@article {sep, title = {Channelized ice melting in the ocean boundary layer beneath Pine Island Glacier, Antarctica.}, journal = {Science (New York, N.Y.)}, volume = {341}, year = {2013}, month = {sep}, pages = {1236{\textendash}9}, 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.}, keywords = {Antarctic Regions, Freezing, Ice Cover, Oceans and Seas}, issn = {1095-9203}, doi = {10.1126/science.1239373}, url = {http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24031016}, author = {Stanton, T P and Shaw, W J and Truffer, M. and Corr, H F J and Peters, L E and Riverman, K L and Bindschadler, R and Holland, D M and Anandakrishnan, S} }