An analysis of the shapes of sea ice ridges

An analysis has been made of the salient features of 112 first-year and 64 multi-year sea ice ridges. Based on this information, the important characteristics of the ridges have been related through simple equations. In particular, the ratio of the keel-depth to sail-height was found to be 4.4 for first-year ridges, and 3.3 for multi-year ridges; the ratio of the keel-area to sail-area was 8.0 for first-year ridges and 8.8 for multi-year ridges. Also, for first-year ridges, the ratio of the keel-width to sail-height was approximately 15, and the ratio of the keel-width to keel-depth was 3.9. An analysis of the sail and keel angles indicates a distribution of values with an average sail angle of 21 degrees for temperate ridges, and 33 degrees for ridges in the Beaufort Sea. In this paper, the results of this analysis are described, and the important ridge characteristics are discussed.