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Nansen Ice Sheet

ice shelf in Antarctica

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 1, 2026
Entity authorityQ6964216 ↗
Source-derived summary

Nansen Ice Sheet (74°53′S 163°10′E) is a 30 nautical miles (56 km; 35 mi) long by 10 nautical miles (19 km; 12 mi) wide ice shelf.

It is nourished by the Priestley and Reeves Glaciers and abuts the north side of the Drygalski Ice Tongue, along the coast of Victoria Land, Antarctica. This feature was explored by the South Magnetic Polar Party of the British Antarctic Expedition, 1907-09 and by the Northern Party of the British Antarctic Expedition, 1910-13. Frank Debenham, geologist with the latter expedition, applied the name Nansen Sheet as the feature is adjacent to Mount Nansen, the dominating summit in the area.

Geography

The Nansen Ice Sheet covers the southwest of Wood Bay, on the west coast of the Ross Sea.

It is west of the Northern Foothills and east of the Prince Albert Mountains.

From east to west it is fed by Browning Pass, Boomerang Glacier, the Priestley Glacier, the Carnein Glacier and the Reeves Glacier.

The Larsen Glacier enters the sea to the southwest of the ice sheet.

It abuts the Drygalski Ice Tongue to the south.

Features surrounding the ice shelf include (anti-clockwise from the east) Inexpressible Island, Vegetation Island, Cape Canwe, Gray Rock and Rhodes Head on McCarthy Ridge, Andersson Ridge, Widowmaker Pass and Olson Nunatak.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Nansen Ice Sheet” as ice shelf in Antarctica. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA dependable orientation record for establishing vocabulary, names and a first evidence trail. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1907, 1910—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. The account is most persuasive where Nansen, Sheet and shelf can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as ice shelf in Antarctica. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 1, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q6964216. Authority coordinates are -74.883, 163.167. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1907 and 1910.

Critical limits

A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Nansen Ice Sheet” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.