Pancake floes can range in size from a few centimeters to several meters across and about 2 to 150 cm thick. Another common type of sea ice is called fast ice. It is, by definition, frozen to the shore or to a grounded iceberg and is usually very flat and very thick as much as 3 or 4 meters thick. More information on ice can be found at the web site of the International Glaciological Society based at Scott Polar Research Institute in Cambridge, England, or in the Polar Pointers section of the Byrd Polar Research Center web page based at The Ohio State University. The National Ice Center web page also has information on iceberg tracking and monitoring of ice conditions in the Arctic and Antarctic.
Icebergs are freshwater forms of ice and are formed by 'calving' of large piece from glaciers.
Nathaniel B. Palmer, with a view of a section of the Mertz Glacier in the backgournd. The Mertz glacier is located on the Wilkes Land region of the Australian sector of Antarctica. Exposed rock along the coastal ice pack on Antarctica. The past couple of days we have been battling a fierce snow and windstorm. The barometer dropped from near 1000 mbars to about 970 in a short time and we experienced winds up to 60 knots with driving snow.