Ross Ice Shelf

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The Ross Ice Shelf: View of the Ross Barrier
The largest ice shelves in Antarctica (as of 2007).
  • Ross Ice Shelf (472,960 km²)
  • Filchner-Ronne-Ice Shelf (422,420 km²)
  • Amery Ice Shelf (62,620 km²)
  • Larsen C (48,600 km²)
  • Riiser Larsen Ice Shelf (48,180 km²)
  • Fimbul Ice Shelf (41,060 km²)
  • Shackleton Ice Shelf (33,820 km²)
  • George VI Ice Shelf (23,880 km²)
  • West Ice Shelf (16,370 km²)
  • Wilkins Ice Shelf (13,680 km²)
    • Map of the Ross Sea and environs - Ross Ice Shelf gray

    The Ross Ice Shelf is an ice shelf that covers the southern half of the Antarctic Ross Sea . With an area of ​​around 525,000 km² (source: AWI ; other sources assume 487,800 km²), the ice shelf is only slightly smaller than France and thus the largest ice shelf area in Antarctica .

    nature

    The almost vertical, seaward front (edge) of the Ross Ice Shelf, the Ross Barrier , extends over a length of 600 to 800 km and rises 20 to 50 meters above sea level. New measurement results on the Ross Ice Shelf show the risk of this ice shelf disintegrating.

    history

    The Ross Ice Shelf is named after the English explorer and navigator James Clark Ross , who discovered it on January 28, 1841. Ross mapped the face of the ice sheet east to about 160 degrees west. The ice shelf was entered for the first time in January 1900 by participants in the Southern Cross Expedition (1898–1900) led by the Norwegian polar explorer Carsten Egeberg Borchgrevink . Most of the Ross Ice Shelf is in the Ross Dependency claimed by New Zealand . In 1912 the Ross Ice Shelf became the final resting place for polar explorer Robert Falcon Scott and his expedition members.

    Web links

    Commons : Ice Shelf  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

    Individual evidence

    1. ↑ Craig L. Stewart, Poul Christoffersen, Keith W. Nicholls, Michael JM Williams, Julian A. Dowdeswell: Basal melting of Ross Ice Shelf from solar heat absorption in an ice-front polynya. In: Nature Geoscience. 2019, doi : 10.1038 / s41561-019-0356-0 .
    2. ↑ Fears of dramatic collapse of the Ross Ice Shelf MercoPress, November 29, 2006

    Coordinates: 81 ° 29 ′ 4 ″  S , 177 ° 38 ′ 30 ″  W