East Antarctic Ice Sheet

The East Antarctic Ice Sheet (EAIS) is the largest ice sheet on Earth. It is a massive sheet of glacial ice that covers more than 10 million square kilometers (about 4 million square miles) of the continent of Antarctica. It holds the majority of the world's freshwater ice.


 Size and Characteristics 
The EAIS is significantly larger and thicker than the West Antarctic Ice Sheet. It contains enough ice that, if it were to melt completely, global sea levels would rise by about 53 meters (174 feet). The ice sheet is so heavy that it pushes the land underneath it below sea level in many places.

The highest point on the ice sheet is Dome A (or Dome Argus), which is also the highest point on the entire Antarctic ice sheet, with an elevation of over 4,091 meters (13,422 feet).

 Climate and Stability 
The EAIS is known for being extremely cold and dry. This harsh climate and the sheer size of the ice sheet have historically made it more stable than the smaller West Antarctic Ice Sheet. However, some parts of the EAIS, particularly along its edges, have been showing signs of change and ice loss due to warmer ocean waters. In the early 2000s, some people in the media mistakenly thought that because a part of East Antarctica was getting colder, it meant global warming wasn't real. They focused on this one area getting colder, even though the rest of the world and most of Antarctica was getting warmer. The coldest temperatures of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet is -98.6 °C at Ridge A at 2010.

 Research 
Scientists study the EAIS to understand past climates and predict future changes. Ice cores, which are long tubes of ice drilled from the sheet, contain trapped air bubbles and layers of snow that can provide information about the Earth's atmosphere and climate going back hundreds of thousands of years.
Category:Antarctica
Category:Geography of Antarctica