A review of full-scale first-year sea ice ridges is presented with a special focus on the morphological and mechanical properties. Ridges from 1971 to present are described. The study area covers the Arctic Ocean, the Canadian and Russian Seas, the Barents Sea, the Baltic Sea and the fjords of Svalbard. The morphological properties (e.g. the sail height and the keel depth) of 204 ridges are listed. The morphology of a ridge is commonly specified by the keel-to-sail ratio, which is influenced by the shape of the ridge itself and the calculation method. Each of these calculation methods leads to much different results and interpretations. The correlation between the sail height and the keel depth was best characterized by a logarithmic relationship. A short statistical analysis revealed that the keel-to-sail ratios had a lognormal distribution. Finally, determining the strength of a first-year ice ridge is more difficult than level ice. It can be described by "localized" tests (confined and unconfined compressive tests, drop ball tests), where separate samples from the ridge are tested, or by "globalized" tests (direct shear tests, punch shear tests), where the resistance of the whole structure is tested. Very little data exist and are available, but a list of authors reporting such tests is given as well.
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