ice shelf
nounDefinition of ice shelf
Examples of ice shelf in a Sentence
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The continent is rapidly melting, and a large chunk of the snow and ice is held back from the ocean only by an array of glaciers and ice shelves guarding the coasts. — Avery Thompson, Popular Mechanics, "NASA Found a Giant Underground Cavern in Antarctica Almost the Size of Manhattan," 31 Jan. 2019 Their findings will provide a snapshot of what life under the ice shelf was like, so that changes to the ecosystem can be tracked. — Doyle Rice, USA TODAY, "Scientists to explore an underwater world near Antarctica that's been hidden for 120,000 years," 13 Feb. 2018 In the past, these flights have mapped Greenland’s ice sheets, identified collapsing ice shelves, and spotted mysterious holes in the Antarctic ice. — Avery Thompson, Popular Mechanics, "NASA Spots Strange Rectangular Iceberg in Antarctica," 23 Oct. 2018 Antarctica's largest ice shelf, the Ross Shelf is named after James Clark Ross, a British explorer famed for his expedition to the continent in the 19th century. — David Grossman, Popular Mechanics, "Antarctic Wind Creates a Dramatic Humming Noise On The Ross Ice Shelf," 17 Oct. 2018 And then the really tough place to make measurements is underneath the floating ice shelf, underneath this thick plate of ice. — Andrea Thompson, Scientific American, "Antarctic Quest Seeks to Predict the Fate of a Linchpin Glacier," 14 May 2018 Scientists also hope to learn whether the ice shelf has melted in the past due to other climate shifts. — Sophie Weiner, Popular Mechanics, "The Ross Ice Shelf is Freezing, Not Melting. Which Is Weird.," 23 Feb. 2018 At the grounding line, the ice detaches from the bedrock and juts out into the water as a kind of floating ledge, or ice shelf, which helps to stabilize the glacier and hold back the flow of ice behind it. — Chelsea Harvey, Scientific American, "Antarctic Glaciers Lost Stunning Amount of Ground in Recent Years," 4 Apr. 2018 Under continued high emissions, one of the most serious consequences by 2070 is that the floating ice shelves around the edge of Antarctica will have started to thin and weaken and break up. — Sarah Cahlan /, NBC News, "Antarctica is melting faster than we knew. Here's what it will take to save it.," 19 June 2018These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'ice shelf.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
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