Ross Ice Shelf

The Ross Ice Shelf is the largest ice shelf of Antarctica (as of
2013, an area of roughly 500,809 square kilometres Ross Ice Shelf
(193,363 sq mi)[1] and about 800 kilometres (500 mi) across:
Ice shelf
about the size of France).[2] It is several hundred metres thick.
The nearly vertical ice front to the open sea is more than 600
kilometres (370 mi) long, and between 15 and 50 metres (50
and 160 ft) high above the water surface.[3] Ninety percent of
the floating ice, however, is below the water surface.

Most of Ross Ice Shelf is in the Ross Dependency claimed by

New Zealand. It floats in, and covers, a large southern portion
of the Ross Sea and the entire Roosevelt Island located in the
east of the Ross Sea.
Crevasse, Ross Ice Shelf in 2001
The ice shelf is named after Sir James Clark Ross, who Coordinates: 81°30′S 175°00′W
discovered it on 28 January 1841. It was originally called "The
Barrier", with various adjectives including "Great Ice Location Antarctica
Barrier", as it prevented sailing further south. Ross mapped Offshore Ross Sea
the ice front eastward to 160° W. In 1947, the U.S. Board on water
Geographic Names applied the name "Ross Shelf Ice" to this bodies
feature and published it in the original U.S. Antarctic Etymology Sir James Clark Ross,
Gazetteer. In January 1953, the name was changed to "Ross who discovered it on
Ice Shelf"; that name was published in 1956.[4][5] 28 January 1841
Area
Exploration • Total 500,809 square
kilometres
(193,363 sq mi)
On 5 January 1841, the British Admiralty's Ross expedition in
the Erebus and the Terror, three-masted ships with specially Dimensions
strengthened wooden hulls, was going through the pack ice of • Width 800 kilometres
the Pacific near Antarctica in an attempt to determine the (500 mi)
position of the South Magnetic Pole. Four days later, they Elevation 15 and 50 metres (50
found their way into open water and were hoping that they and 160 ft)
would have a clear passage to their destination. But on 11
January, the men were faced with an enormous mass of ice.

Sir James Clark Ross, the expedition's commander, remarked: "It was an obstruction of such character as to
leave no doubt upon my mind as to our future proceedings, for we might with equal chance of success try
to sail through the cliffs of Dover". Ross, who in 1831 had located the North Magnetic Pole, spent the next
two years vainly searching for a sea passage to the South Pole; later, his name was given to the ice shelf and
the sea surrounding it. Two volcanoes in the region were named by Ross for his vessels.[6]

For later Antarctic explorers seeking to reach the South Pole, the Ross Ice Shelf became a starting area. In a
first exploration of the area by the Discovery Expedition in 1901–1904, Robert Falcon Scott made a
significant study of the shelf and its surroundings from his expedition's base on Ross Island. By
measurement of calved ice bergs and their buoyancy, he estimated the ice sheet to be on average 274 meters
thick; the undisturbed morphology of the ice sheet
and its inverted temperature profile led him to
conclude it was floating on water; and measurements
in 1902–1903 showed it had advanced 555 meters
northwards in 13.5 months.[7] The findings were
presented at a lecture entitled "Universitas
Antarctica!" given 7 June 1911 and were published
in the account of Scott's second expedition (the Terra
Nova Expedition of 1910–1913).[8]

Ernest Shackleton's southern party (Shackleton,

Adams, Marshal, Wild) of the 1908 Nimrod
expedition were the first humans to cross the Ice
Shelf during its failed attempt to reach the South
Pole. Both Roald Amundsen and Scott crossed the
shelf to reach the Pole in 1911. Amundsen wrote:
"Along its outer edge the Barrier shows an even, flat
surface; but here, inside the bay, the conditions were Ross Ice Shelf situated between Marie Byrd Land
entirely different. Even from the deck of the Fram and Victoria Land
we were able to observe great disturbances of the
surface in every direction; huge ridges with hollows
between them extended on all sides. The greatest
elevation lay to the south in the form of a lofty,
arched ridge, which we took to be about 500 feet
[150 m] high on the horizon. But it might be assumed
that this ridge continued to rise beyond the range of
vision".

The next day, the party made its first steps on the
Barrier. "After half an hour's march we were already
at the first important point—the connection between
the sea-ice and the Barrier. This connection had
always haunted our brains. What would it be like? A "The mystic Barrier" at Bay of Whales, near where
high, perpendicular face of ice, up which we should Amundsen first encountered it.
Note humans for size comparison (dark spots at left
have to haul our things laboriously with the help of
between large chunks of sea ice, near the left image
tackles? Or a great and dangerous fissure, which we
border). RV Nathaniel B. Palmer is in the distance.
should not be able to cross without going a long way
round? We naturally expected something of the sort.
This mighty and terrible monster would, of course,
offer resistance in some form or other," he wrote.

"The mystic Barrier! All accounts without exception, from the days of Ross to the present time, had spoken
of this remarkable natural formation with apprehensive awe. It was as though one could always read
between the lines the same sentence: 'Hush, be quiet! the mystic Barrier!'

"One, two, three, and a little jump, and the Barrier was surmounted!"[9]

Composition and movement

Ice shelves are thick plates of ice, formed continuously by glaciers, that float atop an ocean. The shelves act
as "brakes" for the glaciers. These shelves serve another important purpose—"they moderate the amount of
melting that occurs on the glaciers' surfaces. Once their ice shelves are removed, the glaciers increase in
 speed due to meltwater percolation and/or a reduction
of braking forces, and they may begin to dump more
ice into the ocean than they gather as snow in their
catchments. Glacier ice speed increases are already
observed in Peninsula areas where ice shelves
disintegrated in prior years."[10]

Glacier-ice shelf interactions

The Ross Ice Shelf is one of many such shelves. It

reaches into Antarctica from the north, and covers an
area of about 520,000 km2 (200,000 sq mi), nearly the
size of France.[2][3] The ice mass is about 800 km
(500 mi) wide and 970 km (600 mi) long. In some The edge of the Ross Ice Shelf in 1997
places, namely its southern areas, the ice shelf can be
almost 750 m (2,450 ft) thick. The Ross Ice Shelf pushes
out into the sea at between 1.5 and 3 m (5 and 10 ft) a
day. Other glaciers gradually add bulk to it. At the same
time, the freezing of seawater below the ice mass
increases the thickness of the ice from 40 to 50 cm (16 to
20 in). Sometimes, fissures and cracks may cause part of
the shelf to break off; the largest known is about
31,000 km2 (12,000 sq mi), that is, slightly larger than
Belgium.[11] Iceberg B-15, the world's largest recorded
iceberg, was calved from the Ross Ice Shelf during
March 2000.

Scientists have long been intrigued by the shelf and its

composition. Many scientific teams researching the Ross ice shelf in red, other ice shelves in
Antarctic have made camps on or adjacent to the Ross different colors (Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf in blue
Ice Shelf. This includes McMurdo Station, built next to for example)
the Ross Ice Shelf on volcanic rock.[12] One major effort
was a series of studies conducted in 1957 and 1958,
which were continued during the 1960–61 season. The efforts involved an international team of scientists.
Some parties explored the glaciers and others the valleys on the ice shelf.[13]

From 1967 to 1972 the Scott Polar Research Institute reported extensive observations using radio echo
sounding. The technique allowed measurements to be taken from the air; allowing a criss cross track of
35,000 km to be covered; compared with a 3,000 km track from previous seismic sounding on the
ground.[14] More detailed surveys were executed between 1973 and 1978.

A significant scientific endeavor called the Ross Ice Shelf Project was launched with a plan of drilling into
the shelf to sample the biomass in the area and make other determinations about the shelf and its relationship
to the sea floor. This is believed to be the first oceanographic ice shelf borehole. The project included
surface glaciological observations as well as drilling, and the glaciological portion started during the
planning phase of the drilling.[15] The drilling portion of the project was to have begun during 1974, but the
actual drilling was delayed until 1976. Finally, in 1977, the scientists were able to drill successfully through
the ice, making a hole that could be sampled every few days for three weeks. The team was able to map the
sea floor, study the tides, and assess the fish and various
other forms of life in the waters. The team also examined
the oceanographic and geological conditions as well as
the temperature of the ice. They estimated that the base
of the shelf was −2.16 °C (27.3 °F). They also made
other calculations about the fluctuations of the
temperatures.[12]

The results of these various projects were published in a

series of reports in the 2 February 1979 issue of
Science.[12]

During the 1980s, a network of weather stations was Main drill site for the New Zealand 2017 hot water
installed to record temperatures on the shelf and drill camp on the Ross Ice Shelf
throughout the more remote parts of the continent.[16]

University of Colorado's National Snow and Ice Data Center has been studying ice shelves and, in 2002,
announced that, based on several breakups of ice shelves, including Larsen B, has begun to reassess their
stability. Their scientists stated that the temperature of the warmest portion of the shelf is "only a few
degrees too cool in summer presently to undergo the same kind of retreat process. The Ross Ice Shelf is the
main outlet for several major glaciers draining the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, which contains the equivalent
of 5 m of sea level rise in its above-sea-level ice." The report added that observations of "iceberg calving"
on the Ross Ice Shelf are, in their opinion, unrelated to its stability.[10]

Scientific exploration continues to uncover interesting information and the analyses have resulted in some
interesting theories being posited and publicized. One such opinion, given in 2006 based on a geological
survey, suggested that the ice shelf had collapsed previously, perhaps suddenly, which could well happen
again.[17]

A science team from New Zealand installed a camp in the centre of the shelf in late 2017. The expedition
was led by glaciologist Christina Hulbe[18] and brought together oceanographers, glaciologists, biologists
and sedimentologists to examine the ice, ocean and sediment in the central shelf region. One of the key
findings was that the ice in the region was re-freezing.[19] This re-freezing and growth of an ice shelf is not
uncommon but the Ross Ice Shelf situation appeared to be very variable as there was no evidence of long-
term freezing.[20] A recent study attribute this variability in-part to tidal mixing.[21]

A second New Zealand expedition in 2019 traveled to the grounding line region of the Kamb Ice Stream.
The hot water drill borehole at this site penetrated through over 500 m of snow and ice to an ocean cavity
only 30 m deep at this location.[22] As well as sampling the ocean and sediment, it was the first deployment
beneath the Ross Ice Shelf of the Remotely operated underwater vehicle Icefin developed at Georgia Tech,
a vehicle designed around parameters suitable for exploration of the liquid cavities of places like Europa.[23]
The same New Zealand team returned to another site along the Kamb coast in December 2021, this time
drilling through an under-ice river that proved to be essentially oceanic. The team were able to melt through
the ice to discover the 250 m deep river had formed a relatively narrow channel beneath the ice. They also
recorded evidence of the tsunami generated by the 2022 Hunga Tonga–Hunga Ha'apai eruption and
tsunami.[24]

See also
Cape Huinga
Eady Ice Piedmont
 Howard-Williams Point
Iceberg B-17B
List of Antarctic ice shelves
Nimrod Expedition
Retreat of glaciers since 1850
Ross Embayment
Ross Gyre
Steershead Crevasses
West Antarctic Rift System

References
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antarcticas-hidden-under-ice-rivers-and-their-role-in-future-sea-level-rise-176456

External links
Polar Discovery: Ross Sea Penguins and Lava Flows (http://polardiscovery.whoi.edu/expedi
tion3/index.html)
 Some pictures of the Ross (http://www.vims.edu/bio/microbial/NBPishelf.html)
Massive ice shelf 'may collapse without warning' (http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cf
m?c_id=5&ObjectID=10412954)
Photograph of Ross Ice Shelf edge (http://www.davidbarrphotography.com)

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