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The Antarctic sea ice cover is highly seasonal, with very little ice in the austral summer, expanding to an area roughly equal to that of Antarctica in winter.It peaks (~18 × 10^6 km 2) during September (comparable to the surface area of Pluto), which marks the end of austral winter, and retreats to a minimum (~3 × 10^6 km 2) in February.
In 2023, the Antarctic sea ice reached record-low levels, with over 2 million square kilometres less ice than usual during winter – about 10 times the size of the UK.
Many coastal glaciers have been losing mass and retreating, causing net-annual ice loss across Antarctica, [84]: 1264 although the East Antarctic ice sheet continues to gain ice inland. By 2100, net ice loss from Antarctica is expected to add about 11 cm (5 in) to global sea level rise.
Antarctic sea ice extent was about 18% higher on Dec. 21, 2024, than on that date in 2016, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center Charctic Interactive Sea Ice Graph − which reports ...
Antarctic sea ice has been shrinking in recent years, hitting near-record lows in 2024. The 2024 winter maximum for Antarctic sea ice was the second lowest on record. Show comments.
Antarctic ice shelves, 1998. About 75% of the coastline of Antarctica is ice shelf. The majority of ice shelf consists of floating ice, and a lesser amount consists of glaciers that move slowly from the land mass into the sea. Ice shelves lose mass through breakup of glacial ice , or basal melting due to warm ocean water under the ice. [25]
A map of West Antarctica. The total volume of the entire Antarctic ice sheet is estimated at 26.92 million km 3 (6.46 million cu mi), [2] while the WAIS contains about 2.1 million km 3 (530,000 cu mi) in ice that is above the sea level, and ~1 million km 3 (240,000 cu mi) in ice that is below it. [20]
‘Lower sea ice extent means that ocean waves will pound the coast of the giant ice sheet, further reducing ice shelves around Antarctica’