Documentation

Program Overview and Guide to this Site

WAIS Illustrated Summary (with some figures) (October 1994)

WAIS Science and Implementation Plan (September 1995)

The West Antarctic Ice Sheet Initiative

Overview of the Program

The West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) is as solid as rock and as brittle as crystal, and yet within it there are regions that flow like thick taffy. It is a pristine white ocean---actually a coastal region of the ocean captured in slow-motion---over four kilometers deep, complete with glacial currents 50 kilometers (30 miles) wide. It seems stolid and immovable, yet that is an illusion. At certain eras in the past, perhaps as recently as 125,000 years ago (the last time the Earth was as warm as it is today), the ice sheet has completely disappeared; a sudden and catastrophic disappearance that raised the level of the Earth's oceans more than six meters (18 feet).

The ice sheet is linked to the warming and cooling cycles of the Earth, shifting slowly over decades in response to the temperature of the air, to the currents of the ocean that flow at its margin, and to the weight of snow it receives each year. Though imperceptible to the eye, these changes are occurring at a fast enough pace to allow them to be measured and studied.

Such studies address important questions about the WAIS. A primary goal of performing research in such a cold and inhospitable region is to attempt to predict the future of this dynamic mass of ice. Around the entire continent, large shelves of ice may be retreating and disappearing, and huge tabular icebergs 10 times larger than Manhattan Island are breaking off the Antarctic ice edge and drifting in the turbulent seas. Though the birth of icebergs has been observed and described for decades, scientists are not sure if there has been an increase in the rate of iceberg formation, or in their size.

This ice sheet may be the largest single piece of ice that could be subject to such a fate, because it is not firmly anchored to the continental rock of Antarctica, like the larger East Antarctic Ice Sheet. The WAIS is actually moored in an oceanic basin, where slippery mud covers the basin floor. This unique setting makes the ice sheet potentially unstable. The prospect of this instability is a core question of all ice sheet studies, because for scientists to be able to predict what may happen here in the future, they must be able to determine the current state of the ice sheet, and the fundamental ways in which it is changing.

Guide to the WAIS Home Page

The WAIS home page is designed for both the general public and for scientists who are either interested in the program or who are actual participants in research on the ice sheet. For those who would like to read a general discussion of the various topics involved in this important research program, take a look at the WAIS Illustrated Summary.

For more in-depth information, the Science and Implementation Plan also appears on this page. The various chapters in the Science and Implementation Plan appear below. For a more detailed way of navigating the document, complete with research questions that are being addressed, go to the Table of Contents and search for a topic of interest.

In the future, the WAIS home page will include actual research notes transmitted during investigations on the ice sheet, summaries of research publications produced by participating scientists, and links to other important polar programs and educational sites with information about Antarctica.

(written by Jim Acker, Code 970)

Privacy, Security, Notices (opens in a new window)
Responsible NASA Official: Robert Bindschadler
Curator: Paul Przyborski