West-Antarctic Ice Streams: Analog to Ice Flow in Channels on Mars
Sounding of the sea floor in front of the Ross Ice Shelf in Antarctica recently revealed large persistent patterns of longitudinal megaflutes and drumlinoid forms, which are interpreted to have formed at the base of ice streams during the list glacial advance. The flutes bear remarkable resemblance...
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ftnasantrs:oai:casi.ntrs.nasa.gov:19980151107 2023-05-15T13:42:49+02:00 West-Antarctic Ice Streams: Analog to Ice Flow in Channels on Mars Lucchitta, B. K. Unclassified, Unlimited, Publicly available 1997 application/pdf http://hdl.handle.net/2060/19980151107 unknown Document ID: 19980151107 http://hdl.handle.net/2060/19980151107 No Copyright CASI Oceanography NASA/CR-97-207701 NAS 1.26:207701 The West Antarctic Ice Sheet Initiative Annual Workshop; Sep 10, 1997 - Sep 13, 1997; Sterling, VA; United States 1997 ftnasantrs 2019-08-31T23:03:41Z Sounding of the sea floor in front of the Ross Ice Shelf in Antarctica recently revealed large persistent patterns of longitudinal megaflutes and drumlinoid forms, which are interpreted to have formed at the base of ice streams during the list glacial advance. The flutes bear remarkable resemblance to longitudinal grooves and highly elongated streamlined islands found on the floors of some large martian channels, called outflow channels. ln addition, other similarities exist between Antarctic ice streams and outflow channels. Ice streams are 30 to 80 km wide and hundreds of kilometers long, as are the martian channels. Ice stream beds are below sea level. Floors of many martian outflow channels lie below martian datum, which may have been close to or below past martian sea levels. The Antarctic ice stream bed gradient is flat and locally may go uphill, and surface slopes are exceptionally low. So are gradients of martian channels. The depth to the bed in ice streams is 1 to 1.5 km. At bankful stage, the depth of the fluid in outflow channels would have been 1 to 2 km. These similarities suggest that the martian outflow channels, whose origin is commonly attributed to gigantic catastrophic floods, were locally filled by ice that left a conspicuous morphologic imprint. Unlike the West-Antarctic-ice streams, which discharge ice from an ice sheet, ice in the martian channels came from water erupting from the ground. In the cold martian environment, this water, if of moderate volume, would eventually freeze. Thus it may have formed icings on springs, ice dams and jams on constrictions in the channel path, or frozen pools. Given sufficient thickness and downhill surface gradient, these ice masses would have moved; and given the right conditions, they could have moved like Antarctic ice streams. Other/Unknown Material Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica Ice Sheet Ice Shelf Ross Ice Shelf NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS) Antarctic Ross Ice Shelf The Antarctic |
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NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS) |
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ftnasantrs |
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topic |
Oceanography |
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Oceanography Lucchitta, B. K. West-Antarctic Ice Streams: Analog to Ice Flow in Channels on Mars |
topic_facet |
Oceanography |
description |
Sounding of the sea floor in front of the Ross Ice Shelf in Antarctica recently revealed large persistent patterns of longitudinal megaflutes and drumlinoid forms, which are interpreted to have formed at the base of ice streams during the list glacial advance. The flutes bear remarkable resemblance to longitudinal grooves and highly elongated streamlined islands found on the floors of some large martian channels, called outflow channels. ln addition, other similarities exist between Antarctic ice streams and outflow channels. Ice streams are 30 to 80 km wide and hundreds of kilometers long, as are the martian channels. Ice stream beds are below sea level. Floors of many martian outflow channels lie below martian datum, which may have been close to or below past martian sea levels. The Antarctic ice stream bed gradient is flat and locally may go uphill, and surface slopes are exceptionally low. So are gradients of martian channels. The depth to the bed in ice streams is 1 to 1.5 km. At bankful stage, the depth of the fluid in outflow channels would have been 1 to 2 km. These similarities suggest that the martian outflow channels, whose origin is commonly attributed to gigantic catastrophic floods, were locally filled by ice that left a conspicuous morphologic imprint. Unlike the West-Antarctic-ice streams, which discharge ice from an ice sheet, ice in the martian channels came from water erupting from the ground. In the cold martian environment, this water, if of moderate volume, would eventually freeze. Thus it may have formed icings on springs, ice dams and jams on constrictions in the channel path, or frozen pools. Given sufficient thickness and downhill surface gradient, these ice masses would have moved; and given the right conditions, they could have moved like Antarctic ice streams. |
format |
Other/Unknown Material |
author |
Lucchitta, B. K. |
author_facet |
Lucchitta, B. K. |
author_sort |
Lucchitta, B. K. |
title |
West-Antarctic Ice Streams: Analog to Ice Flow in Channels on Mars |
title_short |
West-Antarctic Ice Streams: Analog to Ice Flow in Channels on Mars |
title_full |
West-Antarctic Ice Streams: Analog to Ice Flow in Channels on Mars |
title_fullStr |
West-Antarctic Ice Streams: Analog to Ice Flow in Channels on Mars |
title_full_unstemmed |
West-Antarctic Ice Streams: Analog to Ice Flow in Channels on Mars |
title_sort |
west-antarctic ice streams: analog to ice flow in channels on mars |
publishDate |
1997 |
url |
http://hdl.handle.net/2060/19980151107 |
op_coverage |
Unclassified, Unlimited, Publicly available |
geographic |
Antarctic Ross Ice Shelf The Antarctic |
geographic_facet |
Antarctic Ross Ice Shelf The Antarctic |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica Ice Sheet Ice Shelf Ross Ice Shelf |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica Ice Sheet Ice Shelf Ross Ice Shelf |
op_source |
CASI |
op_relation |
Document ID: 19980151107 http://hdl.handle.net/2060/19980151107 |
op_rights |
No Copyright |
_version_ |
1766173113669648384 |