It drains an area of 103,314 km2 (39,890 sq mi) of the Greenland Ice Sheet with a flux (quantity of ice moved from the land to the sea) of 14.3 km3 (3.4 cu mi) per year, as measured for 1996.

[2] In July 2020, the northern offshoot, the Spalte Glacier broke away from Nioghalvfjerdsbrae and completely disintegrated.

The name had been meant to be temporary, but it acquired a new significance when it was deemed to be the place where expedition leader Ludvig Mylius-Erichsen, as well as cartographer Niels Peter Høeg Hagen, had died according to Jørgen Brønlund's diary.

The width of the stream remains relatively constant over most of the length ranging from 20 to 35 m.[5] In August 1997 the southern calving front retreated by 5 km with no significant upstream thinning.

The fjord and the glacier form the southern limit of Crown Prince Christian Land.