West Antarctic Ice Sheet

The West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) is the segment of the continental ice sheet that covers West (or Lesser) Antarctica, the portion of Antarctica on the side of the Transantarctic Mountains which lies in the Western Hemisphere. The WAIS is classified as a marine-based ice sheet, meaning that its bed lies well below sea level and its edges flow into floating ice shelves. The WAIS is bounded by the Ross Ice Shelf, the Ronne Ice Shelf, and outlet glaciers that drain into the Amundsen Sea.

Read more about West Antarctic Ice Sheet:  Description, Potential Collapse, Warming

Famous quotes containing the words west, ice and/or sheet:

    It’s a warm wind, the west wind, full of birds’ cries;
    I never hear the west wind but tears are in my eyes.
    John Masefield (1878–1967)

    In entertainment value, the Democratic clambake usually lays it over the Republican conclave like ice cream over parsnips.
    Walter Wellesley (Red)

    No Time, spoke the clocks, no God, rang the bells,
    I drew the white sheet over the islands
    And the coins on my eyelids sang like shells.
    Dylan Thomas (1914–1953)