Ryan 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...

, 2 nautical mile

Nautical mile

The nautical mile is a unit of length that is about one minute of arc of latitude along any meridian, but is approximately one minute of arc of longitude only at the equator...

s (3.7 km) long, flowing west to the head of Ice Fjord

Ice Fjord

Ice Fjord is a bay 5.5 miles tong and 2 miles wide, entered between the Weddell and Kade Points along the south coast and near the west end of South Georgia. The name is well established, dating back to about 1920....

, South Georgia

South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands

South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands is a British overseas territory and overseas territory of the European Union in the southern Atlantic Ocean. It is a remote and inhospitable collection of islands, consisting of South Georgia and a chain of smaller islands, known as the South Sandwich...

. The German Antarctic Expedition

Wilhelm Filchner

Wilhelm Filchner was a German explorer.At the age of 21, he participated in his first expedition, which led him to Russia. Two years later, he travelled alone and on horseback through the Pamir Mountains, from Osh to Murgabh to the upper Wakhan to Tashkurgan and back...

 (1911-12) named this glacier for Dr. Albrecht Penck

Albrecht Penck

Albrecht Penck , was a German geographer and geologist and the father of Walther Penck.Born in Reudnitz near Leipzig, Penck became a university professor in Vienna from 1885 to 1906, and in Berlin from 1906 to 1927. There he was also the director of the Institute and Museum for Oceanography by 1918...

, though an incorrect spelling "Penk" appeared on published maps. A number of significant Antarctic features, including a glacier, are named for Albrecht Penck. To avoid confusion of these names the United Kingdom Antarctic Place-Names Committee

UK Antarctic Place-Names Committee

The UK Antarctic Place-Names Committee is a United Kingdom government committee, part of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, responsible for recommending names of geographical locations within the British Antarctic Territory and the South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands...

 (UK-APC) recommended in 1957 that this feature be renamed. Ryan Glacier is named for Alfredo R.L. Ryan, president since 1946 of the Compañía Argentina de Pesca

Compañía Argentina de Pesca

Compañía Argentina de Pesca was initiated by the British-Norwegian whaler and Antarctic explorer Carl A. Larsen, and established on 29 February 1904 by three foreign residents of Buenos Aires: the Norwegian consul P. Christophersen, H.H. Schlieper , and E. Tornquist...

, which operated the whaling

Whaling

Whaling is the hunting of whales mainly for meat and oil. Its earliest forms date to at least 3000 BC. Various coastal communities have long histories of sustenance whaling and harvesting beached whales...

 station at Grytviken

Grytviken

Grytviken is the principal settlement in the British territory of South Georgia in the South Atlantic. It was so named in 1902 by the Swedish surveyor Johan Gunnar Andersson who found old English try pots used to render seal oil at the site. It is the best harbour on the island, consisting of a...

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