Channelized ice melting in the ocean boundary layer beneath Pine Island Glacier, Antarctica
Stanton, T.P.; Shaw, W.J.; Truffer, M.; Corr, H.F.J.; Peters, L.E.; Riverman, K.L.; Bindschadler, R.; Holland, D.M.; Anandakrishnan, S. (2013). Channelized ice melting in the ocean boundary layer beneath Pine Island Glacier, Antarctica. Science (Wash.) 341(6151): 1236-1239. http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1239373
In: Science (Washington). American Association for the Advancement of Science: New York, N.Y. ISSN 0036-8075; e-ISSN 1095-9203, more
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| Authors | | Top |
- Stanton, T.P.
- Shaw, W.J.
- Truffer, M.
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- Corr, H.F.J.
- Peters, L.E.
- Riverman, K.L.
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- Bindschadler, R.
- Holland, D.M.
- Anandakrishnan, S.
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| 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. |
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