Ice sheet

Uncommon card · No. 185903

In glaciology, an ice sheet, also known as a continental glacier, is a mass of glacial ice that covers surrounding terrain and is greater than 50,000 km2 (19,000 sq mi). Ice sheets are the largest glacial bodies on Earth, distinguished from smaller ice caps, ice fields, and glaciers. Ice sheets can have multiple ice domes, the topographic highs from which ice flows outwards, and are typically drained by ice streams and outlet glaciers around their periphery. The two extant ice sheets on Earth are the Antarctic ice sheet and the Greenland ice sheet. Although the surface is cold, the base of an ice sheet is generally warmer by means of geothermal heat. In places, melting occurs and the melt-water lubricates the ice sheet so that it flows more rapidly. This process produces fast-flowing channels within the ice sheet called ice streams. Ice sheets are continually in motion as the ice gradually flows outward from the highest points of the ice sheet towards its margins. The slope of the ice sheet...

Read on Wikipedia · Image Dave Pape, Public domain