What is the name of the ice sheet that covers Greenland?

The ice sheet that covers Greenland is the Greenland Ice Sheet.

This vast body of continental ice covers about 1.71 million square kilometres, roughly 80% of Greenland’s surface. It is the second-largest ice body on Earth, after the Antarctic Ice Sheet, and is large enough to qualify as an ice sheet rather than a smaller ice cap or valley glacier.

The ice is not motionless. Snow accumulating over many years compresses into dense glacial ice, which slowly flows outward from high central domes toward the coast. Around Greenland’s margins, outlet glaciers carry ice through valleys and release icebergs into the surrounding seas. The best-known outlet glacier is Jakobshavn Glacier, also called Sermeq Kujalleq.

A common mix-up is confusing the Greenland Ice Sheet with the Antarctic Ice Sheet: both are continental ice sheets, but they occupy different polar regions. If all Greenland’s ice melted, global sea level would rise by approximately 7.4 metres. The ice sheet began covering most of Greenland around 2.6 million years ago, though its size has expanded and contracted since then.