Steensby Glacier

Steensby Glacier is a major glacier in northern Greenland, flowing from the Greenland Ice Sheet north to south to the head of Saint George Fjord between Nyeboe Land and Warming Land. First mapped in 1917 during Knud Rasmussen’s Second Thule Expedition of 1916 to 1918, it was named for Danish ethnologist Hans Peder Steensby. At its terminus, the glacier forms a floating tongue in Saint George Fjord. The fjord becomes ice-free in summer, and the glacier’s floating front has shrunk since measurements taken in 1963, making it both an important outlet of the inland ice and part of Greenland’s changing glacial landscape.

Greenland