Roosevelt Island is the second largest

ice rise An ice rise is a clearly defined elevation of the otherwise very much flatter ice shelf, typically dome-shaped and rising several hundreds of metres above the surrounding ice shelf . An ice rise forms where the ice shelf touches the seabed due t ...

of Antarctica and world-wide, after

Berkner Island Berkner Island (also known as the Berkner Ice Rise or as Hubley Island) is an Antarctic ice rise, where bedrock below sea level has caused the surrounding ice sheet to create a dome. If the ice cap were removed, the island would be underwater. Be ...

. Despite its name, it is not an

island An island (or isle) is an isolated piece of habitat that is surrounded by a dramatically different habitat, such as water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, skerries, cays or keys. An island ...

, since the bedrock below the ice at its highest part is below sea level. It is about long in a NW-SE direction, wide and about in area, lying under the eastern part of the

Ross Ice Shelf The Ross Ice Shelf is the largest ice shelf of Antarctica (, an area of roughly and about across: about the size of France). It is several hundred metres thick. The nearly vertical ice front to the open sea is more than long, and between hi ...

Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean, it contains the geographic South Pole. Antarctica is the fifth-largest contine ...

. Its central ridge rises to about above sea level, but this and all other elevations of the ice rise are completely covered by ice, so that it is invisible at ground level. Examination of how the ice flows above it establishes the existence and extent of the ice rise. Radar surveying carried out between 1995 and 2013 showed that the

Raymond Effect Raymond Effect is a flow effect in ice sheets, occurring at flow divides, which gives rise to disturbances in the stratigraphy, showing unusual arches or anticlines called ''Raymond Arches''. The stratigraphy is detected by radio-echo sounding. Th ...

was operating beneath the

ice divide An ice divide is the boundary on an ice sheet, ice cap or glacier separating opposing flow directions of ice, analogous to a water divide. Ice divides are important for geochronological investigations that use ice cores, since such coring is typica ...

. The ice rise has become a focus of the Roosevelt Island Climate Evolution (RICE) research using ice coring. Rear Admiral

Richard E. Byrd Richard Evelyn Byrd Jr. (October 25, 1888 – March 11, 1957) was an American naval officer and explorer. He was a recipient of the Medal of Honor, the highest honor for valor given by the United States, and was a pioneering American aviator, p ...

named it in 1934 after US President

Franklin D. Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (; ; January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician and attorney who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. As th ...

. Byrd was the

leader Leadership, both as a research area and as a practical skill, encompasses the ability of an individual, group or organization to "lead", influence or guide other individuals, teams, or entire organizations. The word "leadership" often gets view ...

of the expedition that discovered the ice rise. Roosevelt Island lies within the boundaries of the

Ross Dependency The Ross Dependency is a region of Antarctica defined by a sector originating at the South Pole, passing along longitudes 160° east to 150° west, and terminating at latitude 60° south. It is claimed by New Zealand, a claim accepted only ...

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island country ...

's Antarctic claim.

References

{{reflist, colwidth=30em Ice rises of Antarctica Geography of the Ross Dependency Bodies of ice of the Ross Dependency

See also

References