A physical mechanism for long-term survival of ground ice

• Main Author: Norbert Schorghofer
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 2005
• Subjects: Beacon Valley; Antarc*; Antarctica
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.475.5; http://ifa.hawaii.edu/~norb1/Papers/2005-beacon.pdf

and diffusion physics provide conflicting evidence for the age of the ground ice found in BeaconValley, Antarctica. The rate of vapor diffusion into a dry atmosphere is incompatible with aminimum radiometric age of 8Ma. Recent measurements of meteorological conditions in Beacon Valley show that the humidity of the atmosphere, although small, is comparable to the saturation vapor pressure at the ice. Analogous conditions explain the survival of ground ice at the high latitudes of Mars. At the study site, atmospheric vapor slows the sublimation loss by a factor of three and the retreat will cease entirely if temperatures are lower by 5C. Detailed model simulations show that advection, including the advection from changes in surface pressure caused by winds, has a negligible effect on sublimation loss.