Scientists Pursue the history of the Antarctic Ice Sheet.
The Antarctic ice sheet profoundly affects world climate. It cools the deep oceans and controls circulation, influences the chemical balance of the oceans and has a major effect on sea level and temperatures worldwide. The Antarctic ice sheet is the world s largest, but scientists continue to have many questions regarding how it grew, when and why. Scientists recognize that considerable ice cover already existed on Antarctica 35 million years ago, and the ice sheet has waxed and waned through glacial cycles ever since. Today, for example, there is little or no ice left.