The Nimrod Glacier is a major 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...

 about 135 km (85 mi) long, flowing from the polar plateau in a northerly direction through the Transantarctic Mountains

Transantarctic Mountains

The three largest mountain ranges on the Antarctic continent are the Transantarctic Mountains , the West Antarctica Ranges, and the East Antarctica Ranges. The Transantarctic Mountains compose a mountain range in Antarctica which extend, with some interruptions, across the continent from Cape Adare...

 between the Geologists

Geologists Range

The Geologists Range is a mountain range about long, standing between the heads of Lucy and Nimrod Glaciers in Antarctica. Seen by the northern party of the New Zealand Geological Survey Antarctic Expedition and named to commemorate the work of geologists in Antarctic exploration.- List of...

 and Miller Range

Miller Range

The Miller Range is a mountain range extending south from Nimrod Glacier for along the western edge of the Marsh Glacier in Antarctica. Named for J.H. "Bob" Miller, a member of the New Zealand party of the Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition who, with G.W. Marsh, mapped this area....

s, then northeasterly between the Churchill Mountains

Churchill Mountains

The Churchill Mountains is a mountain range bordering the western side of the Ross Ice Shelf between Byrd Glacier and Nimrod Glacier in Antarctica...

 and Queen Elizabeth Range

Queen Elizabeth Range (Antarctica)

The Queen Elizabeth Range is a rugged mountain range in Antarctica paralleling the eastern side of Marsh Glacier for nearly 160 km from Nimrod Glacier in the north to Law Glacier in the south. Mount Markham , is the highest elevation in the range.Named by J.H. Miller of the New Zealand party...

, and finally spilling into Shackleton Inlet

Shackleton Inlet

The Shackleton Inlet is a reentrant, about 16 km wide, between Cape Wilson and Cape Lyttelton. It is occupied by the terminus of the Nimrod Glacier descending at a low gradient from the bordering highlands to the Ross Ice Shelf....

 and 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...

 between Capes Wilson

Cape Wilson (Ross Dependency)

Cape Wilson is a bold, rocky, snow-covered cape, forming the south-east end of the Nash Range and marking the northern entrance point to Shackleton Inlet on the western edge of the Ross Ice Shelf. It was discovered by Captain Robert F. Scott, Royal Navy, in December 1902, on his attempted trip to...

 and Lyttelton

Cape Lyttelton

Cape Lyttelton is a cape forming the southern entrance point of Shackleton Inlet, along the western edge of the Ross Ice Shelf. Discovered by the Discovery expedition and named after Lyttelton, New Zealand. The Discovery started on the last lap of its journey south from Lyttelton, where very...

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It was photographed from the air by USN Operation Highjump

Operation Highjump

Operation Highjump , officially titled The United States Navy Antarctic Developments Program, 1946-1947, was a United States Navy operation organized by RADM Richard E. Byrd Jr. USN, , Officer in Charge, Task Force 68, and led by RADM Richard H. Cruzen, USN, Commanding Officer, Task Force 68....

, 1946-47. The name, given by US-ACAN, is in association with Shackleton Inlet and is for the Nimrod, the ship of the British Antarctic Expedition (1907–09) under Ernest Shackleton

Ernest Shackleton

Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton, CVO, OBE was a notable explorer from County Kildare, Ireland, who was one of the principal figures of the period known as the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration...

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