The variability of tidewater-glacier calving: origin of event-size and interval distributions
Calving activity at the termini of tidewater glaciers produces a wide range of iceberg sizes at irregular intervals. We present calving-event data obtained from continuous observations of the termini of two tidewater glaciers on Svalbard, and show that the distributions of event sizes and inter-even...
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ftdatacite:10.48550/arxiv.1205.1640 2023-05-15T16:22:11+02:00 The variability of tidewater-glacier calving: origin of event-size and interval distributions Chapuis, Anne Tetzlaff, Tom 2012 https://dx.doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.1205.1640 https://arxiv.org/abs/1205.1640 unknown arXiv arXiv.org perpetual, non-exclusive license http://arxiv.org/licenses/nonexclusive-distrib/1.0/ Geophysics physics.geo-ph FOS Physical sciences Preprint Article article CreativeWork 2012 ftdatacite https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.1205.1640 2022-04-01T14:04:26Z Calving activity at the termini of tidewater glaciers produces a wide range of iceberg sizes at irregular intervals. We present calving-event data obtained from continuous observations of the termini of two tidewater glaciers on Svalbard, and show that the distributions of event sizes and inter-event intervals can be reproduced by a simple calving model focusing on the mutual interplay between calving and the destabilization of the glacier terminus. The event-size distributions of both the field and the model data extend over several orders of magnitude and resemble power laws. The distributions of inter-event intervals are broad, but have a less pronounced tail. In the model, the width of the size distribution increases with the calving susceptibility of the glacier terminus, a parameter measuring the effect of calving on the stress in the local neighborhood of the calving region. Inter-event interval distributions, in contrast, are insensitive to the calving susceptibility. Above a critical susceptibility, small perturbations of the glacier result in ongoing self-sustained calving activity. The model suggests that the shape of the event-size distribution of a glacier is informative about its proximity to this transition point. Observations of rapid glacier retreats can be explained by supercritical self-sustained calving. Report glacier Svalbard Tidewater DataCite Metadata Store (German National Library of Science and Technology) Svalbard |
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DataCite Metadata Store (German National Library of Science and Technology) |
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ftdatacite |
language |
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topic |
Geophysics physics.geo-ph FOS Physical sciences |
spellingShingle |
Geophysics physics.geo-ph FOS Physical sciences Chapuis, Anne Tetzlaff, Tom The variability of tidewater-glacier calving: origin of event-size and interval distributions |
topic_facet |
Geophysics physics.geo-ph FOS Physical sciences |
description |
Calving activity at the termini of tidewater glaciers produces a wide range of iceberg sizes at irregular intervals. We present calving-event data obtained from continuous observations of the termini of two tidewater glaciers on Svalbard, and show that the distributions of event sizes and inter-event intervals can be reproduced by a simple calving model focusing on the mutual interplay between calving and the destabilization of the glacier terminus. The event-size distributions of both the field and the model data extend over several orders of magnitude and resemble power laws. The distributions of inter-event intervals are broad, but have a less pronounced tail. In the model, the width of the size distribution increases with the calving susceptibility of the glacier terminus, a parameter measuring the effect of calving on the stress in the local neighborhood of the calving region. Inter-event interval distributions, in contrast, are insensitive to the calving susceptibility. Above a critical susceptibility, small perturbations of the glacier result in ongoing self-sustained calving activity. The model suggests that the shape of the event-size distribution of a glacier is informative about its proximity to this transition point. Observations of rapid glacier retreats can be explained by supercritical self-sustained calving. |
format |
Report |
author |
Chapuis, Anne Tetzlaff, Tom |
author_facet |
Chapuis, Anne Tetzlaff, Tom |
author_sort |
Chapuis, Anne |
title |
The variability of tidewater-glacier calving: origin of event-size and interval distributions |
title_short |
The variability of tidewater-glacier calving: origin of event-size and interval distributions |
title_full |
The variability of tidewater-glacier calving: origin of event-size and interval distributions |
title_fullStr |
The variability of tidewater-glacier calving: origin of event-size and interval distributions |
title_full_unstemmed |
The variability of tidewater-glacier calving: origin of event-size and interval distributions |
title_sort |
variability of tidewater-glacier calving: origin of event-size and interval distributions |
publisher |
arXiv |
publishDate |
2012 |
url |
https://dx.doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.1205.1640 https://arxiv.org/abs/1205.1640 |
geographic |
Svalbard |
geographic_facet |
Svalbard |
genre |
glacier Svalbard Tidewater |
genre_facet |
glacier Svalbard Tidewater |
op_rights |
arXiv.org perpetual, non-exclusive license http://arxiv.org/licenses/nonexclusive-distrib/1.0/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.1205.1640 |
_version_ |
1766010161869094912 |