Mondo Knows Facts
The Antarctic Ice Sheet is the largest single mass of ice
It holds nearly 70 percent of all fresh water on the planet
Covering an area of roughly 14 million square kilometres, the Antarctic Ice Sheet contains about 27 million cubic kilometres of ice. In some regions, the ice sheet reaches a thickness of over 4.7 kilometres. If the entire ice sheet were to melt, global sea levels would rise by about 58 metres.
Where this comes from
Facts that can change over time are reviewed and updated. If something here looks wrong, Mondo would rather know than be confidently incorrect.
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More facts like this
Pluto features a giant heart-shaped nitrogen glacierSputnik Planitia is a vast plain of frozen nitrogen ice on the dwarf planetThe Lambert Glacier in Antarctica is the world's largest glacierThis massive ice stream measures over 400 kilometres longAntarctica is the largest and driest desert in the worldExtreme cold keeps annual precipitation below fifty millimetres in the interiorVostok Station recorded the lowest natural surface temperatureThermometers plunged to minus 89.2 degrees Celsius in AntarcticaCommonwealth Bay is recognised as the windiest place on EarthKatabatic winds regularly reach speeds exceeding 240 kilometres per hourLake Vostok is the largest subglacial lake in AntarcticaA massive freshwater body lies sealed beneath four kilometres of Antarctic ice
Tags: antarctica, ice sheet, glacier
The Antarctic Ice Sheet is the largest single mass of ice: the short answers
- Where does this come from, and can I check it?
- It holds nearly 70 percent of all fresh water on the planet. The figure is taken from NASA, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.
- Is this really a records & extremes fact?
- Yes. It sits on the Records & Extremes shelf, one of 1,090 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.
- What else can I read about it?
- The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.
