Who is the Filchner Ice Shelf named after?

explorer Wilhelm Filchner
Because of this, and the fact that the two shelves can be separated only at Berkner Island, the name Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf is frequently applied to the whole ice mass. The ice shelf, named for the German explorer Wilhelm Filchner, was claimed by the United Kingdom (1908) and by Argentina (1942).

Where are the Ronne and Filchner ice shelves?

Antarctica
The seaward side of the Filchner-Ronne ice shelf is divided into Eastern (Filchner) 79°00′S 40°00′W and the larger Western (Ronne) 78°30′S 61°00′W sections by Berkner Island. The whole ice shelf covers some 430,000 km2, making it the second largest ice shelf in Antarctica (and on Earth), after the Ross Ice Shelf.

How big is the Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf?

about 163,000 square miles
The Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf has a combined area of about 163,000 square miles (422,000 square km), making it one of the two largest ice shelves on Earth.

What percent of Antarctica is ice?

97.6 percent
The essence of Antarctica is glacial ice cover. The ice, which has accumulated over millions of years, is up to 3 miles deep and covers about 5.3 million square miles, or about 97.6 percent of the continent.

Is Ronne Ice Shelf melting?

10/05/2015 – The more ice is melted of the Antarctic Filchner-Ronne shelf, the more ice flows into the ocean and the more the region contributes to global sea-level rise.

What is the name of the first ice stream in the Ronne Ice Shelf?

Rutford Ice Stream
Rutford Ice Stream (79°00′S 81°00′W ) is a major Antarctic ice stream, about 290 kilometres (180 mi) long and over 24 kilometres (15 mi) wide, which drains southeastward between the Sentinel Range, Ellsworth Mountains and Fletcher Ice Rise into the southwest part of Ronne Ice Shelf.

What is under an ice shelf?

Here, a water mass known as Circumpolar Deep Water, which normally flows around Antarctica just off the continental shelf, is able to enter cavities under the ice shelves.

What is under Antarctica’s ice?

Underneath Antarctica’s vast ice sheets there’s a network of rivers and lakes. This is possible because of the insulating blanket of ice above, the flow of heat from within the Earth, and the small amount of heat generated as the ice deforms.

Does Antarctica have oil?

There are known reserves of oil and coal as well as mineral deposits in Antarctica, although detailed knowledge of these mineral deposits is sketchy. In the last 50 years of scientific research, no large deposits of mineralized rocks have been found.

Is an ice shelf a glacier?

Unlike ice shelves, glaciers are land-based. While glaciers are defined as large sheets of ice and snow on land, ice shelves are technically part of the ocean.