Discovery of the Ross Ice Shelf
Descubrimiento de la barrera de hielo de Ross
- Date
- 1841 · confidence high
- Place
- Ross Ice Shelf, Antarctica
- Credited to
- James Clark Ross
- Field
- Cosmos & Earth
What was discovered
Ross's British expedition, seeking the south magnetic pole aboard the Erebus and Terror, encountered an impassable wall of ice that turned out to be the edge of Antarctica's largest ice shelf.
What it led to
- Use of the shelf as the starting point for South Pole expeditions (Scott, Shackleton, Amundsen)
- Modern studies of Antarctic ice melt and sea-level rise