Rapid, buoyancy-driven ice-sheet retreat of hundreds of metres per day
Rates of ice-sheet grounding-line retreat can be quantified from the spacing of corrugation ridges on deglaciated regions of the seafloor 1,2, providing a long-term context for the approximately 50-year satellite record of ice-sheet change 3,4,5 . However, the few existing examples of these landform...
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ftloughboroughun:oai:figshare.com:article/22561798 2023-06-11T04:07:04+02:00 Rapid, buoyancy-driven ice-sheet retreat of hundreds of metres per day Christine L Batchelor Frazer DW Christie Dag Ottesen Aleksandr Montelli Jeffrey Evans Evelyn K Dowdeswell Lilja R Bjarnadóttir Julian A Dowdeswell 2023-04-05T00:00:00Z https://figshare.com/articles/journal_contribution/Rapid_buoyancy-driven_ice-sheet_retreat_of_hundreds_of_metres_per_day/22561798 unknown 2134/22561798.v1 https://figshare.com/articles/journal_contribution/Rapid_buoyancy-driven_ice-sheet_retreat_of_hundreds_of_metres_per_day/22561798 All Rights Reserved General Science & Technology Text Journal contribution 2023 ftloughboroughun 2023-05-10T23:10:31Z Rates of ice-sheet grounding-line retreat can be quantified from the spacing of corrugation ridges on deglaciated regions of the seafloor 1,2, providing a long-term context for the approximately 50-year satellite record of ice-sheet change 3,4,5 . However, the few existing examples of these landforms are restricted to small areas of the seafloor, limiting our understanding of future rates of grounding-line retreat and, hence, sea-level rise. Here we use bathymetric data to map more than 7,600 corrugation ridges across 30,000 km2 of the mid-Norwegian shelf. The spacing of the ridges shows that pulses of rapid grounding-line retreat, at rates ranging from 55 to 610 m day−1, occurred across low-gradient (±1°) ice-sheet beds during the last deglaciation. These values far exceed all previously reported rates of grounding-line retreat across the satellite 3,4,6,7 and marine-geological 1,2 records. The highest retreat rates were measured across the flattest areas of the former bed, suggesting that near-instantaneous ice-sheet ungrounding and retreat can occur where the grounding line approaches full buoyancy. Hydrostatic principles show that pulses of similarly rapid grounding-line retreat could occur across low-gradient Antarctic ice-sheet beds even under present-day climatic forcing. Ultimately, our results highlight the often-overlooked vulnerability of flat-bedded areas of ice sheets to pulses of extremely rapid, buoyancy-driven retreat. Article in Journal/Newspaper Antarc* Antarctic Ice Sheet Loughborough University: Figshare Antarctic |
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Open Polar |
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Loughborough University: Figshare |
op_collection_id |
ftloughboroughun |
language |
unknown |
topic |
General Science & Technology |
spellingShingle |
General Science & Technology Christine L Batchelor Frazer DW Christie Dag Ottesen Aleksandr Montelli Jeffrey Evans Evelyn K Dowdeswell Lilja R Bjarnadóttir Julian A Dowdeswell Rapid, buoyancy-driven ice-sheet retreat of hundreds of metres per day |
topic_facet |
General Science & Technology |
description |
Rates of ice-sheet grounding-line retreat can be quantified from the spacing of corrugation ridges on deglaciated regions of the seafloor 1,2, providing a long-term context for the approximately 50-year satellite record of ice-sheet change 3,4,5 . However, the few existing examples of these landforms are restricted to small areas of the seafloor, limiting our understanding of future rates of grounding-line retreat and, hence, sea-level rise. Here we use bathymetric data to map more than 7,600 corrugation ridges across 30,000 km2 of the mid-Norwegian shelf. The spacing of the ridges shows that pulses of rapid grounding-line retreat, at rates ranging from 55 to 610 m day−1, occurred across low-gradient (±1°) ice-sheet beds during the last deglaciation. These values far exceed all previously reported rates of grounding-line retreat across the satellite 3,4,6,7 and marine-geological 1,2 records. The highest retreat rates were measured across the flattest areas of the former bed, suggesting that near-instantaneous ice-sheet ungrounding and retreat can occur where the grounding line approaches full buoyancy. Hydrostatic principles show that pulses of similarly rapid grounding-line retreat could occur across low-gradient Antarctic ice-sheet beds even under present-day climatic forcing. Ultimately, our results highlight the often-overlooked vulnerability of flat-bedded areas of ice sheets to pulses of extremely rapid, buoyancy-driven retreat. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Christine L Batchelor Frazer DW Christie Dag Ottesen Aleksandr Montelli Jeffrey Evans Evelyn K Dowdeswell Lilja R Bjarnadóttir Julian A Dowdeswell |
author_facet |
Christine L Batchelor Frazer DW Christie Dag Ottesen Aleksandr Montelli Jeffrey Evans Evelyn K Dowdeswell Lilja R Bjarnadóttir Julian A Dowdeswell |
author_sort |
Christine L Batchelor |
title |
Rapid, buoyancy-driven ice-sheet retreat of hundreds of metres per day |
title_short |
Rapid, buoyancy-driven ice-sheet retreat of hundreds of metres per day |
title_full |
Rapid, buoyancy-driven ice-sheet retreat of hundreds of metres per day |
title_fullStr |
Rapid, buoyancy-driven ice-sheet retreat of hundreds of metres per day |
title_full_unstemmed |
Rapid, buoyancy-driven ice-sheet retreat of hundreds of metres per day |
title_sort |
rapid, buoyancy-driven ice-sheet retreat of hundreds of metres per day |
publishDate |
2023 |
url |
https://figshare.com/articles/journal_contribution/Rapid_buoyancy-driven_ice-sheet_retreat_of_hundreds_of_metres_per_day/22561798 |
geographic |
Antarctic |
geographic_facet |
Antarctic |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctic Ice Sheet |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctic Ice Sheet |
op_relation |
2134/22561798.v1 https://figshare.com/articles/journal_contribution/Rapid_buoyancy-driven_ice-sheet_retreat_of_hundreds_of_metres_per_day/22561798 |
op_rights |
All Rights Reserved |
_version_ |
1768379626087776256 |