Location and Description
Lying on the Pacific Ocean side of the Transantarctic Mountains, West Antarctica comprises the Antarctic Peninsula (with Graham Land and Palmer Land) and Ellsworth Land, Marie Byrd Land and King Edward VII Land, offshore islands such as Adelaide Island, and ice shelves, notably the Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf on the Weddell Sea, and the Ross Ice Shelf on the Ross Sea. West Antarctica is separated from the main land mass of the continent by the icy waters of the Ross Sea and Weddell Sea, and resembles a giant peninsula that stretches roughly from the South Pole towards the southern tip of South America.
The name has existed for more than 100 years (Balch, 1902; Nordenskiöld, 1905), but its greatest use followed the International Geophysical Year (1957–58) and explorations disclosing that the Transantarctic Mountains provide a useful regional separation of West Antarctica and East Antarctica. The name was approved by Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names (US-ACAN) in 1962.
West Antarctica is mostly covered by a massive ice sheet referred to as the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS). In recent decades this ice sheet has shown signs of decreasing mass.
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