What is the largest ice shelf in the world?

The largest ice shelf in the world is the Ross Ice Shelf in Antarctica. It covers approximately 500,000 square kilometres and floats on the southern part of the Ross Sea, making it about the size of France.

An ice shelf is not a glacier resting entirely on land: it is a thick, floating extension of land ice that remains attached to the Antarctic ice sheet. The Ross Ice Shelf is fed by several major glaciers and helps slow the movement of inland ice toward the ocean. Most of its ice lies below the waterline, even though its seaward front rises above the sea.

The shelf was discovered by British explorer James Clark Ross on 28 January 1841 and was originally known as the Great Ice Barrier. It is commonly confused with the Filchner–Ronne Ice Shelf, which is the second-largest. Iceberg B-15, the largest recorded iceberg, broke away from the Ross Ice Shelf in 2000.