Observations of baroclinity at grounding lines with and without subglacial discharge: The Kamb Ice Stream ...

• Main Authors: Robinson, Natalie, Stevens, Craig, Stewart, Craig, Dunbar, Gavin, Hulbe, Christina, Lawrence, Justin, Malyarenko, Alena, Mullen, Andrew, Schmidt, Britney, Washam, Peter, Whiteford, Arran, Horgan, Huw
• Format: Conference Object
• Language: unknown
• Published: GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences 2023
• Subjects: Antarctic; Kamb Ice Stream; Ross Ice Shelf; Antarc*; Ice Sheet; Ice Shelf
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.57757/iugg23-0623; https://gfzpublic.gfz-potsdam.de/pubman/item/item_5016876

<!--!introduction!--> Antarctic grounding zones are a critical but poorly understood environment, hosting ice-ocean-seafloor interactions that have implications for global ocean circulation and sea level rise over the coming century and beyond. The region is where the polar ice sheets first leave continental bedrock to float over the ocean, encountering the heat content of the ocean. Due to the extreme difficulty of direct access, grounding zone environments have been sampled only a handful of times, and then usually only to obtain a brief snapshot of data. Here we present recent ocean profile and timeseries data from two locations at the Kamb Ice Stream (KIS) grounding zone of the Ross Ice Shelf. One location (KIS1) is a few km from the actual grounding line with a 30m water column beneath 600 m of ice and snow. The ocean observations reveal significant two-layer stratified flow behaviour clearly modulated by tidal processes. The second site (KIS2) is a channel incised into the base of the ice sheet, ... : The 28th IUGG General Assembly (IUGG2023) (Berlin 2023) ...