LARSEN ICE SHELF

ice shelf in the northwestern Weddell Sea, adjoining the east coast of the Antarctic Peninsula and named for Captain Carl A. Larsen, who sailed along the ice front in 1893. It covers an area of 33,000 square miles (86,000 square km, excluding the numerous small islands within the ice shelf). The shelf is narrow in its southern half but gradually widens toward the Antarctic Circle to the north before narrowing again. The southwesterly winds on the Weddell Sea force pack ice westward against the Antarctic Peninsula, causing unusual congestion and compression of ice there and creating the Larsen Ice Shelf.