• Antarctica’s ice shelves may calve icebergs that are over 80km long. If that was a flat road, it would take you about 17 hours to walk from one end to the other.
• Inside an iceberg the temperature is about -15 to -20°C. The surface temperature is determined by the temperature around the iceberg.
• Glacier ice crystals can grow to be as large as tennis balls.
• The movement or drift of icebergs around and away from Antarctica is controlled by sea ice cover, wind speed, shelf depth, wind direction, surface currents and the size and depth of the iceberg.
• The Antarctic ice sheet has been in existence for at least 40 million years.
• When an iceberg melts it makes a fizzing sound. The sound comes from the popping of compressed air bubbles which are in the ice.
• Ice-breaking vessels like HMS ENDURANCE have powerful engines and strong hulls that allow them to make their way through thick ice. Ice breakers do not push the ice aside; the powerful engines push the ship’s bow onto the ice and the weight of the bow crushes the underlying ice. The ship reverses, and then powers ahead before running up onto the ice again to repeat the process.

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