Name StatusOfficial ValidatedFeatureGlacierNZ Gazette Reference2012 (53) p.1477DatumRSRGD2000GeoTag[1] PositionDescriptionA large glacier, about 12 miles wide at its mouth, lying north of Mt Discovery and Mt Morning and flowing between Brown Island and the mainland to the Ross Ice Shelf at the head of McMurdo Sound. It is about 40 miles long, reaching the Polar Plateau at an elevation of 1524m in the vicinity of Mt Kempe. This glacier converges to a width of about 5 miles in its upper reaches. The western half is covered with silt and raised moraine material, is deeply cut by thaw streams, and is scarreted with bastions of pinnacled ice which, in the upper reaches, attain a height of 18m. The eastern side of the glacier is smoother, but contains long undulations, icefalls, ridges and gullies. There is no rock wall bordering this side of the glacier, the ice merging imperceptibly with the slopes of Brown Island, Mt Discovery and Mt Morning. About 15 miles southward of Cape Chocolate, the Koettlitz Glacier reaches sea level, having here a width of 8 miles. From this point it continues as a floating sheet of stagnant ice into McMurdo Sound. This ice barrier has a height from 1.5 to 8 m, but the contours and limits undergo considerable change from year to year. The extension of this glacier on the western side of McMurdo Sound is a vast field of chaotic ice. Discovered by the NAE, 1901-04, during the summer of 1902-03. Named by Dr Reginald Koettlitz, physician and botanist of the expedition.
