The environment and evolution of the West Antarctic ice sheet: setting the stage
The West Antarctic ice sheet is the last ice sheet of the type cradled in a warm, marine geologic basin. Its perimeter stretches into the surrounding seas allowing warmer ocean waters to reach the undersides of its floating ice shelves and its relatively low surface elevation permits snow-carrying s...
Published in: | Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences |
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crroyalsociety:10.1098/rsta.2006.1790 2024-09-15T17:47:58+00:00 The environment and evolution of the West Antarctic ice sheet: setting the stage Bindschadler, Robert 2006 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsta.2006.1790 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rsta.2006.1790 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full-xml/10.1098/rsta.2006.1790 en eng The Royal Society https://royalsociety.org/journals/ethics-policies/data-sharing-mining/ Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences volume 364, issue 1844, page 1583-1605 ISSN 1364-503X 1471-2962 journal-article 2006 crroyalsociety https://doi.org/10.1098/rsta.2006.1790 2024-07-29T04:23:13Z The West Antarctic ice sheet is the last ice sheet of the type cradled in a warm, marine geologic basin. Its perimeter stretches into the surrounding seas allowing warmer ocean waters to reach the undersides of its floating ice shelves and its relatively low surface elevation permits snow-carrying storms to extend well into its interior. This special environment has given rise to theories of impending collapse and for the past quarter-century has challenged researchers who seek a quantitative prediction of its future behaviour and the corresponding effect on sea level. Observations confirm changes on a variety of time scales from the quaternary to less than a minute. The dynamics of the ice sheet involve the complex interaction of ice that is warm at its base and cold along the margins of ice streams; subglacial till that is composed of a combination of marine sediment and eroded sedimentary rocks; and water that moves primarily between the ice and bed, but whose flow direction can differ from the direction of ice motion. The pressure of the water system is often sufficient to float the ice sheet locally and small changes in the amount of water in the till can cause it to rapidly switch from very weak to very stiff. Article in Journal/Newspaper Antarc* Antarctic Ice Sheet Ice Shelves The Royal Society Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences 364 1844 1583 1605 |
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crroyalsociety |
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English |
description |
The West Antarctic ice sheet is the last ice sheet of the type cradled in a warm, marine geologic basin. Its perimeter stretches into the surrounding seas allowing warmer ocean waters to reach the undersides of its floating ice shelves and its relatively low surface elevation permits snow-carrying storms to extend well into its interior. This special environment has given rise to theories of impending collapse and for the past quarter-century has challenged researchers who seek a quantitative prediction of its future behaviour and the corresponding effect on sea level. Observations confirm changes on a variety of time scales from the quaternary to less than a minute. The dynamics of the ice sheet involve the complex interaction of ice that is warm at its base and cold along the margins of ice streams; subglacial till that is composed of a combination of marine sediment and eroded sedimentary rocks; and water that moves primarily between the ice and bed, but whose flow direction can differ from the direction of ice motion. The pressure of the water system is often sufficient to float the ice sheet locally and small changes in the amount of water in the till can cause it to rapidly switch from very weak to very stiff. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Bindschadler, Robert |
spellingShingle |
Bindschadler, Robert The environment and evolution of the West Antarctic ice sheet: setting the stage |
author_facet |
Bindschadler, Robert |
author_sort |
Bindschadler, Robert |
title |
The environment and evolution of the West Antarctic ice sheet: setting the stage |
title_short |
The environment and evolution of the West Antarctic ice sheet: setting the stage |
title_full |
The environment and evolution of the West Antarctic ice sheet: setting the stage |
title_fullStr |
The environment and evolution of the West Antarctic ice sheet: setting the stage |
title_full_unstemmed |
The environment and evolution of the West Antarctic ice sheet: setting the stage |
title_sort |
environment and evolution of the west antarctic ice sheet: setting the stage |
publisher |
The Royal Society |
publishDate |
2006 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsta.2006.1790 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rsta.2006.1790 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full-xml/10.1098/rsta.2006.1790 |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctic Ice Sheet Ice Shelves |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctic Ice Sheet Ice Shelves |
op_source |
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences volume 364, issue 1844, page 1583-1605 ISSN 1364-503X 1471-2962 |
op_rights |
https://royalsociety.org/journals/ethics-policies/data-sharing-mining/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1098/rsta.2006.1790 |
container_title |
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences |
container_volume |
364 |
container_issue |
1844 |
container_start_page |
1583 |
op_container_end_page |
1605 |
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1810497711881846784 |