Antarctic ice shelf potentially stabilized by export of meltwater in surface river

• Main Authors: Bell, Robin E., Chu, Wing Yin, Kingslake, Jonathan, Das, Indrani, Tedesco, Marco, Tinto, Kirsteen J., Zappa, Christopher J., Frezzotti, Massimo, Boghosian, Alexandra, Lee, Won Sang, Columbia University. Marine Geology and Geophysics
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: 2017
• Subjects: Ice shelves; Meltwater; Runoff; Glaciers > Climatic factors; Glaciology; Amery; Antarctic; Greenland; Antarc*; Antarctica; glacier; Ice Sheet; Ice Shelf; Ice Shelves; Petermann glacier
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.7916/rp1t-g360

Meltwater stored in ponds1 and crevasses can weaken and fracture ice shelves, triggering their rapid disintegration2. This ice-shelf collapse results in an increased flux of ice from adjacent glaciers3 and ice streams, thereby raising sea level globally4. However, surface rivers forming on ice shelv...