwaites, also draining the West Antarctic ice sheet via the Amundsen Sea. Multiple major calving events have been observed since 2015.
Lambert
The Lambert Glacier–Amery Ice Shelf system in East Antarctica — the longest glacier on Earth at around 400 km of mainstream flow and one of the largest drainage basins.
Beardmore
The classic Heroic-Age route from the Ross Ice Shelf onto the polar plateau. Shackleton, Scott and Amundsen all crossed it. Still used by some traverse expeditions today.
Axel Heiberg Glacier
Amundsen's route up to the polar plateau in 1911. Steeper and shorter than the Beardmore.
Mertz Glacier
In East Antarctica; its tongue calved a famously large iceberg (B-09) in 2010 after being struck by another iceberg.
Crane Glacier
On the Antarctic Peninsula. Lost its ice-shelf buttress with the collapse of Larsen B in 2002 and accelerated dramatically — a clear case study in shelf-glacier coupling.
Hektoria Glacier
Another Peninsula glacier that has shown major retreat in the past two decades, also after the collapse of nearby ice shelves.
Marr Ice Piedmont
The ice plateau on Anvers Island, behind the U.S. Palmer Station — small by Antarctic standards but one of the most-monitored peninsular ice bodies.
Recovery Glacier
A large East Antarctic glacier with several big subglacial lakes underneath; its outflow has implications for understanding the draining basin's future stability.
From reading to planning
The interactive map places these ten in context with the research stations, the iceberg drift paths, and the polished itineraries of expedition cruises.