Cook Ice Cap

The Cook Ice Cap or Cook Glacier (French: Calotte Glaciaire Cook[1] or Glacier Cook) is a large ice cap in the Kerguelen Islands in the French Southern Territories zone of the far Southern Indian Ocean.

Not to be confused with Cook Glacier (South Georgia) or Cooke Glacier.
Cook Ice Cap
Calotte Glaciaire Cook
Aerial view of the ice cap.
TypeIce cap
Coordinates49°18′50″S 69°02′29″E
Area400 km2 (150 sq mi)
Length28 kilometres (17 mi)
Thickness400 m (1,300 ft) average
TerminusOutlet glaciers
StatusRetreating

Geography

The Cook Ice Cap reaches a maximum elevation of 1,049 metres (3,442 ft) in its central area.[2] It had a surface of approximately 500 km2 (190 sq mi) in 1963, having shrunk to about 400 km2 (150 sq mi) in recent times.[3]

Named after British explorer James Cook (1728–1779), on French navigational charts of the early 20th century this ice cap appears as 'Glacier Richthofen'[4]

Location in Grande-Terre (Kerguelen) .
Glacier terminus at the southern end.

Glaciers

About sixty glaciers flow from the inner ice cap in a roughly radial pattern. At the feet of the snout of these outlet glaciers there are often terminal moraines with dammed lakes of varying sizes. Further down the glacial meltwaters have formed numerous outwash plains at certain, mostly inland, locations. Only one of the glaciers originating in the Cook Ice Cap has its terminus in the Indian Ocean at the Anse des Glaçons in southeastern Kerguelen's deeply indented coastline.[3]

The following are the main glaciers listed clockwise:

  • Agassiz Glacier (Glacier Agassiz)
  • Chamonix Glacier (Glacier de Chamonix)
  • Dumont d'Urville Glacier (Glacier Dumont d'Urville)
  • Vallot Glacier (Glacier Vallot)
  • Naumann Glacier (Glacier Naumann)
  • Explorateur Glacier (Glacier de l'Explorateur)
  • Ampère Glacier (Glacier Ampère)
  • La Diozaz Glacier (Glacier de la Diozaz)
  • Lavoisier Glacier (Glacier Lavoisier)
  • Descartes Glacier (Glacier Descartes)
  • Pierre Curie Glacier (Glacier Pierre Curie)
  • Pasteur Glacier (Glacier Pasteur)
  • Mariotte Glacier (Glacier Mariotte)
  • Cauchy Glacier (Glacier Cauchy)

See also

References
  1. "Calotte Glaciaire Cook". Mapcarta. Retrieved 25 September 2016.
  2. GoogleEarth
  3. Institut polaire français Paul Émile Victor : La fonte spectaculaire du plus gros glacier français
  4. Transpolair L'Illustration 11 September 1909, no 3472
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