Pine Island Glacier
| Pine Island Glacier | |
|---|---|
British Antarctic Survey field camp on PIG
|
|
| Type | Ice stream |
| Location | West Antarctic Ice Sheet, Antarctica |
| Coordinates | 75°10′S 100°0′W / 75.167°S 100.000°WCoordinates: 75°10′S 100°0′W / 75.167°S 100.000°W |
| Area | 175,000 km2 (68,000 sq mi) (whole catchment) |
| Length | Approx. 250 km (160 mi) |
| Thickness | Approx. 2 km (1.2 mi) |
| Terminus | Floating Ice shelf |
| Status | Accelerating |
Pine Island Glacier (PIG) is a large ice stream glacier, and the fastest melting glacier in Antarctica, responsible for about 25% of Antarctica's ice loss. The glacier ice streams flow west-northwest along the south side of the Hudson Mountains into Pine Island Bay, Amundsen Sea, Antarctica. It was mapped by the United States Geological Survey (USGS) from surveys and United States Navy (USN) air photos, 1960–66, and named by the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names (US-ACAN) in association with Pine Island Bay.
The area drained by Pine Island Glacier comprises about 10 % of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet. Satellite measurements have shown that the Pine Island Glacier Basin has a greater net contribution of ice to the sea than any other ice drainage basin in the world and this has increased due to recent acceleration of the ice stream.
The ice stream is extremely remote, with the nearest continually occupied research station at Rothera, nearly 1,300 km (810 mi) away. The area is not claimed by any nations and the Antarctic Treaty prohibits any new claims while it is in force.
The Antarctic ice sheet is the largest mass of ice on earth, containing a volume of water equivalent to 57 m (187 ft) of global sea level. The ice sheet forms from snow which falls onto the continent and compacts under its own weight. The ice then moves under its own weight toward the edges of the continent. Most of this transport to the sea is by ice streams (faster moving channels of ice surrounded by slower moving ice walls) and outlet glaciers. The Antarctic ice sheet consists of the large, relatively stable, East Antarctic Ice Sheet and a smaller, less stable, West Antarctic Ice Sheet. The West Antarctic Ice Sheet is drained into the sea by several large ice streams, most of which flow into either the Ross Ice Shelf, or the Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf. Pine Island and Thwaites Glaciers are two major West Antarctic ice streams which do not flow into a large ice shelf. They are part of an area called the Amundsen Sea Embayment. A total area of 175,000 km2 (68,000 sq mi), 10 percent of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, drains out to the sea via Pine Island Glacier, this area is known as the Pine Island Glacier drainage basin.
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Wikipedia