Antarctica ice shelf system

This Envisat radar image, acquired on 5 March 2011, features the Brunt Ice Shelf/Stancomb-Wills Ice Tongue system on the coast of northern Coats Land in east Antarctica. The system is a thin unbounded ice shelf attached to Caird Coast at the eastern margin of the Weddell Sea. The Brunt Ice Shelf (far left) and the Stancomb-Wills Ice Tongue (centre) are connected by a mass of icebergs bound together by up to 50m of extraordinarily thick fast ice and smaller meteoric ice blocks. The ice-covered Lyddan Island is visible to the right of the Stancomb-Wills Ice Tongue. With its 3 narrow arms, the island resembles the tail of a whale.