"Alastair" wrote in message
...

I can't see and Antarctic sea ice on the page you linked

Sorry, I skipped a couple of short steps: Click on the blue bar below the
map images that says 'Antarctic Daily Images' and then on left-hand map
image to enlarge that.

but this map shows the current state of sea ice in the Antarctic.
http://polar.ncep.noaa.gov/seaice/sh.html

I guess that's a different representation of the same thing

The mass you mention is an island of sea ice that has formed during the SH
summer melt.

That's pretty odd though isn't it? Perhaps not, but it just seems unlikely.
How big is that 'island' - the size of Tasmania or something - difficult to
get a sense of scale? It's not like it's just a big iceberg. And how/why has
it calved off like that rather than melting from the ocean edge? That's what
caught my curiosity.

Yes, the ice shelf is mapped as part of the Antarctic land mass. Sea ice is
a few feet thick and reforms each year. Ice shelves are about 1000 feet or
more thick.

OK, that makes some sense. But I'd have preferred to see the landmass still
outlined separately from the shelves.