Mercer Ice Stream formerly Ice Stream E, flows west to Gould Coast

Gould Coast

The Gould Coast is that portion of the coast along the east margin of the Ross Ice Shelf between the west side of Scott Glacier and the south end of Siple Coast . Named by NZ-APC in 1961 for Laurence M. Gould, a geologist who was second-in-command of the Byrd Antarctic Expedition, 1928-30. Gould...

 to the south of Whillans Ice Stream

Whillans Ice Stream

Whillans Ice Stream , a glaciological feature of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, formerly known as Ice Stream B, renamed in 2001 in honor of Ohio State University glaciologist Dr. Ian Whillans.-Recent Research:...

, Antarctica. It is the southern most of several major ice stream

Ice stream

An ice stream is a region of an ice sheet that moves significantly faster than the surrounding ice. Ice streams are a type of glacier. They are significant features of the Antarctic where they account for 10% of the volume of the ice...

s draining from Marie Byrd Land

Marie Byrd Land

Marie Byrd Land is the portion of West Antarctica lying east of the Ross Ice Shelf and the Ross Sea and south of the Pacific Ocean, extending eastward approximately to a line between the head of the Ross Ice Shelf and Eights Coast. It stretches between 158°W and 103°24'W...

 into the Ross Ice Shelf

Ross Ice Shelf

The Ross Ice Shelf is the largest ice shelf of Antarctica . It is several hundred metres thick. The nearly vertical ice front to the open sea is more than 600 km long, and between 15 and 50 metres high above the water surface...

. The ice streams were investigated and mapped by USARP personnel in a number of field seasons from 1983–84 and named Ice Stream A, B, C, etc., according to their position from south to north. The name was changed by US-ACAN in 2002 to honor John H. Mercer (1922–87), Quaternary geologist, Institute of Polar Studies (now Byrd Polar Research Center), Ohio State University, who mapped the moraines above Reedy Glacier

Reedy Glacier

The Reedy Glacier is a major glacier in Antarctica, over 160 km long and from 10 to 19 km wide, descending from the polar plateau to the Ross Ice Shelf between the Michigan Plateau and Wisconsin Range, and marking the limits of the Queen Maud Mountains on the west and the Horlick...

 and in Ohio Range at the head of Horlick Ice Stream

Horlick Ice Stream

Horlick Ice Stream is a large Antarctic ice stream on the featureless ice surface to the north of the main mass of the Horlick Mountains, draining west-southwestward, parallel to these mountains, to enter the lower portion of the Reedy Glacier. Mapped by U.S. Geological Survey from surveys and...

, the major tributaries to Mercer Ice Stream.