Roosevelt Island, Antarctica

Roosevelt Island
November 2001 satellite image of Roosevelt Island
Location of Roosevelt Island in Antarctica
Geography
LocationAntarctica
Coordinates79°25′S 162°00′W / 79.417°S 162.000°W / -79.417; -162.000
Area7,500 km2 (2,900 sq mi)
Area rank91st
Length130 km (81 mi)
Width65 km (40.4 mi)
Highest elevation550 m (1800 ft)
Administration
Administered under the Antarctic Treaty System
Demographics
PopulationData not available
Additional information
Claimed by New Zealand as part of the Ross Dependency.

Roosevelt Island is the second largest ice rise of Antarctica and world-wide, after Berkner Island. Despite its name, it is not an island, since the bedrock below the ice at its highest part is below sea level. It is about 130 km (81 mi) long in a NW-SE direction, 65 km (40 mi) wide and about 7,500 km2 (2,896 sq mi) in area, lying under the eastern part of the Ross Ice Shelf of Antarctica. Its central ridge rises to about 550 m (1,804 ft) above sea level, but this and all other elevations of the ice rise are completely covered by ice, so that it is invisible at ground level.

Examination of how the ice flows above it establishes the existence and extent of the ice rise.[1] [2] Radar surveying carried out between 1995 and 2013 showed that the Raymond Effect was operating beneath the ice divide.[2][3] The ice rise has become a focus of the Roosevelt Island Climate Evolution (RICE) research [4] using ice coring.[5]

Rear Admiral Richard E. Byrd named it in 1934 after US President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Byrd was the leader of the expedition that discovered the ice rise.[6] Roosevelt Island lies within the boundaries of the Ross Dependency, New Zealand's Antarctic claim.

  1. ^ Michon Scott (23 April 2007). "Something under the ice is moving". NASA's Earth Observatory. Retrieved 23 September 2010.
  2. ^ a b Conway, H.; et al. (1999). "Past and Future Grounding-Line Retreat of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet". Science. 286 (5438): 280–283. doi:10.1126/science.286.5438.280. PMID 10514369.
  3. ^ Kingslake, J.; Hindmarsh, R.C.A; Aðalgeirsdóttir, G.; et al. (2014). "Full-depth englacial vertical ice-sheet velocities measured using phase-sensitive radar". Journal of Geophysical Research. 119 (12): 2604–2618. Bibcode:2014JGRF..119.2604K. doi:10.1002/2014JF003275. S2CID 129824379.
  4. ^ Bertler, N.A.N.; Conway, H.; Dahl-Jensen, D.; Emanuelsson, D.B.; Winstrup, M.; et al. (2018). "The Ross Sea Dipole - Temperature, Snow Accumulation and Sea Ice Variability in the Ross Sea Region, Antarctica, over the Past 2,700 Years". Climate of the Past. 14 (2): 193–214. Bibcode:2018CliPa..14..193B. doi:10.5194/cp-14-193-2018. hdl:10281/189363.
  5. ^ Talalay, Pavel G. (16 March 2016). "9: Cable-Suspended Electromechanical Drills with Bottom-Hole Circulation". Mechanical Ice Drilling Technology. Springer Geophysics. Singapore: Springer (published 2016). p. 236. ISBN 9789811005602. Retrieved 10 November 2016. Roosevelt Island is a coastal ice rise [...] where intermediate-depth ice coring was carried out as part of the Roosevelt Island Climate Evolution (RICE) international project led by New Zealand.
  6. ^ Peter Rejcek (3 September 2010). "Roosevelt Island: U.S., Kiwi scientists team up to look at stability of ice shelf". Antarctic Sun. Retrieved 23 September 2010.