Ice shelf advance and retreat rates along the coast of Queen Maud Land, Antarctica

We mapped ice shelf margins along the Queen Maud Land coast, Antarctica, in a study of ice shelf margin variability over time, Our objective was to de termine the behavior of ice shelves at similar latitudes but different long itudes relative to ice shelves that are dramatically retreating along the A ntarctic Peninsula, possibly in response to changing global climate. We mea sured coastline positions from 1963 satellite reconnaissance photography ac id 1997 RADARSAT synthetic aperture radar image data for comparison with co astlines inferred by other researchers who used Landsat data from the mid-1 970s. We show that these ice shelves lost similar to6.8% of their total are a between 1963 and 1997. Most of the areal reduction occurred between 1963 and the mid-1970s, Since then, ice margin positions have stabilized or even readvanced. We conclude that these ice shelves are in a near-equilibrium s tate with the coastal environment.