Calving and rifting on the McMurdo Ice Shelf, Antarctica ...

ABSTRACTOn 2 March 2016, several small en échelon tabular icebergs calved from the seaward front of the McMurdo Ice Shelf, and a previously inactive rift widened and propagated by ~3 km, ~25% of its previous length, setting the stage for the future calving of a ~14 km 2 iceberg. Within 24 h of these...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Banwell, AF, Willis, IC, MacDonald, GJ, Goodsell, B, Mayer, DP, Powell, A, MacAyeal, DR
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: International Glaciological Society 2017
Subjects:
Online Access:https://dx.doi.org/10.17863/cam.10079
https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/266634
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Summary:ABSTRACTOn 2 March 2016, several small en échelon tabular icebergs calved from the seaward front of the McMurdo Ice Shelf, and a previously inactive rift widened and propagated by ~3 km, ~25% of its previous length, setting the stage for the future calving of a ~14 km 2 iceberg. Within 24 h of these events, all remaining land-fast sea ice that had been stabilizing the ice shelf broke-up. The events were witnessed by time-lapse cameras at nearby Scott Base, and put into context using nearby seismic and automatic weather station data, satellite imagery and subsequent ground observation. Although the exact trigger of calving and rifting cannot be identified definitively, seismic records reveal superimposed sets of both long-period (>10 s) sea swell propagating into McMurdo Sound from storm sources beyond Antarctica, and high-energy, locally-sourced, short-period (<10 s) sea swell, in the 4 days before the fast ice break-up and associated ice-shelf calving and rifting. This suggests that sea swell should ...