Edge of the Ross Ice Shelf seen from the NASA P-3 on the return flight from McMurdo Station on Nov. 28, 2013. The Ross Ice Shelf, discovered by Captain Sir James Clark Ross on an expedition in January of 1841, is the largest ice shelf in Antarctica, about the size of France, reaching in some places to almost 2,450 feet in height. It is the home of McMurdo Station, the gateway to the South Pole. Ice shelves are thick plates of ice formed by glaciers that act as brakes, moderating the amount of melting that occurs on glaciers' surfaces.