East Antarctic Ice Sheet


The East Antarctic Ice Sheet is one of two large ice sheets in Antarctica, and the largest on the entire planet. The EAIS lies between 45° west and 168° east longitudinally.
The EAIS holds enough ice to raise global sea levels by 53.3 m and is considerably larger in area and mass than the West Antarctic Ice Sheet. It is separated from the WAIS by the Transantarctic Mountains. The EAIS is the driest, windiest, and coldest place on Earth, with temperatures reported down to nearly -100°C. The EAIS holds the thickest ice on Earth, at 15,700 ft. It is home to the geographic South Pole and the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station.

Ice mass changes

Current international focus on global warming issues has drawn attention to the melting of the polar ice caps. An early analysis of GRACE-based studies data indicated that the EAIS was losing mass at a rate of 57 billion tonnes per year and that the total Antarctic ice sheet was losing mass at a rate of 152 cubic kilometers per year. A more recent estimate published in November 2012 and based on the GRACE data as well as on an improved glacial isostatic adjustment model indicates that East Antarctica actually gained mass from 2002 to 2010 at a rate of.
It has been estimated that during the Pleistocene, the East Antarctic Ice Sheet thinned by at least 500 meters, and that thinning since the Last Glacial Maximum is less than 50 meters and probably started after ca 14 ka.

Temperature changes

Cooling in East Antarctica during the decades of the 1980s and 1990s partially offset warming of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet which has warmed by more than 0.1 °C/decade in the last 50 years. The continent-wide average surface temperature trend of Antarctica is positive and statistically significant at >0.05 °C/decade since 1957.

Territorial claims

Many countries hold a claim on portions of Antarctica. Within EAIS, the United Kingdom, France, Norway, Australia, Chile and Argentina all claim a portion as their own territory.