Riley Glacier is a heavily crevassed 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...

, 14 nautical miles (26 km) long and 17 nautical miles (31 km) wide, flowing westward from the west side of Palmer Land

Palmer Land

Palmer Land is that portion of the Antarctic Peninsula which lies south of a line joining Cape Jeremy and Cape Agassiz. This application of Palmer Land is consistent with the 1964 agreement between US-ACAN and UK-APC, in which the name Antarctic Peninsula was approved for the major peninsula of...

 into George VI Sound

George VI Sound

George VI Sound or Canal Jorge VI or Canal Presidente Sarmiento or Canal Seaver or King George VI Sound or King George the Sixth Sound is a major bay/fault depression, 300 miles long in the shape of the letter J, which skirts the east and south shores of Alexander Island, separating it from the...

 between the Traverse Mountains

Traverse Mountains (Antarctica)

The Traverse Mountains of Antarctica are a group of almost ice-free mountains, rising to about , and including McHugo Peak, Mount Noel, Mount Allan and Mount Eissinger, between Eureka Glacier and Riley Glacier, east of Warren Ice Piedmont, in western Palmer Land...

 and Mount Dixey

Mount Dixey

Mount Dixey is a mountain, 1,250 m, standing at the south side of Riley Glacier and 3 nautical miles northeast of Carse Point, on the west coast of Palmer Land. First photographed from the air on November 23, 1935 by Lincoln Ellsworth, and mapped from these photographs by W.L.G. Joerg...

. First sighted and surveyed in 1936 by the British Graham Land Expedition

British Graham Land Expedition

A British expedition to Graham Land led by John Lachlan Cope took place between 1920 and 1922. The British Graham Land Expedition was a geophysical and exploration expedition to Graham Land in Antarctica between 1934 to 1937. Under the leadership of John Riddoch Rymill, the expedition spent two...

 (BGLE) under Rymill. Resurveyed in 1949 by the Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey (FIDS) and named for Quintin T.P.M. Riley, assistant meteorologist of the BGLE, 1934-37.