Ross Ice Shelf [SEP] continent
Ross Ice Shelf
The Ross Ice Shelf is the largest ice shelf of Antarctica (as of 2013 an area of roughly and about across: about the size of France). It is several hundred metres thick. The nearly vertical ice front to the open sea is more than long, and between high above the water surface. Ninety percent of the floating ice, however, is below the water surface.
Most of Ross Ice Shelf is in the Ross Dependency claimed by New Zealand. It floats in, and covers
the island. The style, "James" Ross Island is used to avoid confusion with the more widely known Ross Island in McMurdo Sound.
It is one of several islands around the peninsula known as Graham Land, which is closer to South America than any other part of that continent.
The island was connected to the Antarctic mainland by an ice shelf until 1995, when the ice shelf collapsed, making the Prince Gustav Channel passable for the first time.
Mendel Polar Station, the first Czech Antarctic Base,