Antarctic ice sheet

The Antarctic ice sheet is the vast body of glacial ice covering Antarctica, divided into the East Antarctic, West Antarctic, and Antarctic Peninsula ice sheets. It stores most of Earth’s freshwater and flows toward the coast, where ice can enter the ocean.

Ice sheet dynamics: The movement and changing shape of large bodies of land-based ice under gravity and climate forcing. This broader process explains how Antarctic ice moves from the interior toward the coast.
Sea-level rise: A long-term increase in the average height of the ocean surface. Antarctic land-ice loss adds water to the ocean and raises global mean sea level.
Glacier: A persistent body of land ice that flows under its own weight. An ice sheet is the largest form of glacier, covering a continent-scale area.
Ross Ice Shelf: The largest ice shelf in Antarctica, floating in the Ross Sea. It buttresses ice draining from a broad sector of West Antarctica.
Ice stream: A fast-flowing corridor of ice within a slower-moving ice sheet. Ice streams carry much of West Antarctica’s ice toward the ocean.
Antarctic Bottom Water: A cold, dense water mass formed around Antarctica that spreads across the deep ocean. Freshwater from melting ice can influence the formation and circulation of this water mass.
East Antarctic Ice Sheet: The large portion of the Antarctic ice sheet lying mainly east of the Transantarctic Mountains. It contains most of Antarctica’s ice by volume.
Ronne Ice Shelf: A major ice shelf in the Weddell Sea sector of Antarctica. It borders the Filchner–Ronne system and receives ice from both major ice-sheet sectors.
Ice shelf: A floating extension of a glacier or ice sheet that remains attached to land ice. Antarctic ice shelves buttress inland ice and influence its discharge.
Isostatic rebound: The gradual rise of Earth’s crust after the removal of an overlying mass, such as an ice sheet. As Antarctic ice mass changes, the underlying crust responds by rising or sinking.

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