Filchner ice shelf

During the IGY the USA also maintained Ellsworth Station (77°43 S, 041°08 W) on the Filchner Ice Shelf from 1957 to 1962. A personal account of life at this station was later published by Behrendt (1998). Following the IGY, the USA opened Siple Station (75°33 S, 083°33 W) in 1969 and occupied the site, which is located 2,450 km from McMurdo Station, until 1989 when the last version of Siple Station was closed. Eights Stations at75°14 S, 077°10 W in southwestern Palmer Land was operated by the USA from... 

The location of the Shackleton Range at the edge of the East Antarctic craton and between the Filchner Ice shelf and the East Antarctic Ice Sheet suggests that it should have been glaciated during the Permian Period as well as during the Plio/Pleistocene ice age. 

The water under the East Antarctic ice sheet lubricates its motion and speeds up the delivery of ice to the southern ocean (Kohler 2007). That is especially true for the ice streams that drain the ice sheets of East and West Antarctica in Fig. 17.36 (Bindschadler and Bentley 2002). For example, meltwater from the four Recovery lakes, located about 500 km inland of the coast of the Filchner ice shelf, set in motion the fast-moving Recovery ice streams which discharge ice into... 

Fig. 17. 36 The East Antarctic ice sheet loses mass not only by melting of basal ice, but also by means of ice streams and outlet glaciers. For example, the Recovery ice streams which are lubricated by water that originates from the subglacial Recovery lakes transports ice to the Filchner Ice Shelf, whereas the outlet glaciers which cross the Transantarctic Mountains discharge ice into the Ross Ice Shelf and directly into the Ross Sea. Similarly, ice streams that drain the West Antarctic ice sheet contribute most of the ice into the Ross Ice Shelf (Adapted from Bindschadler and Bentley 2002. By permission of the authors and the Editor of Scientific American)...

The area of Antarctica is 13.97 x 10 km making it the fifth largest of the seven continents (Stonehouse 2002). It is conventionally oriented on maps as shown in Fig. 2.1 and is subdivided into East Antarctica, West Antarctica, the Antarctic Peninsula, and certain islands that rise more than 500 m above sea level (i.e., Alexander, Bear, Berkner, Roosevelt, Ross, and Thurston). In addition, Antarctica is surrounded by the Ross, Ronne, Filchner, Riiser-Larsen, Fimbul, and Amery floating ice shelves as well as by the Larsen ice shelf located along the east coast of the Antarctic Peninsula. Except for the northernmost tip of the Antarctic Peninsula, the continent lies within the Antarctic Circle at latitudes greater than 62.5° south. 

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