Filchner–Ronne Ice Shelf

The Filchner–Ronne Ice Shelf is a vast floating ice platform in Antarctica’s Weddell Sea, fed by grounded ice flowing from West and East Antarctica.

Ice shelf: A floating slab of glacial ice attached to a land-based ice sheet or glacier. The Filchner–Ronne is one of the world’s largest examples of this broader ice formation.
Antarctic ice sheet: The vast continental ice mass covering most of Antarctica. Ice flowing from this ice sheet supplies the Filchner–Ronne shelf.
Ice-sheet mass balance: The balance between an ice sheet’s gains from snowfall and losses through processes such as melting and ice discharge. Shelf measurements help assess how much grounded Antarctic ice is being discharged to the ocean.
Berkner Island: A large ice rise in the southwestern Weddell Sea, enclosed by the Filchner–Ronne Ice Shelf. This grounded feature divides flow within the shelf and anchors its western part.
Ice-shelf buttressing: The resistance a floating ice shelf provides to the flow of grounded glaciers into the sea. Its buttressing can restrain major Antarctic ice streams that feed the shelf.
Weddell Sea: A marginal sea of the Southern Ocean bordered by Antarctica and the Antarctic Peninsula. The shelf occupies the southern part of this sea.
Satellite altimetry: The measurement of surface elevation using the travel time of satellite radar or laser pulses. Satellite records track changes in the shelf’s surface height and thickness.
Crary Ice Rise: A prominent grounded ice rise within the Ross Ice Shelf. It offers a useful comparison for how a pinned ice rise affects a major Antarctic shelf.
Ice-shelf basal melt: The melting of an ice shelf’s underside through heat exchange with ocean water. Ocean-driven melting beneath the shelf affects its thickness and structural support.
Filchner Ice Shelf: The eastern section of the Filchner–Ronne Ice Shelf, adjoining the Weddell Sea. It is one of the two named sectors whose union gives the larger shelf its name.

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Ross Ice ShelfCompared with: It is the other immense Antarctic shelf commonly compared with the Ross Ice Shelf.