Definitions for ice sheet
ice sheet

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1. ice sheetnoun

   A broad glacial mass with a relatively flat surface

WikipediaRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. Ice sheet

   In glaciology, an ice sheet, also known as a continental glacier, is a mass of glacial ice that covers surrounding terrain and is greater than 50,000 km2 (19,000 sq mi). The only current ice sheets are in Antarctica and Greenland; during the Last Glacial Period at Last Glacial Maximum, the Laurentide Ice Sheet covered much of North America, the Weichselian ice sheet covered Northern Europe and the Patagonian Ice Sheet covered southern South America. Ice sheets are bigger than ice shelves or alpine glaciers. Masses of ice covering less than 50,000 km2 are termed an ice cap. An ice cap will typically feed a series of glaciers around its periphery. Although the surface is cold, the base of an ice sheet is generally warmer due to geothermal heat. In places, melting occurs and the melt-water lubricates the ice sheet so that it flows more rapidly. This process produces fast-flowing channels in the ice sheet — these are ice streams. The present-day polar ice sheets are relatively young in geological terms. The Antarctic Ice Sheet first formed as a small ice cap (maybe several) in the early Oligocene, 33.9-23.0 Ma, but retreated and advanced many times until the Pliocene, 5.33-2.58Ma, when it came to occupy almost all of Antarctica. The Greenland ice sheet did not develop at all until the late Pliocene, but apparently developed very rapidly with the first continental glaciation. This had the unusual effect of allowing fossils of plants that once grew on present-day Greenland to be much better preserved than with the slowly forming Antarctic ice sheet.

WikidataRate this definition:5.0 / 1 vote

1. Ice sheet

   An ice sheet is a mass of glacier ice that covers surrounding terrain and is greater than 50,000 km², thus also known as continental glacier. The only current ice sheets are in Antarctica and Greenland; during the last glacial period at Last Glacial Maximum the Laurentide ice sheet covered much of North America, the Weichselian ice sheet covered northern Europe and the Patagonian Ice Sheet covered southern South America. Ice sheets are bigger than ice shelves or alpine glaciers. Masses of ice covering less than 50,000 km² are termed an ice cap. An ice cap will typically feed a series of glaciers around its periphery. Although the surface is cold, the base of an ice sheet is generally warmer due to geothermal heat. In places, melting occurs and the melt-water lubricates the ice sheet so that it flows more rapidly. This process produces fast-flowing channels in the ice sheet — these are ice streams. The present-day polar ice sheets are relatively young in geological terms. The Antarctic Ice Sheet first formed as a small ice cap in the early Oligocene, but retreating and advancing many times until the Pliocene, when it came to occupy almost all of Antarctica. The Greenland ice sheet did not develop at all until the late Pliocene, but apparently developed very rapidly with the first continental glaciation. This had the unusual effect of allowing fossils of plants that once grew on present-day Greenland to be much better preserved than with the slowly forming Antarctic ice sheet.

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How to pronounce ice sheet?

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How to say ice sheet in sign language?

Numerology

1. Chaldean Numerology

   The numerical value of ice sheet in Chaldean Numerology is: 4

2. Pythagorean Numerology

   The numerical value of ice sheet in Pythagorean Numerology is: 2

Examples of ice sheet in a Sentence

1. Catherine Bradshaw:

   What happens to an ice sheet when rainfall increases depends on where the rain falls and whether it is cold enough to fall as snow instead of rain. if the temperatures are warm enough for the moisture to fall as rain over the ice-free area, this could trigger processes that can accelerate ice loss. Conversely, if the temperatures are cold enough for the moisture to fall as snow over the ice sheet, this can cause ice growth.

2. Clare Nullis:

   This will result in high temperatures and consequently enhanced melting of the Greenland ice sheet, we don't know yet whether it will beat the 2012 level, but it's close.

3. Eric Rignot:

   That's just the tip of the iceberg, so to speak, as the Antarctic ice sheet continues to melt away, we expect multi-metre sea level rise from Antarctica in the coming centuries.

4. Julius Nielsen:

   Every year we see the glaciers, the landscape, the ice sheet melting and melting, what we know from our ancestors is almost gone and we cannot take it back. We have to find new tools.

5. York University:

   Climate change could remobilize the abandoned hazardous waste believed to be buried forever beneath the Greenland ice sheet.

References

1. ^ Wiktionary
   https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Ice_Sheet
2. ^ Wikipedia
   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_Sheet
3. ^ Wikidata
   https://www.wikidata.org/w/index.php?search=ice sheet