Ice Sheets

• Main Author: André, Marie‐Françoise
• Format: Other/Unknown Material
• Language: English
• Published: Wiley 2017
• Subjects: Antarctic; East Antarctic Ice Sheet; Greenland; West Antarctica; Antarc*; Antarctica; Fennoscandian; Ice Sheet
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/9781118786352.wbieg0819; https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1002%2F9781118786352.wbieg0819; https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/9781118786352.wbieg0819

Ice sheets are dome‐shaped continental glaciers up to several kilometers thick and covering at least 50 000 km 2 . The two current ice sheets are located in Greenland and Antarctica. Two additional ice masses existed 20 000 years ago, the Laurentide and Fennoscandian ice sheets, which left their imprint on Nordic landscapes. Ice sheets contain a unique record of the Earth 's climate history provided by air bubbles trapped in the ice during the last 800 000 years. According to emission scenarios and mass balance estimations, models suggest that the current accelerated ice loss from Greenland and West Antarctica will continue and probably cause a sea level rise of 12 cm and 5 cm respectively by 2100. Geomorphological evidence, the marine sediment record, and glaciological modeling indicate a long‐term stability of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet.