Ice island thinning: rates and model calibration with in situ observations from Baffin Bay, Nunavut
A 130 km 2 tabular iceberg calved from Petermann Glacier in northwestern Greenland on 5 August 2012. Subsequent fracturing generated many individual large “ice islands”, including Petermann ice island (PII)-A-1-f, which drifted between Nares Strait and the North Atlantic. Thinning caused by basal an...
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Language: | English |
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Copernicus Publications
2020
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:d6b24e2c1881443097f06329e62a9dba 2023-05-15T15:35:07+02:00 Ice island thinning: rates and model calibration with in situ observations from Baffin Bay, Nunavut A. J. Crawford D. Mueller G. Crocker L. Mingo L. Desjardins D. Dumont M. Babin 2020-03-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-14-1067-2020 https://doaj.org/article/d6b24e2c1881443097f06329e62a9dba EN eng Copernicus Publications https://www.the-cryosphere.net/14/1067/2020/tc-14-1067-2020.pdf https://doaj.org/toc/1994-0416 https://doaj.org/toc/1994-0424 doi:10.5194/tc-14-1067-2020 1994-0416 1994-0424 https://doaj.org/article/d6b24e2c1881443097f06329e62a9dba The Cryosphere, Vol 14, Pp 1067-1081 (2020) Environmental sciences GE1-350 Geology QE1-996.5 article 2020 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-14-1067-2020 2022-12-31T15:47:45Z A 130 km 2 tabular iceberg calved from Petermann Glacier in northwestern Greenland on 5 August 2012. Subsequent fracturing generated many individual large “ice islands”, including Petermann ice island (PII)-A-1-f, which drifted between Nares Strait and the North Atlantic. Thinning caused by basal and surface ablation increases the likelihood that these ice islands will fracture and disperse further, thereby increasing the risk to marine transport and infrastructure as well as affecting the distribution of freshwater from the polar ice sheets. We use a unique stationary and mobile ice-penetrating radar dataset collected over four campaigns to PII-A-1-f to quantify and contextualize ice island surface and basal ablation rates and calibrate a forced convection basal ablation model. The ice island thinned by 4.7 m over 11 months. The majority of thinning (73 %) resulted from basal ablation, but the volume loss associated with basal ablation was ∼12 times less than that caused by areal reduction (e.g. wave erosion, calving, and fracture). However, localized thinning may have influenced a large fracture event that occurred along a section of ice that was ∼40 m thinner than the remainder of the ice island. The calibration of the basal ablation model, the first known to be conducted with field data, supports assigning the theoretically derived value of 1.2×10 −5 m 2∕5 s <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" id="M7" display="inline" overflow="scroll" dspmath="mathml"><msup><mi/><mrow><mo>-</mo><mn mathvariant="normal">1</mn><mo>/</mo><mn mathvariant="normal">5</mn></mrow></msup></math> <svg:svg xmlns:svg="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="21pt" height="11pt" class="svg-formula" dspmath="mathimg" md5hash="dc3a2b0c77aa6bbfb7ca38686ad27960"><svg:image xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="tc-14-1067-2020-ie00001.svg" width="21pt" height="11pt" src="tc-14-1067-2020-ie00001.png"/></svg:svg> ... Article in Journal/Newspaper Baffin Bay Baffin Bay Baffin glacier Greenland Nares strait North Atlantic Nunavut Petermann glacier The Cryosphere Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Baffin Bay Greenland Nares ENVELOPE(158.167,158.167,-81.450,-81.450) Nunavut The Cryosphere 14 3 1067 1081 |
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 A. J. Crawford D. Mueller G. Crocker L. Mingo L. Desjardins D. Dumont M. Babin Ice island thinning: rates and model calibration with in situ observations from Baffin Bay, Nunavut |
topic_facet |
Environmental sciences GE1-350 Geology QE1-996.5 |
description |
A 130 km 2 tabular iceberg calved from Petermann Glacier in northwestern Greenland on 5 August 2012. Subsequent fracturing generated many individual large “ice islands”, including Petermann ice island (PII)-A-1-f, which drifted between Nares Strait and the North Atlantic. Thinning caused by basal and surface ablation increases the likelihood that these ice islands will fracture and disperse further, thereby increasing the risk to marine transport and infrastructure as well as affecting the distribution of freshwater from the polar ice sheets. We use a unique stationary and mobile ice-penetrating radar dataset collected over four campaigns to PII-A-1-f to quantify and contextualize ice island surface and basal ablation rates and calibrate a forced convection basal ablation model. The ice island thinned by 4.7 m over 11 months. The majority of thinning (73 %) resulted from basal ablation, but the volume loss associated with basal ablation was ∼12 times less than that caused by areal reduction (e.g. wave erosion, calving, and fracture). However, localized thinning may have influenced a large fracture event that occurred along a section of ice that was ∼40 m thinner than the remainder of the ice island. The calibration of the basal ablation model, the first known to be conducted with field data, supports assigning the theoretically derived value of 1.2×10 −5 m 2∕5 s <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" id="M7" display="inline" overflow="scroll" dspmath="mathml"><msup><mi/><mrow><mo>-</mo><mn mathvariant="normal">1</mn><mo>/</mo><mn mathvariant="normal">5</mn></mrow></msup></math> <svg:svg xmlns:svg="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="21pt" height="11pt" class="svg-formula" dspmath="mathimg" md5hash="dc3a2b0c77aa6bbfb7ca38686ad27960"><svg:image xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="tc-14-1067-2020-ie00001.svg" width="21pt" height="11pt" src="tc-14-1067-2020-ie00001.png"/></svg:svg> ... |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
A. J. Crawford D. Mueller G. Crocker L. Mingo L. Desjardins D. Dumont M. Babin |
author_facet |
A. J. Crawford D. Mueller G. Crocker L. Mingo L. Desjardins D. Dumont M. Babin |
author_sort |
A. J. Crawford |
title |
Ice island thinning: rates and model calibration with in situ observations from Baffin Bay, Nunavut |
title_short |
Ice island thinning: rates and model calibration with in situ observations from Baffin Bay, Nunavut |
title_full |
Ice island thinning: rates and model calibration with in situ observations from Baffin Bay, Nunavut |
title_fullStr |
Ice island thinning: rates and model calibration with in situ observations from Baffin Bay, Nunavut |
title_full_unstemmed |
Ice island thinning: rates and model calibration with in situ observations from Baffin Bay, Nunavut |
title_sort |
ice island thinning: rates and model calibration with in situ observations from baffin bay, nunavut |
publisher |
Copernicus Publications |
publishDate |
2020 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-14-1067-2020 https://doaj.org/article/d6b24e2c1881443097f06329e62a9dba |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(158.167,158.167,-81.450,-81.450) |
geographic |
Baffin Bay Greenland Nares Nunavut |
geographic_facet |
Baffin Bay Greenland Nares Nunavut |
genre |
Baffin Bay Baffin Bay Baffin glacier Greenland Nares strait North Atlantic Nunavut Petermann glacier The Cryosphere |
genre_facet |
Baffin Bay Baffin Bay Baffin glacier Greenland Nares strait North Atlantic Nunavut Petermann glacier The Cryosphere |
op_source |
The Cryosphere, Vol 14, Pp 1067-1081 (2020) |
op_relation |
https://www.the-cryosphere.net/14/1067/2020/tc-14-1067-2020.pdf https://doaj.org/toc/1994-0416 https://doaj.org/toc/1994-0424 doi:10.5194/tc-14-1067-2020 1994-0416 1994-0424 https://doaj.org/article/d6b24e2c1881443097f06329e62a9dba |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-14-1067-2020 |
container_title |
The Cryosphere |
container_volume |
14 |
container_issue |
3 |
container_start_page |
1067 |
op_container_end_page |
1081 |
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1766365418597908480 |