Using ice-flow models to evaluate potential sites of million year-old ice in Antarctica
Finding suitable potential sites for an undisturbed record of million-year old ice in Antarctica requires slow-moving ice (preferably an ice divide) and basal conditions that are not disturbed by large topographic variations. Furthermore, ice should be thick and cold basal conditions should prevail,...
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:a2e15f6ad7fb45a78614ccaec1184f67 2023-05-15T13:54:39+02:00 Using ice-flow models to evaluate potential sites of million year-old ice in Antarctica B. Van Liefferinge F. Pattyn 2013-10-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-9-2335-2013 https://doaj.org/article/a2e15f6ad7fb45a78614ccaec1184f67 EN eng Copernicus Publications http://www.clim-past.net/9/2335/2013/cp-9-2335-2013.pdf https://doaj.org/toc/1814-9324 https://doaj.org/toc/1814-9332 doi:10.5194/cp-9-2335-2013 1814-9324 1814-9332 https://doaj.org/article/a2e15f6ad7fb45a78614ccaec1184f67 Climate of the Past, Vol 9, Iss 5, Pp 2335-2345 (2013) Environmental pollution TD172-193.5 Environmental protection TD169-171.8 Environmental sciences GE1-350 article 2013 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-9-2335-2013 2022-12-31T13:37:14Z Finding suitable potential sites for an undisturbed record of million-year old ice in Antarctica requires slow-moving ice (preferably an ice divide) and basal conditions that are not disturbed by large topographic variations. Furthermore, ice should be thick and cold basal conditions should prevail, since basal melting would destroy the bottom layers. However, thick ice (needed to resolve the signal at sufficient high resolution) increases basal temperatures, which is a conflicting condition for finding a suitable drill site. In addition, slow moving areas in the center of ice sheets are also low-accumulation areas, and low accumulation reduces potential cooling of the ice through vertical advection. While boundary conditions such as ice thickness and accumulation rates are relatively well constrained, the major uncertainty in determining basal thermal conditions resides in the geothermal heat flow (GHF) underneath the ice sheet. We explore uncertainties in existing GHF data sets and their effect on basal temperatures of the Antarctic Ice Sheet, and propose an updated method based on Pattyn (2010) to improve existing GHF data sets in agreement with known basal temperatures and their gradients to reduce this uncertainty. Both complementary methods lead to a better comprehension of basal temperature sensitivity and a characterization of potential ice coring sites within these uncertainties. The combination of both modeling approaches show that the most likely oldest ice sites are situated near the divide areas (close to existing deep drilling sites, but in areas of smaller ice thickness) and across the Gamburtsev Subglacial Mountains. Article in Journal/Newspaper Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica Ice Sheet Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Antarctic Gamburtsev Subglacial Mountains ENVELOPE(76.000,76.000,-80.500,-80.500) The Antarctic Climate of the Past 9 5 2335 2345 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
op_collection_id |
ftdoajarticles |
language |
English |
topic |
Environmental pollution TD172-193.5 Environmental protection TD169-171.8 Environmental sciences GE1-350 |
spellingShingle |
Environmental pollution TD172-193.5 Environmental protection TD169-171.8 Environmental sciences GE1-350 B. Van Liefferinge F. Pattyn Using ice-flow models to evaluate potential sites of million year-old ice in Antarctica |
topic_facet |
Environmental pollution TD172-193.5 Environmental protection TD169-171.8 Environmental sciences GE1-350 |
description |
Finding suitable potential sites for an undisturbed record of million-year old ice in Antarctica requires slow-moving ice (preferably an ice divide) and basal conditions that are not disturbed by large topographic variations. Furthermore, ice should be thick and cold basal conditions should prevail, since basal melting would destroy the bottom layers. However, thick ice (needed to resolve the signal at sufficient high resolution) increases basal temperatures, which is a conflicting condition for finding a suitable drill site. In addition, slow moving areas in the center of ice sheets are also low-accumulation areas, and low accumulation reduces potential cooling of the ice through vertical advection. While boundary conditions such as ice thickness and accumulation rates are relatively well constrained, the major uncertainty in determining basal thermal conditions resides in the geothermal heat flow (GHF) underneath the ice sheet. We explore uncertainties in existing GHF data sets and their effect on basal temperatures of the Antarctic Ice Sheet, and propose an updated method based on Pattyn (2010) to improve existing GHF data sets in agreement with known basal temperatures and their gradients to reduce this uncertainty. Both complementary methods lead to a better comprehension of basal temperature sensitivity and a characterization of potential ice coring sites within these uncertainties. The combination of both modeling approaches show that the most likely oldest ice sites are situated near the divide areas (close to existing deep drilling sites, but in areas of smaller ice thickness) and across the Gamburtsev Subglacial Mountains. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
B. Van Liefferinge F. Pattyn |
author_facet |
B. Van Liefferinge F. Pattyn |
author_sort |
B. Van Liefferinge |
title |
Using ice-flow models to evaluate potential sites of million year-old ice in Antarctica |
title_short |
Using ice-flow models to evaluate potential sites of million year-old ice in Antarctica |
title_full |
Using ice-flow models to evaluate potential sites of million year-old ice in Antarctica |
title_fullStr |
Using ice-flow models to evaluate potential sites of million year-old ice in Antarctica |
title_full_unstemmed |
Using ice-flow models to evaluate potential sites of million year-old ice in Antarctica |
title_sort |
using ice-flow models to evaluate potential sites of million year-old ice in antarctica |
publisher |
Copernicus Publications |
publishDate |
2013 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-9-2335-2013 https://doaj.org/article/a2e15f6ad7fb45a78614ccaec1184f67 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(76.000,76.000,-80.500,-80.500) |
geographic |
Antarctic Gamburtsev Subglacial Mountains The Antarctic |
geographic_facet |
Antarctic Gamburtsev Subglacial Mountains The Antarctic |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica Ice Sheet |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica Ice Sheet |
op_source |
Climate of the Past, Vol 9, Iss 5, Pp 2335-2345 (2013) |
op_relation |
http://www.clim-past.net/9/2335/2013/cp-9-2335-2013.pdf https://doaj.org/toc/1814-9324 https://doaj.org/toc/1814-9332 doi:10.5194/cp-9-2335-2013 1814-9324 1814-9332 https://doaj.org/article/a2e15f6ad7fb45a78614ccaec1184f67 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-9-2335-2013 |
container_title |
Climate of the Past |
container_volume |
9 |
container_issue |
5 |
container_start_page |
2335 |
op_container_end_page |
2345 |
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1766260714432888832 |