TheWest Ice Shelf is a prominentice shelf extending about 350 km (220 mi) in an east–west direction along theLeopold and Astrid Coast inEast Antarctica betweenBarrier Bay andPosadowsky Bay, and up to 120 km northwards from the continental margin.[1]
The ice shelf was discovered and named by theFirst German Antarctica Expedition, 1901–1903, under DrErich von Drygalski. Thetoponym describes the direction in which the German expedition first viewed the ice shelf. Their limited westward view became a prolonged one; on February 21, 1902, the ship became stuck in thepack ice, remaining imprisoned there until February 8, 1903.
A 416 ha (1,030 acres) site68°36′29″S77°53′37″E / 68.60806°S 77.89361°E /-68.60806; 77.89361 onsea ice near the north-western margin of the shelf has been designated anImportant Bird Area (IBA) byBirdLife International because it supports anemperor penguin colony.[1]
