- Antarctica is a continent of snow and ice and over 99% of the continent is covered by massive ice sheets, in places up to 4700 m thick.
- Glacial ice may seem solid but under the tremendous pressures it experiences in the ice sheet, it will flow like a viscous liquid, rather like toothpaste being squeezed out of tube.
- Huge floating ice shelves fringe much of the continent, with the Ross and the Ronne-Filchner ice shelves each being larger than the United Kingdom.
- The world’s largest icebergs are calved, or broken off from the Ross Ice Shelf of Antarctica. Luckily, the icebergs that break off from Antarctica rarely drift into shipping lanes where they can endanger ships.
- Scientists believe that the Antarctic ice sheet has existed continuously for at least 3 million years. However, there is evidence to suggest that local changes are happening, including a reduction in the amount of sea ice in the region and the sudden breaking up of ice shelves.
Antarctica from space - NASA/SVS
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