Hector Glacier is located in Banff National Park

Banff National Park

Banff National Park is Canada's oldest national park, established in 1885 in the Rocky Mountains. The park, located 110–180 kilometres west of Calgary in the province of Alberta, encompasses of mountainous terrain, with numerous glaciers and ice fields, dense coniferous forest, and alpine...

, Alberta

Alberta

Alberta is a province of Canada. It had an estimated population of 3.7 million in 2010 making it the most populous of Canada's three prairie provinces...

, Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

. The glacier is on the north slope of Mount Hector

Mount Hector (Alberta)

Mount Hector is a mountain in Banff National Park, Canada. The mountain was named in 1884 by George M. Dawson after James Hector, a geologist on the Palliser Expedition. The mountain is located beside the Icefields Parkway, north of Lake Louise....

 and extends northward for 3 km (1.9 mi). In 1938, a large mass of the glacier broke off and covered the valley below with ice up to 60 m (200 ft) thick. The ice mass destroyed everything in its path and this is only the second known glacier hazard to have been recorded in the Canadian Rockies

Rocky Mountains

The Rocky Mountains are a major mountain range in western North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch more than from the northernmost part of British Columbia, in western Canada, to New Mexico, in the southwestern United States...

. The glacier, along with Mount Hector and Hector Lake

Hector Lake

Hector Lake is a small glacial lake in western Alberta, Canada. It is located on the Bow River, in the Canadian Rockies.It is named after James Hector, a geologist and naturalist with the Palliser Expedition....

 are all named after James Hector

James Hector

Sir James Hector was a Scottish geologist, naturalist, and surgeon who accompanied the Palliser Expedition as a surgeon and geologist...

, a prominent early naturalist

Natural history

Natural history is the scientific research of plants or animals, leaning more towards observational rather than experimental methods of study, and encompasses more research published in magazines than in academic journals. Grouped among the natural sciences, natural history is the systematic study...

to the region.