Ross Ice Shelf

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Ross Ice Shelf in 1997

Ross Ice Shelf with Royal Society Range in the background, 1999 (NOAA)

The Ross Ice Shelf ([81°30′S 175°00′W]) is the largest ice shelf of Antarctica (an area of roughly 487 000 km², and about 800 km across: about the size of France). It is several hundred meters thick. The nearly vertical ice front to the open sea is more than 600 km long, and between 15 and 50 meters high above the water surface. 90 percent of the floating ice, however, is below the water surface. Most of Ross Ice Shelf is located within the Ross Dependency claimed by New Zealand. Ice shelves are permanent floating ice sheets that are attached to the land and are constantly fed by glaciers. The ice shelf was named after Captain James Clark Ross who discovered it on January 28, 1841. Ross mapped the ice front eastward to 160ºW.

The Ross Ice Shelf acquired a grimmer reputation in 1912, when it became the final resting place of Antarctic explorer Robert Falcon Scott and his party.

External link

• http://www.vims.edu/bio/microbial/NBPishelf.html - some pictures of the Ross.

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