Sea ice

Sea ice is formed from ocean water that freezes. Because the oceans are salty, this occurs at about minus 1.8 °C. Fast ice is sea ice that has frozen along coasts and extends out from land. Pack ice is floating consolidated sea ice that's either detached from land and freely floating, or has been blocked by land-attached ice while drifting past. An ice floe is a floating chunk of sea ice, that is less than 10 kilometers (six miles) in its greatest dimension. Wider chunks of ice are called ice fields.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Sea ice may be contrasted with icebergs, which are chunks of ice shelves or glaciers that calve into the ocean.

Related Topics:
Iceberg - Ice shelves - Glacier

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Since 1979, sea ice has decreased significantly in the Arctic and increased insignificantly in the Antarctic.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

__TOC__

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~