Inland thinning of West Antarctic Ice Sheet steered along subglacial rifts

• Published in: Nature
• Main Authors: Bingham, Robert G., Ferraccioli, Fausto, King, Edward C., Larter, Robert D., Pritchard, Hamish D., Smith, Andrew M., Vaughan, David G.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: Nature Publishing Group 2012
• Subjects: Antarctic; Amundsen Sea; West Antarctic Ice Sheet; Bellingshausen Sea; Ferrigno Ice Stream; Antarc*; Ice Sheet
• Online Access: http://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/17878/; http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v487/n7408/full/nature11292.html

Current ice loss from the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) accounts for about ten per cent of observed global sea-level rise1. Losses are dominated by dynamic thinning, in which forcings by oceanic or atmospheric perturbations to the ice margin lead to an accelerated thinning of ice along the coastli...