A common process of sea ice development in the Antarctic is ‘the pancake cycle’. The pancakes start with a diameter of tens of centimetres, but through wind and wave action they aggregate with loose frazil crystals to increase in diameter, and raft with other pancakes to increase in thickness. In this manner, the pancakes can rapidly grow to a few metres in diameter and up to 1 m thick. Eventually, the pancakes can freeze together into larger floes or a consolidated ice cover.
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