The effect of landfast sea ice buttressing on ice dynamic speedup in the Larsen B embayment, Antarctica
We observe the evacuation of 11-year-old landfast sea ice in the Larsen B embayment on the East Antarctic Peninsula in January 2022, which was in part triggered by warm atmospheric conditions and strong offshore winds. This evacuation of sea ice was closely followed by major changes in the calving b...
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2024
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Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-18-977-2024 https://doaj.org/article/0d0f5b5cde034d2c8dea75a01098c062 |
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:0d0f5b5cde034d2c8dea75a01098c062 2024-09-15T17:48:18+00:00 The effect of landfast sea ice buttressing on ice dynamic speedup in the Larsen B embayment, Antarctica T. Surawy-Stepney A. E. Hogg S. L. Cornford B. J. Wallis B. J. Davison H. L. Selley R. A. W. Slater E. K. Lie L. Jakob A. Ridout N. Gourmelen B. I. D. Freer S. F. Wilson A. Shepherd 2024-03-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-18-977-2024 https://doaj.org/article/0d0f5b5cde034d2c8dea75a01098c062 EN eng Copernicus Publications https://tc.copernicus.org/articles/18/977/2024/tc-18-977-2024.pdf https://doaj.org/toc/1994-0416 https://doaj.org/toc/1994-0424 doi:10.5194/tc-18-977-2024 1994-0416 1994-0424 https://doaj.org/article/0d0f5b5cde034d2c8dea75a01098c062 The Cryosphere, Vol 18, Pp 977-993 (2024) Environmental sciences GE1-350 Geology QE1-996.5 article 2024 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-18-977-2024 2024-08-05T17:49:54Z We observe the evacuation of 11-year-old landfast sea ice in the Larsen B embayment on the East Antarctic Peninsula in January 2022, which was in part triggered by warm atmospheric conditions and strong offshore winds. This evacuation of sea ice was closely followed by major changes in the calving behaviour and dynamics of a subset of the ocean-terminating glaciers in the region. We show using satellite measurements that, following a decade of gradual slow-down, Hektoria, Green, and Crane glaciers sped up by approximately 20 %–50 % between February and the end of 2022, each increasing in speed by more than 100 m a −1 . Circumstantially, this is attributable to their transition into tidewater glaciers following the loss of their ice shelves after the landfast sea ice evacuation. However, a question remains as to whether the landfast sea ice could have influenced the dynamics of these glaciers, or the stability of their ice shelves, through a buttressing effect akin to that of confined ice shelves on grounded ice streams. We show, with a series of diagnostic modelling experiments, that direct landfast sea ice buttressing had a negligible impact on the dynamics of the grounded ice streams. Furthermore, we suggest that the loss of landfast sea ice buttressing could have impacted the dynamics of the rheologically weak ice shelves, in turn diminishing their stability over time; however, the accompanying shifts in the distributions of resistive stress within the ice shelves would have been minor. This indicates that this loss of buttressing by landfast sea ice is likely to have been a secondary process in the ice shelf disaggregation compared to, for example, increased ocean swell or the drivers of the initial landfast sea ice disintegration. Article in Journal/Newspaper Antarc* Antarctic Antarctic Peninsula Antarctica Ice Shelf Ice Shelves Sea ice The Cryosphere Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles The Cryosphere 18 3 977 993 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
op_collection_id |
ftdoajarticles |
language |
English |
topic |
Environmental sciences GE1-350 Geology QE1-996.5 |
spellingShingle |
Environmental sciences GE1-350 Geology QE1-996.5 T. Surawy-Stepney A. E. Hogg S. L. Cornford B. J. Wallis B. J. Davison H. L. Selley R. A. W. Slater E. K. Lie L. Jakob A. Ridout N. Gourmelen B. I. D. Freer S. F. Wilson A. Shepherd The effect of landfast sea ice buttressing on ice dynamic speedup in the Larsen B embayment, Antarctica |
topic_facet |
Environmental sciences GE1-350 Geology QE1-996.5 |
description |
We observe the evacuation of 11-year-old landfast sea ice in the Larsen B embayment on the East Antarctic Peninsula in January 2022, which was in part triggered by warm atmospheric conditions and strong offshore winds. This evacuation of sea ice was closely followed by major changes in the calving behaviour and dynamics of a subset of the ocean-terminating glaciers in the region. We show using satellite measurements that, following a decade of gradual slow-down, Hektoria, Green, and Crane glaciers sped up by approximately 20 %–50 % between February and the end of 2022, each increasing in speed by more than 100 m a −1 . Circumstantially, this is attributable to their transition into tidewater glaciers following the loss of their ice shelves after the landfast sea ice evacuation. However, a question remains as to whether the landfast sea ice could have influenced the dynamics of these glaciers, or the stability of their ice shelves, through a buttressing effect akin to that of confined ice shelves on grounded ice streams. We show, with a series of diagnostic modelling experiments, that direct landfast sea ice buttressing had a negligible impact on the dynamics of the grounded ice streams. Furthermore, we suggest that the loss of landfast sea ice buttressing could have impacted the dynamics of the rheologically weak ice shelves, in turn diminishing their stability over time; however, the accompanying shifts in the distributions of resistive stress within the ice shelves would have been minor. This indicates that this loss of buttressing by landfast sea ice is likely to have been a secondary process in the ice shelf disaggregation compared to, for example, increased ocean swell or the drivers of the initial landfast sea ice disintegration. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
T. Surawy-Stepney A. E. Hogg S. L. Cornford B. J. Wallis B. J. Davison H. L. Selley R. A. W. Slater E. K. Lie L. Jakob A. Ridout N. Gourmelen B. I. D. Freer S. F. Wilson A. Shepherd |
author_facet |
T. Surawy-Stepney A. E. Hogg S. L. Cornford B. J. Wallis B. J. Davison H. L. Selley R. A. W. Slater E. K. Lie L. Jakob A. Ridout N. Gourmelen B. I. D. Freer S. F. Wilson A. Shepherd |
author_sort |
T. Surawy-Stepney |
title |
The effect of landfast sea ice buttressing on ice dynamic speedup in the Larsen B embayment, Antarctica |
title_short |
The effect of landfast sea ice buttressing on ice dynamic speedup in the Larsen B embayment, Antarctica |
title_full |
The effect of landfast sea ice buttressing on ice dynamic speedup in the Larsen B embayment, Antarctica |
title_fullStr |
The effect of landfast sea ice buttressing on ice dynamic speedup in the Larsen B embayment, Antarctica |
title_full_unstemmed |
The effect of landfast sea ice buttressing on ice dynamic speedup in the Larsen B embayment, Antarctica |
title_sort |
effect of landfast sea ice buttressing on ice dynamic speedup in the larsen b embayment, antarctica |
publisher |
Copernicus Publications |
publishDate |
2024 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-18-977-2024 https://doaj.org/article/0d0f5b5cde034d2c8dea75a01098c062 |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctic Antarctic Peninsula Antarctica Ice Shelf Ice Shelves Sea ice The Cryosphere |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctic Antarctic Peninsula Antarctica Ice Shelf Ice Shelves Sea ice The Cryosphere |
op_source |
The Cryosphere, Vol 18, Pp 977-993 (2024) |
op_relation |
https://tc.copernicus.org/articles/18/977/2024/tc-18-977-2024.pdf https://doaj.org/toc/1994-0416 https://doaj.org/toc/1994-0424 doi:10.5194/tc-18-977-2024 1994-0416 1994-0424 https://doaj.org/article/0d0f5b5cde034d2c8dea75a01098c062 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-18-977-2024 |
container_title |
The Cryosphere |
container_volume |
18 |
container_issue |
3 |
container_start_page |
977 |
op_container_end_page |
993 |
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1810289456882647040 |