Berkner Island

Berkner Island is an ice-covered, bedrock-grounded rise within Antarctica’s Filchner–Ronne Ice Shelf, surrounded by floating ice. It is the southernmost island in the world.

Filchner–Ronne Ice Shelf: A vast floating ice shelf in the southern Weddell Sea, formed by glaciers flowing from the Antarctic Ice Sheet. Berkner Island rises from bedrock within this ice shelf.
Grounding line: The boundary where a grounded glacier or ice sheet begins to float as an ice shelf. The transition between grounded ice and floating shelf ice shapes flow around Berkner Island.
Ronne Ice Shelf: The western sector of the Filchner–Ronne Ice Shelf, adjoining the Antarctic Peninsula side of the Weddell Sea. It forms part of the floating ice surrounding Berkner Island.
Antarctic exploration: The exploration of Antarctica by expeditions, surveys, and scientific fieldwork. Berkner Island was identified and mapped through exploration of the Filchner–Ronne region.
Weddell Sea: A large embayment of the Southern Ocean bounded by Antarctica and the Antarctic Peninsula. The sea borders the Filchner–Ronne Ice Shelf around Berkner Island.
Ice-sheet dynamics: The movement and changing structure of ice sheets under gravity, climate, and interactions with the bed. Ice flow around the island responds to the broader dynamics of the Antarctic Ice Sheet.
Filchner Ice Shelf: The eastern sector of the Filchner–Ronne Ice Shelf, bordering the southern Weddell Sea. It is the other major named sector of the shelf system surrounding the island.
Wilhelm Filchner: A German explorer who led the Second German Antarctic Expedition from 1911 to 1912. The ice shelf adjoining the island carries Filchner’s name.
Antarctica: Earth’s southernmost continent, covered largely by the Antarctic Ice Sheet. Berkner Island is a geographic feature of the Antarctic continent and ice system.
Ice-shelf buttressing: The resistance a floating ice shelf exerts on the glaciers and ice streams feeding it. Grounded rises can obstruct shelf flow and help alter the restraint on inland ice.

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