New Zealand contains many glaciers, mostly located near the Main Divide of the Southern Alps in the South Island. They are classed as mid-latitude mountain glaciers. There are eight small glaciers in the North Island on Mount Ruapehu.
An inventory of South Island glaciers compiled in the 1980s indicated there were about 3,155 glaciers with an area of at least one hectare (2.5 acres).[1] Approximately one sixth of these glaciers covered more than 10 hectares. These include:
- Fox Glacier
- Franz Josef Glacier
- Hooker Glacier
- Mueller Glacier
- Murchison Glacier
- Tasman Glacier
- Volta Glacier
New Zealand's territorial claim in Antarctica, the Ross Dependency, also contains many glaciers.
- ^ Chinn, Trevor J.H., (1988), Glaciers of New Zealand Archived 6 July 2008 at the Wayback Machine, in Satellite image atlas of glaciers of the world, U.S. Geological Survey professional paper; 1386, ISBN 0-607-71457-3.