BEARDMORE GLACIER

glacier in central Antarctica, descending about 7,200 ft (2,200 m) from the South Polar Plateau to Ross Ice Shelf, dividing the Transantarctic Mountains of Queen Maud and Queen Alexandra. One of the world's largest known valley glaciers, it is 125 mi (200 km) long and is 25 mi in width. The British explorers Ernest Henry Shackleton (1908) and Robert Scott (1911) discovered the glacier on their route to the South Pole. Later scientific research found the glacier to contain petrified wood and fossils of ferns and coral, evidence of a time when Antarctica possessed a temperate climate.