%0 Journal Article %J Science (New York, N.Y.) %D 2013 %T Channelized ice melting in the ocean boundary layer beneath Pine Island Glacier, Antarctica. %A Stanton, T P %A Shaw, W J %A Truffer, M. %A Corr, H F J %A Peters, L E %A Riverman, K L %A Bindschadler, R %A Holland, D M %A Anandakrishnan, S %K Antarctic Regions %K Freezing %K Ice Cover %K Oceans and Seas %X 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. %B Science (New York, N.Y.) %V 341 %P 1236–9 %8 sep %G eng %U http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24031016 %R 10.1126/science.1239373