Shackleton Ice Shelf

an ice shelf in Eastern Antarctica, on the coast of Queen Mary Land (or Queen Mary Coast) and Wilkes Land, between 95° and 105° E long. The Shackleton Ice Shelf measures 440 km from west to east and 170 km from south to north. It has an area of 37,400 sq km and is 180–200 m thick. The thick Scott and Denman outlet glaciers feed into the middle parts of the shelf. Individual ice domes rise 250–300 m above the ice surface. The Shackleton Ice Shelf separates the Bunger Oasis from the Mawson Sea; the oasis’ lagoons are connected with the ocean beneath the ice. The shelf was discovered in 1840 by the American expedition of C. Wilkes and was named in honor of E. Shackleton by D. Mawson’s Australian antarctic expedition (1911–14). The first detailed study of the ice shelf was made by the Soviet antarctic expedition of 1956–58.