1. Channelized Ice Melting in the Ocean Boundary Layer Beneath Pine Island Glacier, Antarctica
- Author
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K. L. Riverman, Timothy P. Stanton, David M. Holland, Sridhar Anandakrishnan, L. E. Peters, W. J. Shaw, Hugh F. J. Corr, Robert Bindschadler, Martin Truffer, Naval Postgraduate School (U.S.), and Oceanography more...
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geography ,Multidisciplinary ,geography.geographical_feature_category ,Materials science ,010504 meteorology & atmospheric sciences ,Oceans and Seas ,Ice stream ,0207 environmental engineering ,Antarctic Regions ,Antarctic ice sheet ,02 engineering and technology ,Antarctic sea ice ,Glacier morphology ,01 natural sciences ,Ice shelf ,Oceanography ,13. Climate action ,Ice tongue ,Freezing ,Sea ice ,Ice Cover ,14. Life underwater ,Ice sheet ,020701 environmental engineering ,0105 earth and related environmental sciences - Abstract
The article of record as published may be found at http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1239373 Ice shelves play a key role in the mass balance of the Antarctic ice sheets by buttressing their seawardflowing 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. NSF’s Office of Polar Programs NSF grant ANT-0732926 NASA’s Cryospheric Sciences Program New York University Abhu Dabi grant 1204 Natural Environment Research Council–British Antarctic Survey NSF’s Office of Polar Programs NSF grant ANT-0732926 New York University Abhu Dabi grant 1204 more...
- Published
- 2013
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