Semi-brittle rheology and ice dynamics in DynEarthSol3D

• Published in: The Cryosphere
• Main Authors: Logan, Liz C., Lavier, Luc L., Choi, Eunseo, Tan, Eh, Catania, Ginny A.
• Other Authors: Institute for Computational and Engineering Science, University of Texas, Austin, 78712, United States, Department of Geological Science, University of Texas, Austin, 78712, United States, Institute for Geophysics, University of Texas, Austin, 78758, United States, Center for Earthquake Research and Information, University of Memphis, Memphis, 38152, United States, Institute of Earth Sciences, Academia Sinica, No. 128, Section 2, Taipei, Taiwan
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: Copernicus GmbH 2017
• Subjects: Ice Sheet; The Cryosphere
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10754/668536; https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-11-117-2017

Abstract. We present a semi-brittle rheology and explore its potential for simulating glacier and ice sheet deformation using a numerical model, DynEarthSol3D (DES), in simple, idealized experiments. DES is a finite-element solver for the dynamic and quasi-static simulation of continuous media. The experiments within demonstrate the potential for DES to simulate ice failure and deformation in dynamic regions of glaciers, especially at quickly changing boundaries like glacier termini in contact with the ocean. We explore the effect that different rheological assumptions have on the pattern of flow and failure. We find that the use of a semi-brittle constitutive law is a sufficient material condition to form the characteristic pattern of basal crevasse-aided pinch-and-swell geometry, which is observed globally in floating portions of ice and can often aid in eroding the ice sheet margins in direct contact with oceans. This work was funded by NSF grant ARC-0941678 and the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology.