Acosta Glacier is a glacier

Glacier

A glacier is a large persistent body of ice that forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its ablation over many years, often centuries. At least 0.1 km² in area and 50 m thick, but often much larger, a glacier slowly deforms and flows due to stresses induced by its weight...

 about 2 miles (3 km) long flowing north from Thurston Island

Thurston Island

Thurston Island is an ice-covered, glacially dissected island, long, wide and in area, lying a short way off the NW end of Ellsworth Land, Antarctica. It is the third largest island of Antarctica, after Alexander Island and Berkner Island...

 just east of Dyer Point

Dyer Point

Dyer Point is an ice-covered point just west of Hughes Peninsula on the north coast of Thurston Island. First plotted from air photos taken by U.S. Navy Operation Highjump in December 1946. Named by Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names for J.N. Dyer, radio engineer with the Byrd Antarctic...

. It was named by the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names

Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names

The Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names is an advisory committee of the United States Board on Geographic Names responsible for recommending names for features in Antarctica...

 (US-ACAN) after Alex V. Acosta of the United States Geological Survey

United States Geological Survey

The United States Geological Survey is a scientific agency of the United States government. The scientists of the USGS study the landscape of the United States, its natural resources, and the natural hazards that threaten it. The organization has four major science disciplines, concerning biology,...

 (USGS) in Flagstaff, Arizona

Flagstaff, Arizona

Flagstaff is a city located in northern Arizona, in the southwestern United States. In 2010, the city's population was 65,870. The population of the Metropolitan Statistical Area was at 134,421 in 2010. It is the county seat of Coconino County...

. He is a computer and graphic specialist, and was part of the USGS team that compiled the 1:5,000,000-scale Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer

Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer

The Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer is a space-borne sensor embarked on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration family of polar orbiting platforms . AVHRR instruments measure the reflectance of the Earth in 5 relatively wide spectral bands...

 satellite image maps of Antarctica and the 1:250,000-scale Landsat image maps of the Siple Coast

Siple Coast

Siple Coast is the middle portion of the relatively ill-defined coast along the east side of the Ross Ice Shelf, between the north end of Gould Coast and the south end of Shirase Coast . The area was originally called Kirton Coast, but was renamed by NZ-APC in 1961 after Paul A. Siple, a noted...

area in the 1990s.