Fast ice

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Fast ice (left, along shoreline) versus drift ice (right) in a hypothetical sea ice dynamics scenario (the bear provides an approximate scale).

Fast ice (also called land-fast ice, landfast ice, and shore-fast ice) is

sea water or by freezing pieces of drifting ice to the shore or other anchor sites.[1][4] Unlike drift (or pack) ice
, fast ice does not move with currents and winds.

The width (and the presence) of this ice zone is usually seasonal and depends on ice thickness, topography of the sea floor and islands.

The topography of the fast ice varies from smooth and level to rugged (when submitted to large pressures). The ice foot refers to ice that has formed at the shoreline, through multiple freezing of water between ebb tides, and is separated from the remainder of the fast ice surface by tidal cracks.[5] Further away from the coastline, the ice may become anchored to the sea bottom—it is then referred to as bottomfast ice.[5] Fast ice can survive one or more melting seasons (i.e. summer), in which case it can be designated following the usual age-based categories: first-year, second-year, multiyear. The fast ice boundary is the limit between fast ice and drift (or pack) ice—in places, this boundary may coincide with a shear ridge.[1][4] Fast ice may be delimited or enclose pressure ridges which extend sufficiently downward so as to be grounded—these features are known as stamukhi.

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d "WMO Sea-Ice Nomenclature". World Meteorological Organization. WMO/OMM/ВМО — No.259 • Edition 1970–2004.
  2. .
  3. ^ a b c Leppäranta, M. 2011. The Drift of Sea Ice. Berlin: Springer-Verlag.
  4. ^ a b c Kovacs, A.and M. Mellor. 1974. "Sea ice morphology and ice as a geologic agent in the Southern Beaufort Sea." pp. 113-164, in: The Coast and Shelf of the Beaufort Sea, J.C. Reed and J.E. Sater (Eds.), Arlington, Va.: U.S.A.
  5. ^ .