Sea ice facts for kids
Sea ice is simply frozen ocean water. It forms, grows, and melts in the ocean. In contrast, icebergs, glaciers, ice sheets, and ice shelves all originate on land. Sea ice occurs in both the Arctic and Antarctic.
Images for kids
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Nilas in Baffin Bay
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Satellite image of sea ice forming near St. Matthew Island in the Bering Sea.
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As ice melts, the liquid water collects in depressions on the surface and deepens them, forming these melt ponds in the Arctic. These fresh water ponds are separated from the salty sea below and around it, until breaks in the ice merge the two.
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Aerial view showing an expanse of drift ice offshore Labrador (Eastern Canada) displaying floes of various sizes loosely packed, with open water in several networks of leads. (Scale not available.)
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Aerial view showing an expanse of drift ice in southeastern Greenland, comprising loosely packed floes of various sizes, with a lead developing in the centre.(Scale not available.)
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Aerial view showing an expanse of drift ice consisting mostly of water. (Scale not available.)
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Close-up view inside a drift ice zone: several small rounded floes are separated from each other by slush or grease ice. (Bird at lower right for scale.)
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Field example of a pressure ridge. Only the sail (the part of the ridge above the ice surface) is shown in this photograph – the keel is more difficult to document.
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Aerial view of the Chukchi Sea between Chukotka and Alaska, displaying a pattern of leads. Much of the open water inside those leads is already covered by new ice (indicated by a slightly lighter blue color)(scale not available).
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Sea ice off Baffin Island.
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Sea ice imitates the shoreline along the Kamchatka Peninsula.
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Clear view of the Antarctic Peninsula, the Larsen Ice Shelf, and the sea ice-covered waters around the region.
