The Antarctic Ice Sheet

The Antarctic Ice Sheet is the largest single mass of ice on Earth, covering roughly 98 percent of the continent of Antarctica and holding an estimated 61 percent of the planet's fresh water. It is conventionally divided by the Transantarctic Mountains into the larger, thicker East Antarctic Ice Sheet and the smaller, more vulnerable West Antarctic Ice Sheet, the latter grounded well below sea level in places and considered the more fragile of the two under a warming climate. Average ice thickness runs to roughly 2,100 meters, and the sheet's own weight has depressed the bedrock beneath much of the continent below sea level.