Ross Ice Shelf

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Image:Ross Ice Shelf 1997.jpg Image:NOAA Royal Society Range.jpg The Ross Ice Shelf (81°30′S 175°00′W) is the largest ice shelf of Antarctica (an area of roughly 487 000 km², and about 800 km across: about the size of France). It is several hundred meters thick. The nearly vertical ice front to the open sea is more than 600 km long, and between 15 and 50 meters high above the water surface. 90 percent of the floating ice, however, is below the water surface.

Most of Ross Ice Shelf is located within the Ross Dependency claimed by New Zealand.

The ice shelf was named after Captain James Clark Ross who discovered it on January 28, 1841. Ross mapped the ice front eastward to 160ºW.

The Ross Ice Shelf acquired a grimmer reputation in 1912, when it became the final resting place of Antarctic explorer Robert Falcon Scott and his party.