Benson 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 12 mile long, draining the east part of Flight Deck Neve

Flight Deck Neve

Flight Deck Neve is an elevated and unusually flat glacier neve, about 5 nautical miles by 3 nautical miles , between Flagship Mountain and Mount Razorback in the Convoy Range, Victoria Land. The feature is the primary source of ice to the east-flowing Benson Glacier at Scuppers Icefalls...

 and continuing east between Fry Glacier

Fry Glacier

Fry Glacier is a glacier draining the slopes at the northeast corner of the Convoy Range and flowing along the south end of the Kirkwood Range into Tripp Bay, Victoria Land. First charted by the British Antarctic Expedition and named for A.M. Fry, a contributor to the expedition....

 and Mackay Glacier

Mackay Glacier

Mackay Glacier is a large glacier in Victoria Land, descending eastward from the polar plateau, between the Convoy and Clare Ranges, into the southern part of Granite Harbour. Discovered by the South Magnetic Pole Party of the British Antarctic Expedition and named for Alistair F...

 into the north part of Granite Harbour where it forms a floating tongue. It was mapped in 1957 by the New Zealand Northern Survey Party of the Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition

Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition

The 1955–58 Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition was a Commonwealth-sponsored expedition that successfully completed the first overland crossing of Antarctica, via the South Pole...

 (1956–58), and indicated as a somewhat longer glacier including the present Midship Glacier

Midship Glacier

Midship Glacier is a broad flat glacier filling the bulk of Alatna Valley and having its origin on the slopes of Mount Morrison to the south, in Convoy Range, Victoria Land. From 1957 this ice body was considered part of Benson Glacier...

. It was named by the party after W.N. Benson, formerly professor of geology at the University of Otago

University of Otago

The University of Otago in Dunedin is New Zealand's oldest university with over 22,000 students enrolled during 2010.The university has New Zealand's highest average research quality and in New Zealand is second only to the University of Auckland in the number of A rated academic researchers it...

, New Zealand, whose publications include a major contribution to the petrology

Petrology

Petrology is the branch of geology that studies rocks, and the conditions in which rocks form....

 of Victoria Land

Victoria Land

Victoria Land is a region of Antarctica bounded on the east by the Ross Ice Shelf and the Ross Sea and on the west by Oates Land and Wilkes Land. It was discovered by Captain James Clark Ross in January 1841 and named after the UK's Queen Victoria...

.