GHOSTly flute music: drumlins, moats and the bed of Thwaites Glacier
Abstract Glacier-bed characteristics that are poorly known and modeled are important in projected sea-level rise from ice-sheet changes under strong warming, especially in the Thwaites Glacier drainage of West Antarctica. Ocean warming may induce ice-shelf thinning or loss, or thinning of ice in est...
Published in: | Annals of Glaciology |
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2022
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Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/aog.2023.43 https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0260305523000435 |
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crcambridgeupr:10.1017/aog.2023.43 2024-09-15T17:39:53+00:00 GHOSTly flute music: drumlins, moats and the bed of Thwaites Glacier Alley, Richard B. Holschuh, Nick Parizek, Byron Zoet, Lucas K. Riverman, Kiya Muto, Atsuhiro Christianson, Knut Clyne, Elisabeth Anandakrishnan, Sridhar Stevens, Nathan T. Heising-Simons Foundation 2022 http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/aog.2023.43 https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0260305523000435 en eng Cambridge University Press (CUP) http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0 Annals of Glaciology volume 63, issue 87-89, page 153-157 ISSN 0260-3055 1727-5644 journal-article 2022 crcambridgeupr https://doi.org/10.1017/aog.2023.43 2024-09-04T04:03:43Z Abstract Glacier-bed characteristics that are poorly known and modeled are important in projected sea-level rise from ice-sheet changes under strong warming, especially in the Thwaites Glacier drainage of West Antarctica. Ocean warming may induce ice-shelf thinning or loss, or thinning of ice in estuarine zones, reducing backstress on grounded ice. Models indicate that, in response, more-nearly-plastic beds favor faster ice loss by causing larger flow acceleration, but more-nearly-viscous beds favor localized near-coastal thinning that could speed grounding-zone retreat into interior basins where marine-ice-sheet instability or cliff instability could develop and cause very rapid ice loss. Interpretation of available data indicates that the bed is spatially mosaicked, with both viscous and plastic regions. Flow against bedrock topography removes plastic lubricating tills, exposing bedrock that is eroded on up-glacier sides of obstacles to form moats with exposed bedrock tails extending downglacier adjacent to lee-side soft-till bedforms. Flow against topography also generates high-ice-pressure zones that prevent inflow of lubricating water over distances that scale with the obstacle size. Extending existing observations to sufficiently large regions, and developing models assimilating such data at the appropriate scale, present large, important research challenges that must be met to reliably project future forced sea-level rise. Article in Journal/Newspaper Annals of Glaciology Antarc* Antarctica Ice Sheet Ice Shelf Thwaites Glacier West Antarctica Cambridge University Press Annals of Glaciology 63 87-89 153 157 |
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Open Polar |
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Cambridge University Press |
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crcambridgeupr |
language |
English |
description |
Abstract Glacier-bed characteristics that are poorly known and modeled are important in projected sea-level rise from ice-sheet changes under strong warming, especially in the Thwaites Glacier drainage of West Antarctica. Ocean warming may induce ice-shelf thinning or loss, or thinning of ice in estuarine zones, reducing backstress on grounded ice. Models indicate that, in response, more-nearly-plastic beds favor faster ice loss by causing larger flow acceleration, but more-nearly-viscous beds favor localized near-coastal thinning that could speed grounding-zone retreat into interior basins where marine-ice-sheet instability or cliff instability could develop and cause very rapid ice loss. Interpretation of available data indicates that the bed is spatially mosaicked, with both viscous and plastic regions. Flow against bedrock topography removes plastic lubricating tills, exposing bedrock that is eroded on up-glacier sides of obstacles to form moats with exposed bedrock tails extending downglacier adjacent to lee-side soft-till bedforms. Flow against topography also generates high-ice-pressure zones that prevent inflow of lubricating water over distances that scale with the obstacle size. Extending existing observations to sufficiently large regions, and developing models assimilating such data at the appropriate scale, present large, important research challenges that must be met to reliably project future forced sea-level rise. |
author2 |
Heising-Simons Foundation |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Alley, Richard B. Holschuh, Nick Parizek, Byron Zoet, Lucas K. Riverman, Kiya Muto, Atsuhiro Christianson, Knut Clyne, Elisabeth Anandakrishnan, Sridhar Stevens, Nathan T. |
spellingShingle |
Alley, Richard B. Holschuh, Nick Parizek, Byron Zoet, Lucas K. Riverman, Kiya Muto, Atsuhiro Christianson, Knut Clyne, Elisabeth Anandakrishnan, Sridhar Stevens, Nathan T. GHOSTly flute music: drumlins, moats and the bed of Thwaites Glacier |
author_facet |
Alley, Richard B. Holschuh, Nick Parizek, Byron Zoet, Lucas K. Riverman, Kiya Muto, Atsuhiro Christianson, Knut Clyne, Elisabeth Anandakrishnan, Sridhar Stevens, Nathan T. |
author_sort |
Alley, Richard B. |
title |
GHOSTly flute music: drumlins, moats and the bed of Thwaites Glacier |
title_short |
GHOSTly flute music: drumlins, moats and the bed of Thwaites Glacier |
title_full |
GHOSTly flute music: drumlins, moats and the bed of Thwaites Glacier |
title_fullStr |
GHOSTly flute music: drumlins, moats and the bed of Thwaites Glacier |
title_full_unstemmed |
GHOSTly flute music: drumlins, moats and the bed of Thwaites Glacier |
title_sort |
ghostly flute music: drumlins, moats and the bed of thwaites glacier |
publisher |
Cambridge University Press (CUP) |
publishDate |
2022 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/aog.2023.43 https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0260305523000435 |
genre |
Annals of Glaciology Antarc* Antarctica Ice Sheet Ice Shelf Thwaites Glacier West Antarctica |
genre_facet |
Annals of Glaciology Antarc* Antarctica Ice Sheet Ice Shelf Thwaites Glacier West Antarctica |
op_source |
Annals of Glaciology volume 63, issue 87-89, page 153-157 ISSN 0260-3055 1727-5644 |
op_rights |
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1017/aog.2023.43 |
container_title |
Annals of Glaciology |
container_volume |
63 |
container_issue |
87-89 |
container_start_page |
153 |
op_container_end_page |
157 |
_version_ |
1810483239274414080 |