Channelized ice melting in the ocean boundary layer beneath Pine Island Glacier, Antarctica.

September 14, 2019 - 15:55 -- truffer
TitleChannelized ice melting in the ocean boundary layer beneath Pine Island Glacier, Antarctica.
Publication TypeJournal Article
Year of Publication2013
AuthorsStanton, TP, Shaw, WJ, Truffer, M, Corr, HFJ, Peters, LE, Riverman, KL, Bindschadler, R, Holland, DM, Anandakrishnan, S
JournalScience (New York, N.Y.)
Volume341
Pagination1236–9
Date Publishedsep
ISSN1095-9203
KeywordsAntarctic Regions, Freezing, Ice Cover, Oceans and Seas
Abstract

Ice shelves play a key role in the mass balance of the Antarctic ice sheets by buttressing their seaward-flowing outlet glaciers; however, they are exposed to the underlying ocean and may weaken if ocean thermal forcing increases. An expedition to the ice shelf of the remote Pine Island Glacier, a major outlet of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet that has rapidly thinned and accelerated in recent decades, has been completed. Observations from geophysical surveys and long-term oceanographic instruments deployed down bore holes into the ocean cavity reveal a buoyancy-driven boundary layer within a basal channel that melts the channel apex by 0.06 meter per day, with near-zero melt rates along the flanks of the channel. A complex pattern of such channels is visible throughout the Pine Island Glacier shelf.

URLhttp://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24031016
DOI10.1126/science.1239373
PubMed ID24031016