What percent of the world's ice does Antarctica contain?
"between the Ross Sea and the Weddell Sea. The portion west of the Weddell Sea and east of the Ross Sea is called West Antarctica and the remainder East Antarctica, because they roughly correspond to the Western and Eastern Hemispheres relative to the Greenwich meridian. About 98% of Antarctica is covered by the Antarctic ice sheet, a sheet of ice averaging at least thick. The continent has about 90% of the world's ice (and thereby about 70% of the world's fresh water). If all of this ice were melted, sea levels would rise about . In most of the interior"
"Antarctic ice sheet The Antarctic ice sheet is one of the two polar ice caps of the Earth. It covers about 98% of the Antarctic continent and is the largest single mass of ice on Earth. It covers an area of almost and contains of ice. A cubic kilometer of ice weighs approximately one metric gigaton, meaning that the ice sheet weighs 26,500,000 gigatons. Approximately 61 percent of all fresh water on the Earth is held in the Antarctic ice sheet, an amount equivalent to about 58 m of sea-level rise. In East Antarctica, the ice sheet rests on a"
"coverage appears to have declined from 8 million km to 5 million km. Earth's south polar land mass, Antarctica, is covered by the Antarctic ice sheet. It covers an area of about 14.6 million km and contains between 25 and 30 million km of ice. Around 70% of the fresh water on Earth is contained in this ice sheet. Data from the National Snow and Ice Data Center shows that the sea ice coverage of Antarctica has a slightly positive trend over the last three decades (1979–2009). Over the past several decades, Earth's polar ice caps have gained significant attention"
"Geography of Antarctica The geography of Antarctica is dominated by its south polar location and, thus, by ice. The Antarctic continent, located in the Earth's southern hemisphere, is centered asymmetrically around the South Pole and largely south of the Antarctic Circle. It is washed by the Southern (or Antarctic) Ocean or, depending on definition, the southern Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian Oceans. It has an area of more than 14 million km². Some 98% of Antarctica is covered by the Antarctic ice sheet, the world's largest ice sheet and also its largest reservoir of fresh water. Averaging at least 1.6 km"
"water. On Earth, 99% of glacial ice is contained within vast ice sheets (also known as ""continental glaciers"") in the polar regions, but glaciers may be found in mountain ranges on every continent including Oceania's high-latitude oceanic island countries such as New Zealand and Papua New Guinea. Between 35°N and 35°S, glaciers occur only in the Himalayas, Andes, Rocky Mountains, a few high mountains in East Africa, Mexico, New Guinea and on Zard Kuh in Iran. Glaciers cover about 10 percent of Earth's land surface. Continental glaciers cover nearly or about 98 percent of Antarctica's , with an average thickness"
"Ice Sheet covers 84% of the island and the Antarctic Ice Sheet covers approximately 98% of the continent. Due to the significant thickness of these ice sheets, global warming analysis typically focuses on the loss of ice mass from the ice sheets increasing sea level rise, and not on a reduction in the surface area of the ice sheets. Ice sheet An ice sheet, also known as a continental glacier, is a mass of glacier ice that covers surrounding terrain and is greater than . The only current ice sheets are in Antarctica and Greenland; during the last glacial period"
"Antarctica Antarctica ( or , ) is Earth's southernmost continent. It contains the geographic South Pole and is situated in the Antarctic region of the Southern Hemisphere, almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle, and is surrounded by the Southern Ocean. At , it is the fifth-largest continent. For comparison, Antarctica is nearly twice the size of Australia. About 98% of Antarctica is covered by ice that averages in thickness, which extends to all but the northernmost reaches of the Antarctic Peninsula. Antarctica, on average, is the coldest, driest, and windiest continent, and has the highest average elevation of all"
"given water particle in glaciers, ice sheets, or ground ice, however, may remain frozen for 10-100,000 years or longer, and deep ice in parts of East Antarctica may have an age approaching 1 million years. Most of the world’s ice volume is in Antarctica, principally in the East Antarctic Ice Sheet. In terms of areal extent, however, Northern Hemisphere winter snow and ice extent comprise the largest area, amounting to an average 23% of hemispheric surface area in January. The large areal extent and the important climatic roles of snow and ice, related to their unique physical properties, indicate that"
"Antarctic The Antarctic (US English , UK English or and or ) is a polar region around the Earth's South Pole, opposite the Arctic region around the North Pole. The Antarctic comprises the continent of Antarctica, the Kerguelen Plateau and other island territories located on the Antarctic Plate or south of the Antarctic Convergence. The Antarctic region includes the ice shelves, waters, and all the island territories in the Southern Ocean situated south of the Antarctic Convergence, a zone approximately wide varying in latitude seasonally. The region covers some 20 percent of the Southern Hemisphere, of which 5.5 percent (14"
"of Antarctica. The Greenland ice sheet did not develop at all until the late Pliocene, but apparently developed ""very rapidly"" with the first continental glaciation. This had the unusual effect of allowing fossils of plants that once grew on present-day Greenland to be much better preserved than with the slowly forming Antarctic ice sheet. The Antarctic ice sheet is the largest single mass of ice on Earth. It covers an area of almost 14 million km and contains 30 million km of ice. Around 90% of the Earth's ice mass is in Antarctica, which, if melted, would cause sea levels"
"left many species with greatly reduced numbers. Pollution, habitat destruction, and climate change pose great risks to the environment. The Antarctic Treaty System is a global treaty designed to preserve Antarctica as a place of research, and measures from this system are used to regulate human activity in Antarctica. Around 98% of continental Antarctica is covered in ice up to thick. Antarctica's icy deserts have extremely low temperatures, high solar radiation, and extreme dryness. Any precipitation that does fall usually falls as snow, and is restricted to a band around from the coast. Some areas receive as little as 50mm"
"Sea ice Sea ice arises as seawater freezes. Because ice is less dense than water, it floats on the ocean's surface (as does fresh water ice, which has an even lower density). Sea ice covers about 7% of the Earth's surface and about 12% of the world's oceans. Much of the world's sea ice is enclosed within the polar ice packs in the Earth's polar regions: the Arctic ice pack of the Arctic Ocean and the Antarctic ice pack of the Southern Ocean. Polar packs undergo a significant yearly cycling in surface extent, a natural process upon which depends the"
"Antarctica is intensely cold and arid. Most of the world's freshwater ice is contained within its sheets. Its most dramatic example of glacier retreat is the loss of large sections of the Larsen Ice Shelf on the Antarctic Peninsula. The recent collapse of Wordie Ice Shelf, Prince Gustav Ice Shelf, Mueller Ice Shelf, Jones Ice Shelf, Larsen-A and Larsen-B Ice Shelf on the Antarctic Peninsula has raised awareness of how dynamic ice shelf systems are. The Antarctic sheet is the largest known single mass of ice. It covers almost 14 million km and some 30 million km of ice. Around"
"50 years. The continent-wide average surface temperature trend of Antarctica is positive and statistically significant at >0.05 °C/decade since 1957. Many countries hold a claim on portions of Antarctica. Within EAIS, the United Kingdom, France, Norway, Australia, Chile and Argentina all claim a portion (sometimes overlapping) as their own territory. East Antarctic Ice Sheet The East Antarctic Ice Sheet (EAIS) is one of two large ice sheets in Antarctica, and the largest on the entire planet. The EAIS lies between 45° west and 168° east longitudinally. The EAIS holds enough ice to raise global sea levels by 53.3 m and"
"90% of the fresh water on the planet's surface is held in this area and if melted would raise sea levels by 58 metres. The continent-wide average surface temperature trend of Antarctica is positive and significant at >0.05 °C/decade since 1957. The Antarctic sheet is divided by the Transantarctic Mountains into two unequal sections known as the East Antarctic ice sheet (EAIS) and the smaller West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS). The EAIS rests on a major land mass but the bed of the WAIS is, in places, more than 2,500 metres below sea level. It would be seabed if the"
"and contains about 2.6 million km³ of ice. When the ice breaks off (calves) it forms icebergs scattered around the northern Atlantic. According to the National Snow and Ice Data Center, ""since 1979, winter Arctic ice extent has decreased about 4.2 percent per decade"". Both 2008 and 2009 had a minimum Arctic sea ice extent somewhat above that of 2007. At other times of the year the ice extent is still sometimes near the 1979–2000 average, as in April 2010, by the data from the National Snow and Ice Data Center. Still, between these same years, the overall average ice"
"Antarctica. It has an area of . The island is almost entirely covered by glacier, with about 95% of the surface covered by ice. Surrounding the island is a tall ice front and vertical cliffs. The long stretches of ice caps are supplemented with rock outcrops. Landing is only possible at three points, and only during the short period of the year in which the island is not surrounded by pack ice. The island is a shield volcano, although it is not known if it is still active. An ultra prominent peak at elevation, it is named for Lars Christensen."
"Consequently, most Antarctic sea ice is first year ice, a few meters thick, but the exact thickness is not known. The mass of 18 million km^2 of ice, for each meter of thickness, is 18,000 km^3 and roughly 16 gigatonnes (billion metric tons). Since the ocean off the Antarctic coast is almost always much warmer than the air over it, the extent of the sea ice is largely controlled by the winds and currents that push it northwards. If it is pushed quickly, the ice can travel much further north before it melts. Most ice is formed along the coast,"
"an international ban on such activity. Watch an amazing 360 degree journey through the polar seas on this site Polar seas Polar seas is a collective term for the Arctic Ocean (about 4-5 percent of Earth's oceans) and the southern part of the Southern Ocean (south of Antarctic Convergence, about 10 percent of Earth's oceans). In the coldest years, sea ice can cover around 13 percent of the Earth's total surface at its maximum, but out of phase in the two hemispheres. The polar seas contain a huge biome with many organisms. Among the species that inhabit various polar seas"
"Pole are situated here. Divided into: Larger ice shelves are: For all ice shelves see List of Antarctic ice shelves. For a list of all Antarctic islands see List of Antarctic and sub-Antarctic islands. Seven nations have made official Territorial claims in Antarctica. Geography of Antarctica The geography of Antarctica is dominated by its south polar location and, thus, by ice. The Antarctic continent, located in the Earth's southern hemisphere, is centered asymmetrically around the South Pole and largely south of the Antarctic Circle. It is washed by the Southern (or Antarctic) Ocean or, depending on definition, the southern Pacific,"
"thinning of 0.9 centimetres per year. For the contribution of Antarctica to present and future sea level change, see sea level rise. Because ice flows, albeit slowly, the ice within the ice sheet is younger than the age of the sheet itself. About 75% of the coastline of Antarctica is shelf ice. The majority of shelf ice consists of floating ice, and a leser amount consists of glaciers that move slowly from the land mass into the sea. Ice shelves lose mass through breakup of glacial ice (calving), or basal melting due to warm ocean water under the ice ."
"at NASA, found that the “rate of warming in the Arctic over the last 20 years is eight times the rate of warming over the last 100 years.” In September 2012, sea ice reached its smallest size ever. Journalist John Vidal stated that sea ice is ""700,000 sq km below the previous minimum of 4.17m sq km set in 2007"". In August 2013, Arctic sea ice extent averaged 6.09m km, which represents 1.13 million km below the 1981–2010 average for that month. In addition to Earth, the planet Mars also has polar ice caps. They consist of primarily water-ice with"
"the continents. Most of Antarctica is a polar desert, with annual precipitation of only 200 mm (8 in) along the coast and far less inland. The temperature in Antarctica has reached −89.2 °C (−128.6 °F) (or even −94.7 °C (−135.8 °F) as measured from space), though the average for the third quarter (the coldest part of the year) is −63 °C (−81 °F). Anywhere from 1,000 to 5,000 people reside throughout the year at research stations scattered across the continent. Organisms native to Antarctica include many types of algae, bacteria, fungi, plants, protista, and certain animals, such as mites, nematodes,"
"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, a large southern portion of the Ross Sea and the entire Roosevelt Island located"
"Global warming in Antarctica The effects of global warming in Antarctica may include rising temperatures and increasing snow melt and ice loss. A summary study in 2018 incorporating calculations and data from many other studies estimated that total ice loss was 43 gigatons per year on average during the period from 1992 to 2002 but has accelerated to an average of 220 gigatons per year during the five years from 2012 to 2017. The continent-wide average surface temperature trend of Antarctica is positive and significant at >0.05 °C/decade since 1957. The West Antarctic ice sheet has warmed by more than"
"the ice covering them melts. These factors have led to recent international debates as to which nations can claim sovereignty or ownership over the waters of the Arctic. Arctic The Arctic ( or ) is a polar region located at the northernmost part of Earth. The Arctic consists of the Arctic Ocean, adjacent seas, and parts of Alaska (United States), Finland, Greenland (Denmark), Iceland, Northern Canada, Norway, Russia and Sweden. Land within the Arctic region has seasonally varying snow and ice cover, with predominantly treeless permafrost (permanently frozen underground ice)-containing tundra. Arctic seas contain seasonal sea ice in many places."
"large parts of the Arctic. Average July temperatures range from about −10 to +10 °C (14 to 50 °F), with some land areas occasionally exceeding in summer . The Arctic consists of ocean that is largely surrounded by land. As such, the climate of much of the Arctic is moderated by the ocean water, which can never have a temperature below . In winter, this relatively warm water, even though covered by the polar ice pack, keeps the North Pole from being the coldest place in the Northern Hemisphere, and it is also part of the reason that Antarctica is"
"of this amount. Fresh water accounts for only 2.5%. Of this fresh water, 68.9% is in the form of ice and permanent snow cover in the Arctic, the Antarctic, and mountain glaciers. 30.8% is in the form of fresh groundwater. Only 0.3% of the fresh water on Earth is in easily accessible lakes, reservoirs and river systems. The total mass of the Earth's hydrosphere is about 1.4 × 10 tonnes, which is about 0.023% of Earth's total mass. About 20 × 10 tonnes of this is in Earth's atmosphere (for practical purposes, 1 cubic meter of water weighs one tonne)."
"rise by over . This is, however, very unlikely within the next few centuries. The Antarctic is so cold that even with increases of a few degrees, temperatures would generally remain below the melting point of ice. Higher temperatures are expected to lead to more precipitation, which takes the form of snow. This would increase the amount of ice in Antarctica, offsetting approximately one third of the expected sea level rise from thermal expansion of the oceans. During a recent decade, East Antarctica thickened at an average rate of about 1.8 centimetres per year while West Antarctica showed an overall"
"Glacier, Greenland]] Despite their proximity and importance to [[world population|human populations]], the mountain and valley glaciers of temperate latitudes amount to a small fraction of glacial ice on the earth. About 99% is in the great ice sheets of polar and subpolar Antarctica and Greenland. These continuous continental-scale ice sheets, or more in thickness, cap the polar and subpolar land masses. Like rivers flowing from an enormous lake, numerous outlet glaciers transport ice from the margins of the ice sheet to the ocean. Glacier retreat has been observed in these outlet glaciers, resulting in an increase of the ice flow"
"the Peninsula, and the South Shetland Islands ""shifted from a warming trend of 0.32 °C/decade during 1979–1997 to a cooling trend of -0.47 °C/decade during 1999–2014"" but that this variation was absent from the south-west region of the Peninsula. A 2018 systematic review of all previous studies and data by the Ice Sheet Mass Balance Inter-comparison Exercise (IMBIE) found that Antarctica lost 2720 ± 1390 gigatons of ice during the period from 1992 to 2017, enough to contribute 7.6 millimeters to sea level rise once all detached icebergs melt. Most ice loss occurred in West Antarctica and the Antarctic Peninsula."
"ice that forms within the body. They also stabilize proteins and membranes, binding to them by means of hydrogen bonds. Heat shock proteins also help the tolerance to both high and low temperatures. ""B. antarctica"" not only tolerates, but also requires a freezing climate to survive: exposure of larvae to mild temperatures as +10 °C is enough to kill them within a week. Exposure to temperatures of +30 °C kills individuals in a few hours. It can, however, resist partial desiccation, surviving the loss of up to 70% of body water. ""B. antarctica"" spends most of its two-year lifecycle in"
"the last glacial period. However, the last glacial period was just one part of the ice age that still continues today. Even though Earth is in an interglacial, there is still more ice than times outside of ice ages. There are also currently ice sheets in the Northern Hemisphere, which means that there is more ice on Earth than there was during the first 31 million years of the Late Cenozoic Ice Age. During that time, only the Antarctic ice sheets existed. Currently (as of 2012), about 3.1% of Earth's surface and 10.7% of the land area is covered in"