Studying Byrd Glacier as a Rock-Floored Ice Stream Ending as a Calving Ice Shelf: Phase I

• Main Authors: Huges, Terence J., Hooke, Roger, Fastook, James
• Format: Text
• Language: unknown
• Published: DigitalCommons@UMaine 2003
• Subjects: Crevasses; Glaciology; Ross Ice Shelf; Transantarctic Mountains; Byrd; Byrd Glacier; Ice Shelf
• Online Access: https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/orsp_reports/65; https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1071&context=orsp_reports

This award supports a one-year study of the floating part of Byrd Glacier, from its grounding line located halfway up a fjord through the Transantarctic Mountains to the end of its lateral rift zone on the Ross Ice Shelf beyond the fjord. Over this l00 km distance, the side boundary changes from rigid between the fjord sidewalls, to nearly free in the lateral rift zone, to deforming when the rifts are healed and Bryd Glacier becomes fully coupled to the Ross Ice Shelf. The stress field for these changing conditions will be calculated a using a gridpoint finite-element model for the Ross Ice Shelf (Thomas and MacAyeal, l982) and a flowband finite-difference model for smooth transitions from sheet flow to stream flow to shelf flow (Hughes, l998). Results of the two modeling approaches will be compared, using existing ice elevation and velocity data obtained from aerial photogrammetry, our unpublished surface mass balance data, and new velocity data obtained from Landsat imagery by the U. S. Geological Survey. This study will train one graduate student at the Masters level.