Ice sheet

Ice Sheets

Ice sheets are huge pieces of ice that cover lots of land. They are bigger than 50,000 km², which is very big! Today, we have two big ice sheets on Earth: one in Antarctica and one in Greenland. These ice sheets are very thick, about 2 km (1 mile) deep on average.

Ice sheets grow because the snow that falls on them doesn’t melt. It gets squished by the weight of more snow on top. Even when they look still, ice sheets are always moving slowly. The ice flows from the thick middle toward the edges. This happens because more ice builds up in the middle, while some melts at the edges.

The Antarctic ice sheet is the largest single mass of ice on Earth. It covers about 98% of the Antarctic continent. It is very thick, with an average thickness of over 2 kilometers. The Greenland ice sheet is also very big and important.

Ice sheets play a big role in our planet's climate. They help keep Earth cool and affect the level of the oceans. Scientists study ice sheets to learn about Earth's past and future. Because of this, the future of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets is very important. Changes in these ice sheets can affect global climate change and sea level rise.