Antarctic Dictionary
sea ice
sea ice
Generally, any ice encountered at sea. Specialists sometimes restrict this term to ice formed at sea (pack ice and fast ice), excluding ice bergs which originate from land ice, but in general use this distinction is one more honoured in the breach.
Antarctic sea ice is often only about 1 m (3 ft) thick, in contrast to arctic ice, which reaches 3 m (8-10 ft) thick. The growth of the sea ice around Antarctica to about 20 million square kilometers (7 million square miles) by the end of winter, and melting to about 2.8 million square kilometers (1 million square miles) at the end of summer, is one of the earth's most remarkable annual events.
The Antarctic Dictionary, Hince, 2000; 302
