Ice structure (optical televiewer) from Jarvis Glacier, Alaska, 2017

Ice sheets and alpine glaciers discharge primarily though streaming flow, so the dynamics of that flow is central to the overall mass balance of the cryosphere. In glaciers and ice streams, the resistance to flow at the bed is important, but equally important is the internal viscous strength of the...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Christopher Gerbi
Format: Dataset
Language:unknown
Published: Arctic Data Center 2020
Subjects:
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.18739/A2M32NB3B
Description
Summary:Ice sheets and alpine glaciers discharge primarily though streaming flow, so the dynamics of that flow is central to the overall mass balance of the cryosphere. In glaciers and ice streams, the resistance to flow at the bed is important, but equally important is the internal viscous strength of the ice near the margins. In many cases, the lateral margins support greater than 50% of the resisting stress. At present, there is moderate to high uncertainty of the factors controlling the viscous strength of streaming ice under natural conditions. Although experiments suggest that variations in the intensity and orientation of the crystallographic fabric can result in up to a ten-fold difference in flow strength, in-situ observational studies of the microstructural architecture of streaming ice number in the low single digits. Most microstructural and in-situ rheological studies come from ice divides, near sites of paleoclimate coring. To complement that work and provide insight into the dynamic influence of streaming ice margins, our study documented both temperature and microstructure across a strain gradient at the lateral margin of Jarvis (Creek) Glacier and related those observations to modeled and observed 3D velocity structure. The dataset included here is one component of the larger project: optical televiewer images of five boreholes, collected in spring 2017. Holes were drilled along a transect from less to more sheared ice, with the goal being to reach bed in at least two locations within the time constraints of the drilling season. We attempted six holes. The first (JA) and fifth (JE) reached bed. Others were limited by debris. All holes were imaged with the exception of the fourth (JD), which met refusal at 4m. The images that constitute this dataset are "unwrapped" 360-degree views of the borehole wall, such that planes in real space appear as sinusoids in televiewer images. As labeled in the images, south is at the center and north is at the edges. The numbers on the y-axis indicate depth in meters. For background, we also include a location map and core log in this dataset.