Arctic Ice Shelf

Extracted Attributes

• Type

  Glacial ice platform

• Location

  Arctic (Greenland, Northern Canada, Russian Arctic)

• Formation

  Formed where tributary glaciers meet the sea

• Thickness

  100-1,000 meters (330-3,280 feet)

• Movement Mechanism

  Gravity-induced pressure from grounded ice

• Primary Driver of Change

  Climate Change / Global Warming

• Geopolitical Significance

  Potential opening of new maritime shipping lanes (Northern Passage)

• Primary Process of Ice Loss

  Melting, Calving, Disintegration

• Ellesmere Ice Shelf Location

  North coast of Ellesmere Island, Nunavut, Canada

• Ellesmere Ice Shelf Area (historical)

  Approximately 9,100 square kilometers (3,500 square miles)

• Largest Arctic Ice Shelf (historical)

  Ellesmere Ice Shelf

Timeline

• The Ellesmere Ice Shelf was first documented by the British Arctic Expedition. (Source: Web Search Results)

  1875-1876

• The continuous mass of the Ellesmere Ice Shelf had been in place for at least 3,000 years prior to its disruption. (Source: Web Search Results)

  Unknown

• Consistent decreases in ice shelf extent have been observed through melt, calving, and complete disintegration of some shelves. (Source: Wikipedia)

  Recent decades

Ice shelf

An ice shelf is a large platform of glacial ice floating on the ocean, fed by one or multiple tributary glaciers. Ice shelves form along coastlines where the ice thickness is insufficient to displace the more dense surrounding ocean water. The boundary between the ice shelf (floating) and grounded ice (resting on bedrock or sediment) is referred to as the grounding line; the boundary between the ice shelf and the open ocean (often covered by sea ice) is the ice front or calving front. Ice shelves are found in Antarctica and the Arctic (Greenland, Northern Canada, and the Russian Arctic), and can range in thickness from about 100–1,000 m (330–3,280 ft). The world's largest ice shelves are the Ross Ice Shelf and the Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf in Antarctica. The movement of ice shelves is principally driven by gravity-induced pressure from the grounded ice. That flow continually moves ice from the grounding line to the seaward front of the shelf. Typically, a shelf front will extend forward for years or decades between major calving events (calving is the sudden release and breaking away of a mass of ice from a glacier, iceberg, ice front, ice shelf, or crevasse). Snow accumulation on the upper surface and melting from the lower surface are also important to the mass balance of an ice shelf. Ice may also accrete onto the underside of the shelf. The effects of climate change are visible in the changes to the cryosphere, such as reduction in sea ice and ice sheets, and disruption of ice shelves. In the last several decades, glaciologists have observed consistent decreases in ice shelf extent through melt, calving, and complete disintegration of some shelves. Well studied examples include disruptions of the Thwaites Ice Shelf, Larsen Ice Shelf, Filchner–Ronne Ice Shelf (all three in the Antarctic) and the disruption of the Ellesmere Ice Shelf in the Arctic.

Web Search Results

• Ice shelf - Wikipedia

  The Ellesmere Ice Shelf was the largest ice shelf in the Arctic, encompassing about 9,100 square kilometres (3,500 square miles) of the north coast of Ellesmere Island, Nunavut, Canada.( The ice shelf was first documented by the British Arctic Expedition of 1875–76, in which Lieutenant Pelham Aldrich's party went from Cape Sheridan to Cape Alert.( The continuous mass of the Ellesmere Ice Shelf had been in place for at least 3,000 years.( [...] Ice shelves are found in Antarctica and the Arctic (Greenland, Northern Canada, and the Russian Arctic "Far North (Russia)")), and can range in thickness from about 100–1,000 m (330–3,280 ft). The world's largest ice shelves are the Ross Ice Shelf and the Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf in Antarctica. [...] Shelf in the Arctic.

• Ice Shelves | National Snow and Ice Data Center

  The largest ice shelves, as big as Texas or France, are located in Antarctica, but some unusual ones also occur in the Arctic. One example of an ice shelf made up of compacted, thickened sea ice hundreds of years old is the Ward Hunt Ice Shelf off the coast of Ellesmere Island in northern Canada. This type of ice shelf was common in the northernmost fjords of the Canadian and Greenland coast, but many have broken apart under warmer conditions. [...] Most of the world's ice shelves fringe the Antarctic coast. Antarctica has 15 major ice shelf areas and many smaller ones. The Wilkins Ice Shelf is an example of a composite ice shelf composed of both glacier-fed ice and fast ice that has been thickened by snowfall for many decades to a few centuries. Ice formed from direct snowfall accumulation is a significant part of nearly all ice shelves. [...] Home # Ice Shelves ## Overview ## What is an ice shelf? Ice shelves are extensions of thick land ice that flow out over a cold coastal ocean. Ice shelves range in thickness from about 50 to 600 meters (160 to 2000 feet), and can extend tens to hundreds of miles from the coast, where the ice first goes afloat. Some ice shelves have persisted for thousands of years. When an ice shelf is narrower than the bay it occupies, it is sometimes called an ice tongue.

• Arctic sea ice decline - Wikipedia

  The Arctic Ocean is the mass of water positioned approximately above latitude 65° N. Arctic Sea Ice refers to the area of the Arctic Ocean covered by ice. The _Arctic sea ice minimum_ is the day in a given year when Arctic sea ice reaches its smallest extent, occurring at the end of the summer melting season, normally during September. _Arctic Sea ice maximum_ is the day of a year when Arctic sea ice reaches its largest extent near the end of the Arctic cold season, normally during March.( [...] kilometers). The minimum extent on 18th Sept 2019 was 1.60 million square miles (4.153 million square kilometers). ( [...] Observation with satellites shows that Arctic sea ice area, extent, and volume have been in decline for a few decades.( The amount of multi-year sea ice in the Arctic has declined considerably in recent decades. In 1988, ice that was at least 4 years old accounted for 26% of the Arctic's sea ice. By 2013, ice that age was only 7% of all Arctic sea ice.(

• Ice Sheets Today | National Snow and Ice Data Center

  The Greenland Ice Sheet melt season typically lasts from April 1 to November 1. The Antarctic Ice Sheet melt season typically lasts from November 1 to April 1. Ice Sheets Today is produced by NSIDC and funded by NASA as part of the ASINA program. ## Other NSIDC Data Analysis Sites Sea Ice Today: Daily images of Arctic and Antarctic sea ice and seasonal analyses Snow Today: Daily images of snow data and seasonal analyses NSIDC WorldDataSystem Cires Colorado University NASA [...] Together, the Antarctic and Greenland Ice Sheets contain more than 99 percent of freshwater ice on Earth. If they both completely melted, they would raise sea level by an estimated 67.4 meters (223 feet). Long-term satellite data indicate that through most of the twentieth century, the ice sheets made very little contribution to sea level, and were nearly in balance in annual snowfall gain and ice or meltwater loss. However, the stability of the ice sheets has changed considerably in the [...] Ice Sheets Today offers the latest satellite data and scientific analyses on surface melting of the Greenland Ice Sheet in the Northern Hemisphere and Antarctic Ice Sheet in the Southern Hemisphere. Surface melt on each ice sheet results from a combination of daily weather conditions and the amount of solar energy absorbed by its snow and ice. Air temperatures, pressures, and winds drive weather conditions. The quality of snow, its grain size and color, also influence melt. Soot, wildfire ash,

• Ice Sheets | Vital Signs – Climate Change - NASA

  Click+drag to zoom reset Get Data: HTTP|Snapshot: PNG Carbon Dioxide Global Temperature Methane Arctic Sea Ice Minimum Extent Ice Sheets Sea Level Ocean Warming Return to top Image 4: NASA Logo ### The National Aeronautics and Space Administration NASA explores the unknown in air and space, innovates for the benefit of humanity, and inspires the world through discovery. About NASA's Mission Join Us [...] Vital Signs Carbon Dioxide Global Temperature Methane Arctic Sea Ice Minimum Extent Ice Sheets Sea Level Ocean Warming Mitigation and Adaptation Mitigation and Adaptation Sustainability and Government Resources Stories News List Subscribe Ask NASA Climate Eyes on the Earth More Multimedia Climate Interactives Climate Kids Feedback Explore This Section [...] Climate Change Facts Vital Signs Mitigation and Adaptation Stories Eyes on the Earth More Image 3 Vital Signs =========== Carbon Dioxide Global Temperature Methane Arctic Sea Ice Minimum Extent Ice Sheets Sea Level Ocean Warming Ice Sheets ========== ### Key Takeaway: Antarctica is losing ice mass (melting) at an average rate of about 136 billion tons per year, and Greenland is losing about 267 billion tons per year, adding to sea level rise.