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Sea ice provides an ecosystem for various polar species, particularly the polar bear, whose environment is being threatened as global warming causes the ice to melt more as the Earth's temperature gets warmer. Furthermore, the sea ice itself functions to help keep polar climates cool, since the ice exists in expansive enough amounts to maintain ...
The Antarctic sea ice cover is highly seasonal, with very little ice in the austral summer, expanding to an area roughly equal to that of Antarctica in winter.It peaks (~18 × 10^6 km 2) during September (comparable to the surface area of Pluto), which marks the end of austral winter, and retreats to a minimum (~3 × 10^6 km 2) in February.
Fast ice (also called land-fast ice, landfast ice, and shore-fast ice) is sea ice or lake ice [1] that is "fastened" to the coastline, to the sea floor along shoals, or to grounded icebergs. [ 2 ] [ 3 ] [ 4 ] Fast ice may either grow in place from the sea water or by freezing pieces of drifting ice to the shore or other anchor sites.
Drift ice, also called brash ice, is sea ice that is not attached to the shoreline or any other fixed object (shoals, grounded icebergs, etc.). [ 1 ] [ 2 ] [ 3 ] Unlike fast ice , which is "fastened" to a fixed object, drift ice is carried along by winds and sea currents , hence its name.
Arctic sea ice decline accounted for the single largest loss (7.6 trillion tonnes), followed by the melting of Antarctica's ice shelves (6.5 trillion tonnes), the retreat of mountain glaciers (6.1 trillion tonnes), the melting of the Greenland ice sheet (3.8 trillion tonnes) and finally the melting of the Antarctic ice sheet (2.5 trillion ...
Sea ice is a complex composite composed primarily of pure ice in various states of crystallization, but including air bubbles and pockets of brine.Understanding its growth processes is important for climate modellers and remote sensing specialists, since the composition and microstructural properties of the ice affect how it reflects or absorbs sunlight.
A sea-level rise of 3.3 m (10 ft 10 in) would occur if the ice sheet collapses, leaving ice caps on the mountains, and 4.3 m (14 ft 1 in) if those ice caps also melt. [67] Isostatic rebound may contribute an additional 1 m (3 ft 3 in) to global sea levels over another 1,000 years. [ 66 ]
The Arctic sea ice covers less area in the summer than in the winter. The multi-year (i.e. perennial) sea ice covers nearly all of the central deep basins. The Arctic sea ice and its related biota are unique, and the year-round persistence of the ice has allowed the development of ice endemic species, meaning species not found anywhere else.