 In doing so, Shambles Glacier provides the largest 'gap' in Adelaide Island's north–south running mountain chain.The lower reaches of the glacier were first sighted and surveyed in 1909 by the French Antarctic Expedition under Jean-Baptiste Charcot, and resurveyed in 1948 by the Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey (FIDS).The upper reaches were mapped from air photos taken by the Ronne Antarctic Research Expedition (RARE), in 1947–48, and by the Falkland Islands and Dependencies Aerial Survey Expedition (FIDASE), 1956–57.