Buxton Glacier

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Buxton Glacier is a glacier flowing northeast between Heaney Glacier and Cook Glacier, on the north coast of the island of South Georgia, immediately south of Mount Skittle. The terminus of Buxton Glacier is located at St Andrews Bay.

Buxton Glacier is close to Ross Glacier, which is leaving a gravel beach in the wake of its retreat.

Discovery and naming

Buxton Glacier was named by the UK Antarctic Place-Names Committee in 1987 after three members of the Buxton family: Major Aubrey Leland Oakes Buxton]] (Baron Buxton of Alsa), Pamela Mary Birkin (Baroness Buxton of Alsa), and their daughter the Hon. Lucinda Catherine (Cindy) Buxton, FRGS, who visited South Georgia in March 1982.

Cindy Buxton led a filming expedition in this area in February-April 1982.

Landsat ETM satellite imagery 2003 showed that the glacier had retreated exposing a proglacial lake at its foot and moraine debris accumulating at the edges.

Flora and fauna

There is a king penguin (Aptenodytes patagonicus) rookery near the terminus of Buxton Glacier at St Andrews Bay. This breeding colony has more than 100,000 penguins. Because of the long breeding cycle, the colony is continuously occupied.

Location

Outside links

References

  • Gazetteer and Map of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands: Buxton Glacier
Glaciers of South Georgia

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