An Ice stream is a region of an ice sheet that moves significantly faster than the surrounding ice. Ice streams are significant features of the Antarctic where they account for 10% of the volume of the ice. They are up to 50 km wide and 2 km thick. They stretch for hundreds of kilometres and account for most of the ice leaving the ice sheet, and entering the ice shelf An ice sheet is a mass of glacier ice that covers surrounding terrain and is greater than 50,000 km² (19,305 mile²). The only current ice sheets are Antarctic and Greenland; during the last ice age at Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) the Laurentide ice sheet covered much of Canada... Greek ἀνταρκτικός, opposite the arctic) is a continent surrounding the Earths South Pole. ... Ross Ice Shelf An ice shelf is a thick, floating platform of ice that forms where a glacier or ice sheet flows down to a coastline and onto the ocean surface, typically in Antarctica or Greenland. ...

The speed of the ice in the ice stream can be 1000 m per year, an order of magnitude faster than the surrounding ice. The shear forces at the edge of the ice stream causes deformation and recrystallization of the ice from hard glacial ice to a softer and more brittle form. Crevasses form particularly around the shear margins. In physics and mechanics, shear refers to a deformation that causes parallel surfaces to slide past one another (as opposed to compression and tension, which cause parallel surfaces to move towards or away from one another). ... Crevasse on the Gorner Glacier, Zermatt, Switzerland. ...

The causes of ice streams vary, though most are associated with sub-ice water streams, which lubricate the ice flow. The type of bedrock also is significant. Soft, plastic sediments result in the fastest flow.

List of Ice streams

• East Antarctic Ice Stream
• Whillans Ice Stream
• Evans Ice Stream
• Kamb Ice Stream
• Rutford Ice Stream
• Bailey Ice Stream
• Foundation Ice Stream
• Ice Stream A
• Ice Stream B
• Ice Stream C
• Ice Stream D
• Ice Stream E

Whillans Ice Stream, a glaciological feature of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, formerly know as Ice Stream B, renamed in 2001 in honor of Ohio State Glaciologist Dr. Ian Whillans. ... Evans Ice Stream () is a large ice stream draining from Ellsworth Land, between Cape Zumberge and Fowler Ice Rise, into the western part of Ronne Ice Shelf. ... Bailey Ice Stream () is an ice stream on the northern margin of the Theron Mountains, flowing westsouthwest to the Filchner Ice Shelf. ... Foundation Ice Stream () is a major ice stream in the Pensacola Mountains, draining northward for 150 miles along the west side of the Patuxent Range and the Neptune Range to enter Ronne Ice Shelf westward of Dufek Massif. ... Whillans Ice Stream, a glaciological feature of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, formerly know as Ice Stream B, renamed in 2001 in honor of Ohio State Glaciologist Dr. Ian Whillans. ...

References

• Definition by British Antarctic Survey