East Antarctic Ice Sheet (Lambert Glacier)

Lambert Glacier in East Antarctica is the largest glacier in the world. It is roughly 96 kilometres wide, more than 435 kilometres long, and about 2,500 metres deep. This place on the toy globe stands for the great Antarctic ice sheet that the glacier drains.

The glacier carries about 8 percent of the Antarctic ice sheet toward the sea. It flows north to the Amery Ice Shelf and leaves the continent at Prydz Bay. It was named in the 1950s, after Australian mapping of the area. The ice here is so thick that the glacier is about 2,500 metres deep, taller than most mountains in many countries.

A river of ice

A glacier is a huge, slow-moving river of ice. Lambert Glacier collects ice from east and south of the Prince Charles Mountains and moves it northwards. It runs through a long valley called the Lambert Graben. The ice it carries ends up in the Amery Ice Shelf, a floating plate of ice, and then in Prydz Bay. Its size makes it the largest glacier on record.

How it got its name

The glacier was first outlined in 1952 by American geographer John H. Roscoe, who studied aerial photographs taken during Operation Highjump in 1946-47. He called it Baker Three Glacier. After Australian expeditions mapped the area in 1956, the Antarctic Names Committee of Australia named it Lambert Glacier in 1957, for Bruce P. Lambert, the Director of National Mapping in Australia.

On the globe

The toy globe marks this giant glacier in East Antarctica. Zoom in on the white continent to find the ice sheet.