Donnellan Glacier is a glacier

Glacier

A glacier is a large persistent body of ice that forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its ablation over many years, often centuries. At least 0.1 km² in area and 50 m thick, but often much larger, a glacier slowly deforms and flows due to stresses induced by its weight...

 steep valley glacier fed by highland ice adjacent to Opalchenie Peak

Opalchenie Peak

Opalchenie Peak is the peak rising to 4500 m at the south extremity of Vinson Plateau, Sentinel Range in Ellsworth Mountains, Antarctica. It has precipitous and partly ice-free south slopes, and is of low prominence except to the south, where two parallel ridges descend steeply southwestwards...

 and Fukushima Peak

Fukushima Peak

Fukushima Peak is a high, pointed rocky peak on the near the south edge of the ice-covered Vinson Plateau in the Sentinel Range of Ellsworth Mountains, Antarctica....

 on the summit Vinson Plateau

Vinson Plateau

Vinson Plateau is the summit plateau of Vinson Massif, Sentinel Range in Ellsworth Mountains, Antarctica. It extends for 9 km between Goodge Col and Hammer Col linking it to the north-central part of Sentinel Range to the north-northwest and to Craddock Massif to the south-southeast respectively,...

, Sentinel Range

Sentinel Range

The Sentinel Range is a major mountain range situated northward of Minnesota Glacier and forming the northern half of the Ellsworth Mountains in Antarctica. The range trends NNW-SSE for about and is 24 to 48 km wide...

 in Ellsworth Mountains

Ellsworth Mountains

The Ellsworth Mountains are the highest mountain ranges in Antarctica, forming a long and wide chain of mountains in a north to south configuration on the western margin of the Ronne Ice Shelf. They are bisected by Minnesota Glacier to form the northern Sentinel Range and the southern Heritage...

, Antarctica. The glacier flows west-southwestward from Opalchenie Peak

Opalchenie Peak

Opalchenie Peak is the peak rising to 4500 m at the south extremity of Vinson Plateau, Sentinel Range in Ellsworth Mountains, Antarctica. It has precipitous and partly ice-free south slopes, and is of low prominence except to the south, where two parallel ridges descend steeply southwestwards...

 along the north side of Mount Slaughter

Mount Slaughter

Mount Slaughter is an ice-free peak, rising to 3,600 m on a spur trending southwest from Opalchenie Peak on Vinson Plateau, Sentinel Range, in the Ellsworth Mountains, Antarctica. It is surmounting the head of Donnellan Glacier to the northwest and Gildea Glacier to the south. Mapped by United...

 into Nimitz Glacier

Nimitz Glacier

The Nimitz Glacier is an Antarctic glacier, 64 km long and 8 km wide, draining the area about 16 km west of the Vinson Massif and flowing southeast between the Sentinel Range and Bastien Range to enter Minnesota Glacier, in the central Ellsworth Mountains.Discovered by USN...

.

The glacier is named by US-ACAN in 2006 after Andrea Donnellan, Satellite Geodesy and Geodynamics Systems Group, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology

California Institute of Technology

The California Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Pasadena, California, United States. Caltech has six academic divisions with strong emphases on science and engineering...

, involved from the mid 1990s in research projects involving the use of GPS in studies of earth crustal deformation in Southern California

Southern California

Southern California is a megaregion, or megapolitan area, in the southern area of the U.S. state of California. Large urban areas include Greater Los Angeles and Greater San Diego. The urban area stretches along the coast from Ventura through the Southland and Inland Empire to San Diego...

and also in Antarctica.

Maps

• Vinson Massif. Scale 1:250 000 topographic map. Reston, Virginia: US Geological Survey, 1988.