Numerical Modeling Shows Increased Fracturing Due to Melt-Undercutting Prior to Major Calving at Bowdoin Glacier
Projections of future ice sheet mass loss and thus sea level rise rely on the parametrization of iceberg calving in ice sheet models. The interconnection between submarine melt-induced undercutting and calving is still poorly understood, which makes predicted contributions of tidewater glaciers to s...
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:61facc20194a4c1885eb139612daac26 2023-05-15T16:21:19+02:00 Numerical Modeling Shows Increased Fracturing Due to Melt-Undercutting Prior to Major Calving at Bowdoin Glacier Eef C. H. van Dongen Jan A. Åström Guillaume Jouvet Joe Todd Douglas I. Benn Martin Funk 2020-07-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.3389/feart.2020.00253 https://doaj.org/article/61facc20194a4c1885eb139612daac26 EN eng Frontiers Media S.A. https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/feart.2020.00253/full https://doaj.org/toc/2296-6463 2296-6463 doi:10.3389/feart.2020.00253 https://doaj.org/article/61facc20194a4c1885eb139612daac26 Frontiers in Earth Science, Vol 8 (2020) glacier modeling iceberg calving numerical modeling submarine melt undercutting crevasses Science Q article 2020 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.3389/feart.2020.00253 2022-12-31T05:28:18Z Projections of future ice sheet mass loss and thus sea level rise rely on the parametrization of iceberg calving in ice sheet models. The interconnection between submarine melt-induced undercutting and calving is still poorly understood, which makes predicted contributions of tidewater glaciers to sea level rise uncertain. Here, we compare detailed 3-D simulations of fracture initiation obtained with the Helsinki Discrete Element Model (HiDEM) to observations, prior to a major calving event at Bowdoin Glacier, Northwest Greenland. Observations of a plume surfacing at the calving location suggest that local melt-undercutting influenced the size of the major calving event. Therefore, several experiments are conducted with various local and distributed (front-wide) undercut geometries. Although the number of undercut experiments is limited by computational requirements, one of the conjectured undercut geometries reproduces the crevasse leading to the observed major calving event in great detail. Our simulations show that undercutting leads to initiation of wider fractures more than 100 m upstream of the terminus, well-beyond the directly undercut region. When combining a moderate distributed undercut with local amplified undercuts at the two observed plumes, fracture initiation also increases in between the local undercuts. Thus, our results agree with previous studies suggesting the existence of a “calving amplifier” effect by submarine melt, both upglacier and across-glacier. Consequently, the simulations show the potentially large impact of submarine melt-induced undercutting on iceberg size. Article in Journal/Newspaper glacier Greenland Ice Sheet Tidewater Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Greenland Bowdoin ENVELOPE(-69.317,-69.317,77.683,77.683) Frontiers in Earth Science 8 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
op_collection_id |
ftdoajarticles |
language |
English |
topic |
glacier modeling iceberg calving numerical modeling submarine melt undercutting crevasses Science Q |
spellingShingle |
glacier modeling iceberg calving numerical modeling submarine melt undercutting crevasses Science Q Eef C. H. van Dongen Jan A. Åström Guillaume Jouvet Joe Todd Douglas I. Benn Martin Funk Numerical Modeling Shows Increased Fracturing Due to Melt-Undercutting Prior to Major Calving at Bowdoin Glacier |
topic_facet |
glacier modeling iceberg calving numerical modeling submarine melt undercutting crevasses Science Q |
description |
Projections of future ice sheet mass loss and thus sea level rise rely on the parametrization of iceberg calving in ice sheet models. The interconnection between submarine melt-induced undercutting and calving is still poorly understood, which makes predicted contributions of tidewater glaciers to sea level rise uncertain. Here, we compare detailed 3-D simulations of fracture initiation obtained with the Helsinki Discrete Element Model (HiDEM) to observations, prior to a major calving event at Bowdoin Glacier, Northwest Greenland. Observations of a plume surfacing at the calving location suggest that local melt-undercutting influenced the size of the major calving event. Therefore, several experiments are conducted with various local and distributed (front-wide) undercut geometries. Although the number of undercut experiments is limited by computational requirements, one of the conjectured undercut geometries reproduces the crevasse leading to the observed major calving event in great detail. Our simulations show that undercutting leads to initiation of wider fractures more than 100 m upstream of the terminus, well-beyond the directly undercut region. When combining a moderate distributed undercut with local amplified undercuts at the two observed plumes, fracture initiation also increases in between the local undercuts. Thus, our results agree with previous studies suggesting the existence of a “calving amplifier” effect by submarine melt, both upglacier and across-glacier. Consequently, the simulations show the potentially large impact of submarine melt-induced undercutting on iceberg size. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Eef C. H. van Dongen Jan A. Åström Guillaume Jouvet Joe Todd Douglas I. Benn Martin Funk |
author_facet |
Eef C. H. van Dongen Jan A. Åström Guillaume Jouvet Joe Todd Douglas I. Benn Martin Funk |
author_sort |
Eef C. H. van Dongen |
title |
Numerical Modeling Shows Increased Fracturing Due to Melt-Undercutting Prior to Major Calving at Bowdoin Glacier |
title_short |
Numerical Modeling Shows Increased Fracturing Due to Melt-Undercutting Prior to Major Calving at Bowdoin Glacier |
title_full |
Numerical Modeling Shows Increased Fracturing Due to Melt-Undercutting Prior to Major Calving at Bowdoin Glacier |
title_fullStr |
Numerical Modeling Shows Increased Fracturing Due to Melt-Undercutting Prior to Major Calving at Bowdoin Glacier |
title_full_unstemmed |
Numerical Modeling Shows Increased Fracturing Due to Melt-Undercutting Prior to Major Calving at Bowdoin Glacier |
title_sort |
numerical modeling shows increased fracturing due to melt-undercutting prior to major calving at bowdoin glacier |
publisher |
Frontiers Media S.A. |
publishDate |
2020 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.3389/feart.2020.00253 https://doaj.org/article/61facc20194a4c1885eb139612daac26 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(-69.317,-69.317,77.683,77.683) |
geographic |
Greenland Bowdoin |
geographic_facet |
Greenland Bowdoin |
genre |
glacier Greenland Ice Sheet Tidewater |
genre_facet |
glacier Greenland Ice Sheet Tidewater |
op_source |
Frontiers in Earth Science, Vol 8 (2020) |
op_relation |
https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/feart.2020.00253/full https://doaj.org/toc/2296-6463 2296-6463 doi:10.3389/feart.2020.00253 https://doaj.org/article/61facc20194a4c1885eb139612daac26 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.3389/feart.2020.00253 |
container_title |
Frontiers in Earth Science |
container_volume |
8 |
_version_ |
1766009322105470976 |