Pine Island Glacier (PIG) is a large ice stream flowing west-northwest along the south side of the Hudson Mountains into Pine Island Bay, Amundsen Sea, Antarctica.
The area drained by Pine Island Glacier comprises about 10 percent of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet. Satellite measurements have shown that the Pine Island Glacier Basin has a greater net contribution of ice to the sea than any other ice drainage basin in the world and this has increased due to recent acceleration of the ice stream.
Pine Island Glacier Fact File
- Pine Island Glacier drains an area of 162, 300 km², two thirds the size of the United Kingdom.
- The glacier was named after the bay into which it flows, which was named after the U.S.S. Pine Island, a ship that carried sea-planes and discovered the bay in 1947. This ship was named after Pine Island off the coast of Lee County, Florida.
- The nearest base is the U.K.’s Rothera Research Station 804 miles away from the centre of Pine Island Glacier.
- The glacier contributes ~ 83 km³ of ice to the sea each year, the largest contribution of any individual ice stream in the world.
- Satellite measurements indicate the glacier thinned by ~ 1.5 m per yr and accelerated by ~ 10% during the 1990s. The speed has continued to increase by approximately 30% in the last decade.
