Previous studies have suggested the ice was usually 3 to 6 feet (1 to 2 m) thick, with a few rare spots reaching up to 16 feet (5 m) in thickness.
However, a new survey suggests that those numbers were way off.
Up to three times thicker than previously thought
In the three regions it surveyed, an underwater robot sub found that thickened ice accounted for at least half of and as much as 76 percent of the total ice volume, the new study found. On average, the thickness of the ice was 4.6 to 18 feet (1.4 to 5.5 m).
65 feet (20 m) thick in some areas
The thickest ice measured about 65 ft (20 m) thick in the Bellingshausen Sea, said study co-author Ted Maksym, an oceanographer at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts. In the Weddell Sea, the maximum ice thickness hit more than 45 feet (14 m), and offshore of Wilkes Land, the ice was about 53 feet (16 m) thick.
Not only thicker, sea ice is also expanding
According to climate models, the region’s sea ice should be shrinking because of “global warming.” Instead, satellite observations show the ice is expanding, setting new records for the past three winters
Sea ice growth around Antarctica has averaged about 1.2 percent to 1.8 percent per decade between 1979 and 2012, according to the 2013 IPCC’s Fifth Assessment Report.
The findings were published on Nov. 24 in the journal Nature Geoscience.
http://www.livescience.com/48880-antarctica-sea-ice-thickness-mapped.html
Thanks to Bill Sellers, Price Foster, Dan Dewey, Ronal Baker and John the 1st for this link