Three types of rock glaciers (moraine, cirque and subslope ones) were distinguished in northwestern Wedel Jarlsberg Land. Subslope rock glaciers were found different from nival moraines. A development of subslope and fossil cirque rock glaciers was connected with the older Holocene whereas of active cirque and moraine rock glaciers with the Little Ice Age.

This study used ground penetrating radar soundings to examine a tongue-shaped rock glacier (64°04’S 58°25’W) on James Ross Island, Antarctic Peninsula, in January 2005. The rock glacier studied has multiple well-developed transverse ridges and approximately 800 m long from the talus of its head to its frontal slopes and is 300 m wide in the middle. The longitudinal ground penetrating radar profile identified debris bands which dip up-glacier, similar to the thrust structures in the compression zone of a valley glacier. Transverse ground penetrating radar profiles indicated a layered structure which is inclined towards the central part of the rock glacier and which resembles the transverse foliation of a valley glacier. Consequently, the internal structure of the rock glacier is revealed as being similar to the “nested spoons” common in the interior of valley glaciers. We concluded that this rock glacier has been created by the deformation of a glacier ice core and a thick and continuous debris mantle.