Antarctic Peninsula Glacier

Many glaciers could be seen during the Operation Ice Bridge flight on Nov. 4, 2009. The low-altitude flight collected data on the Larsen Ice Shelf and numerous glaciers that exist on the Antarctic Peninsula. Credit: Jim Yungel/NASA

At the surface, it is the biggest, most prominent peninsula in Antarctica as it extends 1,300 km. Also from a line between Cape Adams (Weddell Sea) and a point on the mainland south of Eklund Islands. Beneath the ice sheet which covers it, the Antarctic Peninsula consists of a string of bedrock islands. Therefore these are separated by deep channels whose bottoms lie at depths considerably below current sea level. They are joined together by a grounded ice sheet. Tierra del Fuego, the southernmost tip of South America, lies only about 1,000 km (620 miles) away across the Drake Passage.