A new model is presented to reproduce the behavior of a solitary, circular, flexible ice floe brought into motion by the action of long-crested sea waves. The intended application of the work is ultimately a fully three-dimensional analogue of a marginal ice zone (MIZ) through which ocean waves propagate, allowing the attenuation and directional advance to be forecast and validated against observations. (Existing theory does not treat directional changes correctly.) To enable a check to be made on the model, two independent methods are developed: an expansion in the eigenfunctions of a thin circular plate, and the more general method of eigenfunctions used to construct a Green's function for the floe. Displacement and three-dimensional scattering patterns in the water surrounding the floe are given for several floe geometries. The model is also used to investigate the strain field generated in the floe, its surge response, and the energy initiated in the water encircling it. Finally, with the aim of understanding how floes herd together to form cohesive structures in the MIZ, the force induced on floes of various thicknesses and diameters is plotted. ¿ American Geophysical Union 1996