Constraining the pathways and fluxes of subglacial meltwater beneath the palaeo-Antarctic Ice Sheet ...

• Main Author: Kirkham, James
• Format: Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: Apollo - University of Cambridge Repository 2017
• Subjects: subglacial; Antarctica; lakes; channels; meltwater; Antarc*; Antarctic; Ice Sheet
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.17863/cam.13694; https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/267764

The flow, flux and routing of water beneath ice sheets has a fundamental impact on their mass-loss behaviour. Relict channelised forms observed on the Antarctic continental shelf imply that there was an active subglacial hydrological system beneath the palaeo Antarctic Ice Sheet. The dimensions of the channelised features is inconsistent with the minimal quantities of meltwater produced under the Antarctic Ice Sheet at present; consequently, their formative mechanism, and its implications for palaeo-ice sheet dynamics, remain unresolved. Here, a compilation of over two decades of multibeam swath bathymetry data, covering a combined area of over 100,000 km2, is used to produce the most comprehensive inventory and quantitatively rigorous analysis of Antarctic submarine channelised landforms to date. Over 2700 bedrock channels are mapped on the inner-continental shelves of the Bellingshausen and Amundsen Seas. Morphometric analysis reveals nearly indistinguishable distributions of channel widths, depths, ...