Summary
The Amery Ice Shelf (70oS, 70oE) is the third largest embayed shelf in Antarctica, and the largest entirely within East Antarctica. This ice shelf has been studied by the Australian Antarctic program for more than 50 years, although only in the past decade has the importance of ice–ocean interaction beneath the shelf become fully apparent. This has led to the establishment of a project of “Amery Ice Shelf Ocean Research (AMISOR)”. This multidisciplinary project has overall aims of quantifying the interaction between the ocean and the Amery Ice Shelf (AIS); and determining the implications of this interaction for the discharge of grounded ice and to water mass modification. The project includes components of hot-water drilling through the AIS to make measurements in the underlying cavity; glaciological measurements of the ice shelf velocity, strain and thickness; oceanographic measurements in Prydz Bay; investigation of sub ice shelf sediments and sediment dynamics; remote sensing; and numerical modelling of ice shelf-ocean interaction and ice shelf dynamics. This paper provides a brief review of past and present Australian research on the AIS, with an emphasis on the AMISOR activities.