Flow-switching and water piracy between Rutford Ice Stream and
ABSTRACT. Rutford Ice Stream and Carlson Inlet are neighbouring glaciers in West Antarctica. Rutford Ice Stream flows at speeds greater than 350ma–1, whereas Carlson Inlet, which has some similar dimensions and supports a similar driving stress, flows 10–50 times slower. We discuss a range of observ...
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| Format: | Text |
| Language: | English |
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| Online Access: | http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.634.6504 http://www.igsoc.org/journal/54/184/j07j017.pdf |
| Summary: | ABSTRACT. Rutford Ice Stream and Carlson Inlet are neighbouring glaciers in West Antarctica. Rutford Ice Stream flows at speeds greater than 350ma–1, whereas Carlson Inlet, which has some similar dimensions and supports a similar driving stress, flows 10–50 times slower. We discuss a range of observations concerning Carlson Inlet, and conclude that there is good indirect evidence that it is a relict ice stream, which ceased streaming more than 240 years BP, but sufficiently recently that its surface morphology, basal water content and basal morphology still retain characteristics produced by streaming. An analysis of expected subglacial drainage pathways indicates that Carlson Inlet is not streaming because it is currently starved of subglacial water, which is currently directed beneath Rutford Ice Stream. This current state of water piracy by Rutford Ice Stream is, however, sensitive to minor thickness changes on the ice streams; a 120m (<4%) thickening of Rutford Ice Stream would divert almost all the subglacial water in the system towards Carlson Inlet and could reactivate its flow. The result highlights the importance of subglacial drainage in controlling ice-stream evolution and the requirement for ice-sheet models to couple ice flow with subglacial drainage. 1. |
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