Expansion of the Amery Ice Shelf "EMPOWER IAS"

 

In news:

• According to the National Centre for Polar and Ocean Research (NCPOR) in Goa there would be a 24% increase in the expansion of the Amery Ice Shelf (AIS) boundaries in Antarctica by 2021 and another 24 per cent by 2026 from its 2016 positions.

 

About Amery Ice Shelf:

• The Amery Ice Shelf is a broad ice shelf in Antarctica at the head of Prydz Bay between the Lars Christensen Coast and Ingrid Christensen Coast.
• It is part of Mac. Robertson Land.
• The name “Cape Amery” was applied to a coastal angle mapped on February 11, 1931.
• The AIS is one of the largest glacier drainage basins in the world, located on the east coast of Antarctica, at about 70ºS Latitude, 70ºE Longitude.
• The AIS dynamics and mass balance help in understanding the changes in the global climate scenario.

 

About Ice Shelves:

• The floating sheets of ice called ‘ice shelves’ play a multi-faceted role in maintaining the stability of a glacier. Ice shelves connect a glacier to the landmass.
• The ice sheet mass balance, sea stratification, and bottom water formation are important parameters for the balancing of a glacier. Latent and sensible heat processes do play important roles here.
• The insulation of ice shelves from atmospheric forcing is dependent on a temperature gradient that the ocean cavity beneath the ice shelves provides.
• It is the pressure exerted by the ice shelves upon the ocean cavity that determines this temperature gradient.