page_title: Lists of places in Antarctica
section_title: Ice shelves
hierarchical_section_title: Lists of places in Antarctica / Ice / Ice shelves
caption_attribution_description: English: View of the Riiser-Larsen Ice Shelf in Antarctica. Português: Vista da plataforma de gelo Riiser-Larsen na Antártica. Original caption — For millions of years, Antarctica, the frozen continent at the southern end of the planet, has been encased in a gigantic sheet of ice. Recently, the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellite has been taking sensitive measurements of the gravity for the entire Earth, including Antarctica. Recent analysis of GRACE data indicate that the Antarctic ice sheet might have lost enough mass to cause the worlds' oceans to rise about .05 inches, on the average, from between 2002 and 2005. Although this may not seem like much, the equivalent amount of water is about 40 trillion gallons, equivalent to the amount of water used by U.S. residents in three months. Uncertainties in the measurement make the mass loss uncertain by about 21 trillion gallons. The iceberg pictured above is a small part of the Antarctic ice sheet. The picture was taken on the Riiser-Larsen ice shelf in December 1995. Future research will likely focus on trying to better understand the data, take more data, predict future trends, and understand possible effects of these trends on the future climate of our entire home planet.
context_page_description: Antarctica is the southernmost continent on Earth. While Antarctica has never had a permanent human population, it has been explored by various groups, and many locations on and around the continent have been described. This page lists notable places in and immediately surrounding the Antarctic continent, including geographic features, bodies of water, and human settlements.
context_section_description: In many places, continental ice sheets extend from the continent forming massive ice shelves.
  A list of Antarctic ice shelves can be found at List of Antarctic ice shelves.
caption: The Riiser-Larsen Ice Shelf.
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