Ice shelf
.jpg)
An ice shelf is a large platform of ice, where a glacier flows down to a coastline. An ice shelf is usually very thick, usually 100 metres (330 ft) or more. Some ice shelves float on the water. Ice shelves that float are usually much thinner.
The biggest areas of ice shelf are in Antarctica:
- Ross Ice Shelf 509,000 square kilometres (197,000 sq mi), as of 2013
- Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf, 430,000 square kilometres (170,000 sq mi)
Ice Shelf Media
View of the Larsen Ice Shelf grounding line along the Foyn Coast of the Antarctic Peninsula. The floating ice shelf is in the left foreground, and the grounding line is visible as an abrupt change in surface slope due to flexure caused by the buoyancy force where the ice reaches flotation.
Some named Antarctic iceshelves.
Ice shelf extending approximately 6 miles into the Antarctic Sound from Joinville Island
Panorama of Ross Ice Shelf
An image of Antarctica differentiating its landmass (dark grey), ice shelves (light grey), and sea ice (white)
Ross Ice Shelf: "The mystic Barrier" at Bay of Whales. Note humans for size comparison (dark spots next to the large chunk of sea ice at left image border).
Processes around an Antarctic ice shelf
Glacier-ice shelf interactions
Thwaites Ice Shelf (Antarctica)
.jpg)
Other websites
Media related to Ice shelf at Wikimedia Commons