Flow Of Antarctic Ice Shelves Between Long. 29° E. And 44° W

This paper discusses the mass outflow and dynamics of a 3000 km long front of the Antarctic ice sheet—the coastline from Prinsesse Ragnhild Kyst to the Filchner Ice Shelf. Ice shelves, mostly 50–100 km wide, account for more than 95% of this coastline. Large mass losses by calving generally occur at...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of Glaciology
Main Author: Orheim, Olav
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Cambridge University Press (CUP) 1979
Subjects:
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0022143000015008
https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0022143000015008
Description
Summary:This paper discusses the mass outflow and dynamics of a 3000 km long front of the Antarctic ice sheet—the coastline from Prinsesse Ragnhild Kyst to the Filchner Ice Shelf. Ice shelves, mostly 50–100 km wide, account for more than 95% of this coastline. Large mass losses by calving generally occur at intervals of several decades at any particular location, and usually involve shelf areas of 10-1000 km 2 . The mass loss by calving during the periods between the large calvings is insignificant, except where ice streams run directly into the sea without forming ice shelves. The latter sections account for 2% of the coastline in question and a similar part is made up of ice rises. Thus, with the exception of these short segments, the ice front advances systematically over time intervals of a few decades. Large calvings interrupting the advance can be recognized by significant change in shape and position of the ice front.