Polar ice sheets: a review

• Published in: Polar Record
• Main Author: Robin, G. de Q.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge University Press (CUP) 1972
• Subjects: General Earth and Planetary Sciences; Ecology; Geography, Planning and Development; Arctic; Antarctic; The Antarctic; Arctic Ocean; Greenland; Antarc*; Antarctica; Ice Sheet; Polar Record; Siberia
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0032247400062380; https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0032247400062380

At the present time, only Antarctica and Greenland carry ice sheets comparable with the ice sheets that covered vast areas of the Northern Hemisphere as recently as 20 000 years ago. At the time of maximum glaciation, some 300 000 years ago, the volume of ice on earth was three times what it is today, and it covered the northern parts of continents all around the Arctic Ocean. In North America, ice stretched south as far as Kansas; in Europe, it extended down ot the River Thames and the Sudety mountains and covered much of Siberia. Even now, the Antarctic ice sheet covers an area of 12 million km 2 and in places reaches depths of more than 4 km. The smaller Greenland ice sheet has an area of 1.8 million km 2 and exceeds 3 km in depth.