Ice-stream stability on a reverse bed slope
Marine-based ice streams whose beds deepen inland are thought to be inherently unstable. This instability is of particular concern because significant portions of the marinebased West Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets are losing mass and their retreat could contribute significantly to future sea-leve...
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Online Access: | http://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/17541/ https://doi.org/10.1038/NGEO1600 |
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ftnerc:oai:nora.nerc.ac.uk:17541 2023-05-15T13:45:12+02:00 Ice-stream stability on a reverse bed slope Jamieson, Stewart S.R. Vieli, Andreas Livingstone, Stephen J. Ó Cofaigh, Colm Stokes, Chris Hillenbrand, Claus-Dieter Dowdeswell, Julian A. 2012-12-18 http://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/17541/ https://doi.org/10.1038/NGEO1600 unknown Nature Publishing Group Jamieson, Stewart S.R.; Vieli, Andreas; Livingstone, Stephen J.; Ó Cofaigh, Colm; Stokes, Chris; Hillenbrand, Claus-Dieter orcid:0000-0003-0240-7317 Dowdeswell, Julian A. 2012 Ice-stream stability on a reverse bed slope. Nature Geoscience, 5 (11). 799-802. https://doi.org/10.1038/NGEO1600 <https://doi.org/10.1038/NGEO1600> Glaciology Publication - Article PeerReviewed 2012 ftnerc https://doi.org/10.1038/NGEO1600 2023-02-04T19:31:09Z Marine-based ice streams whose beds deepen inland are thought to be inherently unstable. This instability is of particular concern because significant portions of the marinebased West Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets are losing mass and their retreat could contribute significantly to future sea-level rise. However, the present understanding of icestream stability is limited by observational records that are too short to resolve multi-decadal to millennial-scale behaviour or to validate numerical models. Here we present a dynamic numerical simulation of Antarctic ice-stream retreat since the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), constrained by geophysical data, whose behaviour is consistent with the geomorphological record. We find that retreat of Marguerite Bay Ice Stream following the LGM was highly nonlinear and was interrupted by stabilizations on a reverse-sloping bed, where theory predicts rapid unstable retreat. We demonstrate that these transient stabilizations were caused by enhanced lateral drag as the ice stream narrowed. We conclude that, as well as bed topography, ice-stream width and long-term retreat history are crucial for understanding decadal- to centennial-scale ice-stream behaviour and marine ice-sheet vulnerability. Article in Journal/Newspaper Antarc* Antarctic Greenland Ice Sheet Natural Environment Research Council: NERC Open Research Archive Antarctic Greenland Marguerite ENVELOPE(141.378,141.378,-66.787,-66.787) Marguerite Bay ENVELOPE(-68.000,-68.000,-68.500,-68.500) Nature Geoscience 5 11 799 802 |
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Open Polar |
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Natural Environment Research Council: NERC Open Research Archive |
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ftnerc |
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topic |
Glaciology |
spellingShingle |
Glaciology Jamieson, Stewart S.R. Vieli, Andreas Livingstone, Stephen J. Ó Cofaigh, Colm Stokes, Chris Hillenbrand, Claus-Dieter Dowdeswell, Julian A. Ice-stream stability on a reverse bed slope |
topic_facet |
Glaciology |
description |
Marine-based ice streams whose beds deepen inland are thought to be inherently unstable. This instability is of particular concern because significant portions of the marinebased West Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets are losing mass and their retreat could contribute significantly to future sea-level rise. However, the present understanding of icestream stability is limited by observational records that are too short to resolve multi-decadal to millennial-scale behaviour or to validate numerical models. Here we present a dynamic numerical simulation of Antarctic ice-stream retreat since the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), constrained by geophysical data, whose behaviour is consistent with the geomorphological record. We find that retreat of Marguerite Bay Ice Stream following the LGM was highly nonlinear and was interrupted by stabilizations on a reverse-sloping bed, where theory predicts rapid unstable retreat. We demonstrate that these transient stabilizations were caused by enhanced lateral drag as the ice stream narrowed. We conclude that, as well as bed topography, ice-stream width and long-term retreat history are crucial for understanding decadal- to centennial-scale ice-stream behaviour and marine ice-sheet vulnerability. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Jamieson, Stewart S.R. Vieli, Andreas Livingstone, Stephen J. Ó Cofaigh, Colm Stokes, Chris Hillenbrand, Claus-Dieter Dowdeswell, Julian A. |
author_facet |
Jamieson, Stewart S.R. Vieli, Andreas Livingstone, Stephen J. Ó Cofaigh, Colm Stokes, Chris Hillenbrand, Claus-Dieter Dowdeswell, Julian A. |
author_sort |
Jamieson, Stewart S.R. |
title |
Ice-stream stability on a reverse bed slope |
title_short |
Ice-stream stability on a reverse bed slope |
title_full |
Ice-stream stability on a reverse bed slope |
title_fullStr |
Ice-stream stability on a reverse bed slope |
title_full_unstemmed |
Ice-stream stability on a reverse bed slope |
title_sort |
ice-stream stability on a reverse bed slope |
publisher |
Nature Publishing Group |
publishDate |
2012 |
url |
http://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/17541/ https://doi.org/10.1038/NGEO1600 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(141.378,141.378,-66.787,-66.787) ENVELOPE(-68.000,-68.000,-68.500,-68.500) |
geographic |
Antarctic Greenland Marguerite Marguerite Bay |
geographic_facet |
Antarctic Greenland Marguerite Marguerite Bay |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctic Greenland Ice Sheet |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctic Greenland Ice Sheet |
op_relation |
Jamieson, Stewart S.R.; Vieli, Andreas; Livingstone, Stephen J.; Ó Cofaigh, Colm; Stokes, Chris; Hillenbrand, Claus-Dieter orcid:0000-0003-0240-7317 Dowdeswell, Julian A. 2012 Ice-stream stability on a reverse bed slope. Nature Geoscience, 5 (11). 799-802. https://doi.org/10.1038/NGEO1600 <https://doi.org/10.1038/NGEO1600> |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1038/NGEO1600 |
container_title |
Nature Geoscience |
container_volume |
5 |
container_issue |
11 |
container_start_page |
799 |
op_container_end_page |
802 |
_version_ |
1766216371253805056 |