Discovery of Till Deposition at the Grounding Line of Whillans Ice Stream
We report on the discovery of a grounding-line sedimentary wedge (“till delta”) deposited by Whillans Ice Stream, West Antarctica. Our observation is that grounding-line deposition serves to thicken the ice and stabilize the position of the grounding line. The ice thickness at the grounding line is...
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American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
2007
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craaas:10.1126/science.1138393 2024-06-09T07:39:00+00:00 Discovery of Till Deposition at the Grounding Line of Whillans Ice Stream Anandakrishnan, Sridhar Catania, Ginny A. Alley, Richard B. Horgan, Huw J. 2007 http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1138393 https://www.science.org/doi/pdf/10.1126/science.1138393 en eng American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Science volume 315, issue 5820, page 1835-1838 ISSN 0036-8075 1095-9203 journal-article 2007 craaas https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1138393 2024-05-16T12:54:47Z We report on the discovery of a grounding-line sedimentary wedge (“till delta”) deposited by Whillans Ice Stream, West Antarctica. Our observation is that grounding-line deposition serves to thicken the ice and stabilize the position of the grounding line. The ice thickness at the grounding line is greater than that of floating ice in hydrostatic equilibrium. Thus, the grounding line will tend to remain in the same location despite changes in sea level (until sea level rises enough to overcome the excess thickness that is due to the wedge). Further, our observation demonstrates the occurrence of rapid subglacial erosion, sediment transport by distributed subglacial till deformation, and grounding-line sedimentation, which have important implications for ice dynamics, numerical modeling of ice flow, and interpretation of the sedimentation record. Article in Journal/Newspaper Antarc* Antarctica West Antarctica Whillans Ice Stream AAAS Resource Center (American Association for the Advancement of Science) West Antarctica Whillans ENVELOPE(-64.250,-64.250,-84.450,-84.450) Whillans Ice Stream ENVELOPE(-145.000,-145.000,-83.667,-83.667) Science 315 5820 1835 1838 |
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Open Polar |
collection |
AAAS Resource Center (American Association for the Advancement of Science) |
op_collection_id |
craaas |
language |
English |
description |
We report on the discovery of a grounding-line sedimentary wedge (“till delta”) deposited by Whillans Ice Stream, West Antarctica. Our observation is that grounding-line deposition serves to thicken the ice and stabilize the position of the grounding line. The ice thickness at the grounding line is greater than that of floating ice in hydrostatic equilibrium. Thus, the grounding line will tend to remain in the same location despite changes in sea level (until sea level rises enough to overcome the excess thickness that is due to the wedge). Further, our observation demonstrates the occurrence of rapid subglacial erosion, sediment transport by distributed subglacial till deformation, and grounding-line sedimentation, which have important implications for ice dynamics, numerical modeling of ice flow, and interpretation of the sedimentation record. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Anandakrishnan, Sridhar Catania, Ginny A. Alley, Richard B. Horgan, Huw J. |
spellingShingle |
Anandakrishnan, Sridhar Catania, Ginny A. Alley, Richard B. Horgan, Huw J. Discovery of Till Deposition at the Grounding Line of Whillans Ice Stream |
author_facet |
Anandakrishnan, Sridhar Catania, Ginny A. Alley, Richard B. Horgan, Huw J. |
author_sort |
Anandakrishnan, Sridhar |
title |
Discovery of Till Deposition at the Grounding Line of Whillans Ice Stream |
title_short |
Discovery of Till Deposition at the Grounding Line of Whillans Ice Stream |
title_full |
Discovery of Till Deposition at the Grounding Line of Whillans Ice Stream |
title_fullStr |
Discovery of Till Deposition at the Grounding Line of Whillans Ice Stream |
title_full_unstemmed |
Discovery of Till Deposition at the Grounding Line of Whillans Ice Stream |
title_sort |
discovery of till deposition at the grounding line of whillans ice stream |
publisher |
American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) |
publishDate |
2007 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1138393 https://www.science.org/doi/pdf/10.1126/science.1138393 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(-64.250,-64.250,-84.450,-84.450) ENVELOPE(-145.000,-145.000,-83.667,-83.667) |
geographic |
West Antarctica Whillans Whillans Ice Stream |
geographic_facet |
West Antarctica Whillans Whillans Ice Stream |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctica West Antarctica Whillans Ice Stream |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctica West Antarctica Whillans Ice Stream |
op_source |
Science volume 315, issue 5820, page 1835-1838 ISSN 0036-8075 1095-9203 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1138393 |
container_title |
Science |
container_volume |
315 |
container_issue |
5820 |
container_start_page |
1835 |
op_container_end_page |
1838 |
_version_ |
1801376611135651840 |