• An ice sheet describes a mass of ice that covers a large area of land, usually over 50,000 square km (19,300 sq. miles) or more. An ice cap is a miniature ice sheet and is found in the polar regions.
• The vast Antarctic ice sheet is on average 2 kilometers thick, with a maximum thickness of 4.7 kms (almost 3 miles).
• Greenland’s ice sheet is the second largest body of ice on the planet, after the Antarctic ice sheet. Climate models predict average temperatures in Greenland will rise 3-9°C (5-16°F) this century, triggering melting of the ice sheet and sea level rise. If all Greenland’s ice did melt, it would raise sea levels by around 7 meters (24 ft).
• The Antarctic ice sheet, which is one and a half times the size of the United States, contains enough frozen water to raise global sea levels by 60 metres (200 feet). If even 2 percent of it melted, it would raise sea levels by 1.2 meters (4 feet).
• The Arctic is warming twice as fast as the global average. Temperatures in the region are higher now than they have been for 44,000 years, perhaps even for 120,000 years.
• The biggest-ever iceberg - known simply as Iceberg B-15A - broke off the Ross ice shelf in West Antarctica in March 2000. It measured about 11,000 square kilometers (4,247 sq miles).