the ross ice shelf was named after sir douglas mawson.
the ross ice shelf was named after sir douglas mawson.
who is the ross ice shelf named after?
sir douglas mawson
the ice shelf is named after captain sir james clark ross, who discovered it on 28 january 1841. it was originally called the barrier, with various adjectives including great ice barrier, as it prevented sailing further south. ross mapped the ice front eastward to 160°w. in 1947, the us board on geographic names applied the name ross shelf ice to this feature and published it in the original us antarctic gazetteer. in january 1953 the name was changed to ross ice shelf; that name was published in 1956.









































section::::exploration.
ross ice shelf
ice shelves are not stable when surface melting occurs, and the collapse of larsen ice shelf has been caused by warmer melt season temperatures that have led to surface melting and the formation of shallow ponds of water on the ice shelf. the larsen ice shelf lost of its area from 1995 to 2001. in a 35-day period beginning on january 31, 2002, about of shelf area disintegrated. the ice shelf is now 40% the size of its previous minimum stable extent. in 2015 a study concluded that the remaining "larsen b" ice-shelf will disintegrate by the end of the decade, based on observations of faster flow and rapid thinning of glaciers in the area. jones ice shelf had an area of in the 1970s but by 2008 it had disappeared. wordie ice shelf has gone from an area of in 1950 to in 2000. prince gustav ice shelf has gone from an area of to in 2008. after their loss the reduced buttressing of feeder glaciers has allowed the expected speed-up of inland ice masses after shelf ice break-up. the ross ice shelf is the largest ice shelf of antarctica (an area of roughly and about across: about the size of france). wilkins ice shelf is another ice shelf that has suffered substantial retreat. the ice shelf had an area of in 1998 when was lost that year. in 2007 and 2008 significant rifting developed and led to the loss of another of area and some of the calving occurred in the austral winter. the calving seemed to have resulted from preconditioning such as thinning, possibly due to basal melt, as surface melt was not as evident, leading to a reduction in the strength of the pinning point connections. the thinner ice then experienced spreading rifts and breakup. this period culminated in the collapse of an ice bridge connecting the main ice shelf to charcot island leading to the loss of an additional between february and june 2009.
retreat of glaciers since 1850