Glacial Meltwater in the Southeast Amundsen Sea: A timeseries from 1994–2020
Ice sheet mass loss from Antarctica is greatest in the Amundsen Sea sector, where ‘warm’ deep seawater melts and thins the bases of ice shelves hundreds of meters below the sea surface. We use nearly 1000 paired salinity and oxygen isotope analyses of seawater samples collected on seven expeditions...
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ftcopernicus:oai:publications.copernicus.org:egusphere109300 2023-05-15T13:23:34+02:00 Glacial Meltwater in the Southeast Amundsen Sea: A timeseries from 1994–2020 Hennig, Andrew Nicholas Mucciarone, David A. Jacobs, Stanley S. Mortlock, Richard A. Dunbar, Robert B. 2023-02-15 application/pdf https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2023-141 https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2023/egusphere-2023-141/ eng eng doi:10.5194/egusphere-2023-141 https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2023/egusphere-2023-141/ eISSN: Text 2023 ftcopernicus https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2023-141 2023-02-20T17:22:55Z Ice sheet mass loss from Antarctica is greatest in the Amundsen Sea sector, where ‘warm’ deep seawater melts and thins the bases of ice shelves hundreds of meters below the sea surface. We use nearly 1000 paired salinity and oxygen isotope analyses of seawater samples collected on seven expeditions from 1994 to 2020 to produce a time series of glacial meltwater inventory on the Southeast Amundsen Sea continental shelf. Water column salinity-ẟ 18 O yield freshwater endmember ẟ 18 O values from −30.2 ‰ to −28.4 ‰, demonstrating that regional freshwater content is dominated by deep glacial melt. The meltwater fractions display temporal variability in basal melting, with 800 m water column meltwater inventories from 7.7 m to 9.2 m. This result corroborates recent studies suggesting interannual variability in basal melt rates of West Antarctic ice shelves and is consistent with the Amundsen region’s influence on ocean salinity and density downstream in the Ross Sea. Text Amundsen Sea Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica Ice Sheet Ice Shelves Ross Sea Copernicus Publications: E-Journals Amundsen Sea Antarctic Ross Sea |
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Open Polar |
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Copernicus Publications: E-Journals |
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ftcopernicus |
language |
English |
description |
Ice sheet mass loss from Antarctica is greatest in the Amundsen Sea sector, where ‘warm’ deep seawater melts and thins the bases of ice shelves hundreds of meters below the sea surface. We use nearly 1000 paired salinity and oxygen isotope analyses of seawater samples collected on seven expeditions from 1994 to 2020 to produce a time series of glacial meltwater inventory on the Southeast Amundsen Sea continental shelf. Water column salinity-ẟ 18 O yield freshwater endmember ẟ 18 O values from −30.2 ‰ to −28.4 ‰, demonstrating that regional freshwater content is dominated by deep glacial melt. The meltwater fractions display temporal variability in basal melting, with 800 m water column meltwater inventories from 7.7 m to 9.2 m. This result corroborates recent studies suggesting interannual variability in basal melt rates of West Antarctic ice shelves and is consistent with the Amundsen region’s influence on ocean salinity and density downstream in the Ross Sea. |
format |
Text |
author |
Hennig, Andrew Nicholas Mucciarone, David A. Jacobs, Stanley S. Mortlock, Richard A. Dunbar, Robert B. |
spellingShingle |
Hennig, Andrew Nicholas Mucciarone, David A. Jacobs, Stanley S. Mortlock, Richard A. Dunbar, Robert B. Glacial Meltwater in the Southeast Amundsen Sea: A timeseries from 1994–2020 |
author_facet |
Hennig, Andrew Nicholas Mucciarone, David A. Jacobs, Stanley S. Mortlock, Richard A. Dunbar, Robert B. |
author_sort |
Hennig, Andrew Nicholas |
title |
Glacial Meltwater in the Southeast Amundsen Sea: A timeseries from 1994–2020 |
title_short |
Glacial Meltwater in the Southeast Amundsen Sea: A timeseries from 1994–2020 |
title_full |
Glacial Meltwater in the Southeast Amundsen Sea: A timeseries from 1994–2020 |
title_fullStr |
Glacial Meltwater in the Southeast Amundsen Sea: A timeseries from 1994–2020 |
title_full_unstemmed |
Glacial Meltwater in the Southeast Amundsen Sea: A timeseries from 1994–2020 |
title_sort |
glacial meltwater in the southeast amundsen sea: a timeseries from 1994–2020 |
publishDate |
2023 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2023-141 https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2023/egusphere-2023-141/ |
geographic |
Amundsen Sea Antarctic Ross Sea |
geographic_facet |
Amundsen Sea Antarctic Ross Sea |
genre |
Amundsen Sea Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica Ice Sheet Ice Shelves Ross Sea |
genre_facet |
Amundsen Sea Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica Ice Sheet Ice Shelves Ross Sea |
op_source |
eISSN: |
op_relation |
doi:10.5194/egusphere-2023-141 https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2023/egusphere-2023-141/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2023-141 |
_version_ |
1766373261876133888 |