The history of a cluster of large icebergs on leaving the Weddell Sea pack ice and their impact on the ocean
Abstract The life history and oceanic impact of three very large icebergs that escaped together from the Weddell Sea sea ice, near the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula, are traced from March 2014. Despite the initial proximity of these three icebergs, they followed very different trajectories across t...
Published in: | Antarctic Science |
---|---|
Main Authors: | , |
Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
Language: | English |
Published: |
Cambridge University Press (CUP)
2023
|
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0954102022000517 https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0954102022000517 |
id |
crcambridgeupr:10.1017/s0954102022000517 |
---|---|
record_format |
openpolar |
spelling |
crcambridgeupr:10.1017/s0954102022000517 2024-09-15T17:45:53+00:00 The history of a cluster of large icebergs on leaving the Weddell Sea pack ice and their impact on the ocean Bigg, Grant R. Marsh, Robert 2023 http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0954102022000517 https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0954102022000517 en eng Cambridge University Press (CUP) https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms Antarctic Science volume 35, issue 3, page 176-193 ISSN 0954-1020 1365-2079 journal-article 2023 crcambridgeupr https://doi.org/10.1017/s0954102022000517 2024-07-31T04:04:09Z Abstract The life history and oceanic impact of three very large icebergs that escaped together from the Weddell Sea sea ice, near the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula, are traced from March 2014. Despite the initial proximity of these three icebergs, they followed very different trajectories across the South Atlantic until their eventual break-up and melting 1 year later. The largest, giant iceberg, B17a, spent extensive periods grounded near two different islands. The triplet's gradual melting is examined through the impact on the icebergs' dimensions, but also the meltwater's oceanic influence on the local salinity and primary productivity. It is found that there was generally a significant local surface and mixed-layer freshening of a few tenths of a practical salinity unit, up to several hundred kilometres away from the 10–20 km-sized icebergs. In contrast, the chlorophyll impact was highly temporally variable, although it tended to be larger in the summer. Break-up of these large icebergs did not occur until near the end of their life. We also show that modelling the trajectories of individual very large icebergs can be reasonable for up to 2 weeks if the characteristics of the iceberg and the local ocean and atmospheric forcing are well known. Article in Journal/Newspaper Antarc* Antarctic Antarctic Peninsula Antarctic Science Iceberg* Sea ice Weddell Sea Cambridge University Press Antarctic Science 1 18 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Cambridge University Press |
op_collection_id |
crcambridgeupr |
language |
English |
description |
Abstract The life history and oceanic impact of three very large icebergs that escaped together from the Weddell Sea sea ice, near the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula, are traced from March 2014. Despite the initial proximity of these three icebergs, they followed very different trajectories across the South Atlantic until their eventual break-up and melting 1 year later. The largest, giant iceberg, B17a, spent extensive periods grounded near two different islands. The triplet's gradual melting is examined through the impact on the icebergs' dimensions, but also the meltwater's oceanic influence on the local salinity and primary productivity. It is found that there was generally a significant local surface and mixed-layer freshening of a few tenths of a practical salinity unit, up to several hundred kilometres away from the 10–20 km-sized icebergs. In contrast, the chlorophyll impact was highly temporally variable, although it tended to be larger in the summer. Break-up of these large icebergs did not occur until near the end of their life. We also show that modelling the trajectories of individual very large icebergs can be reasonable for up to 2 weeks if the characteristics of the iceberg and the local ocean and atmospheric forcing are well known. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Bigg, Grant R. Marsh, Robert |
spellingShingle |
Bigg, Grant R. Marsh, Robert The history of a cluster of large icebergs on leaving the Weddell Sea pack ice and their impact on the ocean |
author_facet |
Bigg, Grant R. Marsh, Robert |
author_sort |
Bigg, Grant R. |
title |
The history of a cluster of large icebergs on leaving the Weddell Sea pack ice and their impact on the ocean |
title_short |
The history of a cluster of large icebergs on leaving the Weddell Sea pack ice and their impact on the ocean |
title_full |
The history of a cluster of large icebergs on leaving the Weddell Sea pack ice and their impact on the ocean |
title_fullStr |
The history of a cluster of large icebergs on leaving the Weddell Sea pack ice and their impact on the ocean |
title_full_unstemmed |
The history of a cluster of large icebergs on leaving the Weddell Sea pack ice and their impact on the ocean |
title_sort |
history of a cluster of large icebergs on leaving the weddell sea pack ice and their impact on the ocean |
publisher |
Cambridge University Press (CUP) |
publishDate |
2023 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0954102022000517 https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0954102022000517 |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctic Antarctic Peninsula Antarctic Science Iceberg* Sea ice Weddell Sea |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctic Antarctic Peninsula Antarctic Science Iceberg* Sea ice Weddell Sea |
op_source |
Antarctic Science volume 35, issue 3, page 176-193 ISSN 0954-1020 1365-2079 |
op_rights |
https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1017/s0954102022000517 |
container_title |
Antarctic Science |
container_start_page |
1 |
op_container_end_page |
18 |
_version_ |
1810493814364700672 |