Transition to marine ice cliff instability controlled by ice thickness gradients and velocity

• Published in: Science
• Main Authors: Bassis, J. N., Berg, B., Crawford, A. J., Benn, D. I.
• Other Authors: National Science Foundation, National Environmental Research Council
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) 2021
• Subjects: Lowry; Ice Sheet; Sea ice
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.abf6271; https://syndication.highwire.org/content/doi/10.1126/science.abf6271; https://www.science.org/doi/pdf/10.1126/science.abf6271

Cliff collapse Tall ice cliffs at the edges of ice sheets can collapse under their own weight in spectacular fashion, a process that can considerably hasten ice sheet mass loss. Bassis et al. used a dynamic ice model to demonstrate that this kind of collapse can be slowed either by upstream thinning...