<P> Although the surface is cold, the base of an ice sheet is generally warmer due to geothermal heat . In places, melting occurs and the melt - water lubricates the ice sheet so that it flows more rapidly . This process produces fast - flowing channels in the ice sheet--these are ice streams . </P> <P> The present - day polar ice sheets are relatively young in geological terms . The Antarctic Ice Sheet first formed as a small ice cap (maybe several) in the early Oligocene, but retreating and advancing many times until the Pliocene, when it came to occupy almost all of Antarctica . The Greenland ice sheet did not develop at all until the late Pliocene, but apparently developed very rapidly with the first continental glaciation . This had the unusual effect of allowing fossils of plants that once grew on present - day Greenland to be much better preserved than with the slowly forming Antarctic ice sheet . </P> <P> The Antarctic ice sheet is the largest single mass of ice on Earth . It covers an area of almost 14 million km and contains 30 million km of ice . Around 90% of the Earth's ice mass is in Antarctica, which, if melted, would cause sea levels to rise by 58 meters . The continent - wide average surface temperature trend of Antarctica is positive and significant at> 0.05 ° C / decade since 1957 . </P> <P> The Antarctic ice sheet is divided by the Transantarctic Mountains into two unequal sections called the East Antarctic ice sheet (EAIS) and the smaller West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS). The EAIS rests on a major land mass but the bed of the WAIS is, in places, more than 2,500 metres below sea level . It would be seabed if the ice sheet were not there . The WAIS is classified as a marine - based ice sheet, meaning that its bed lies below sea level and its edges flow into floating ice shelves . The WAIS is bounded by the Ross Ice Shelf, the Ronne Ice Shelf, and outlet glaciers that drain into the Amundsen Sea . </P>

Where is the worlds largest ice sheet located