Longest glacier

The world's longest glacier is the Lambert Glacier, discovered by an Australian aircraft crew in Australian Antarctic Territory in 1956/57. The glacier consists of several tributaries that converge towards the coastline whereupon the ice begins to float and forms the vast Amery Ice Shelf, which alone is 69,000 square kilometres (26,641 square miles). The longest flow-line from the drainage divide inland to the edge of the Amery Ice Shelf (where it meets the sea), measures approximately 1,470 kilometres (913 miles), of which 550 kilometres (342 miles) is part of the floating ice shelf.

The total area of the Lambert Glacier-Amery Ice Shelf system is approximately 1,550,000 km2 (600,000 sq mi), which represents around 16% of the whole East Antarctic Ice Sheet. Unlike most glaciers around the world, the Lambert-Amery system is thought to have been stable for several decades and shows no signs of thinning or retreat.