Pancake Ice
Predominantly circular pieces of ice from 30 cm - 3 m in diameter, and up to 10 cm in thickness (unrafted), with raised rims
due to the pieces striking against one another. It may be formed on a slight swell from grease ice, shuga or slush or as the result
of the breaking of ice rind, nilas or, under severe conditions of swell or waves, of grey ice.
A common process of sea ice development in the Antarctic is "the pancake cycle". The pancakes start with a diameter of tens of
centimetres, but through wind and wave action they aggregate with loose frazil crystals to increase in diameter, and raft with other
pancakes to increase in thickness. In this manner the pancakes can rapidly grow to a few metres in diameter and up to 1 m thick.
Eventually the pancakes can freeze together into larger floes or a consolidated ice cover.
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| Pancake ice can rapidly cover vast areas within the pack. |
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Small pancakes welding together to form larger floes. |
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