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Some named Antarctic iceshelves. Ice shelf extending approximately 6 miles into the Antarctic Sound from Joinville Island. An ice shelf is "a floating slab of ice originating from land of considerable thickness extending from the coast (usually of great horizontal extent with a very gently sloping surface), resulting from the flow of ice sheets, initially formed by the accumulation of snow ...
Antarctic bottom water is created is formed in the Weddell and Ross Seas, off the Adélie Coast and by Cape Darnley from surface water cooling in polynyas and below the ice shelf. [7] An important factor enabling the formation of Antarctic bottom water is the cold surface wind blowing off the Antarctic continent. [8]
The Ross Ice Shelf is the main outlet for several major glaciers draining the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, which contains the equivalent of 5 m of sea level rise in its above-sea-level ice." The report added that observations of "iceberg calving" on the Ross Ice Shelf are, in their opinion, unrelated to its stability. [10]
Marine ice-sheet instability is the potential for warm water currents to enter between the seafloor and the base of the ice sheet once the sheet is no longer heavy enough to displace such flows. [72] Marine ice-cliff instability may cause ice cliffs taller than 100 m (330 ft) to collapse under their own weight once they are no longer buttressed ...
Researchers say their findings ‘highlight the complexity and often-overlooked importance of sea ice’ to the health of ice shelves.
The West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) is the segment of the continental ice sheet that covers West Antarctica, the portion of Antarctica on the side of the Transantarctic Mountains that lies in the Western Hemisphere. It is classified as a marine-based ice sheet, meaning that its bed lies well below sea level and its edges flow into floating ice ...
Top scientists say the world’s ice sheets are melting more rapidly than expected and that world leaders must ramp up their climate ambitions to avoid a catastrophic rise in sea levels.
When basal channels incise up into an ice shelf, they produce localized, enhanced thinning in that region. When basal melting occurs on an ice shelf, the surface of the shelf lowers to compensate for the change in mass. Studies have shown that thinning rates along a basal channel can be up to triple an ice shelf's average thinning rate. [5]