Dynamical Features of the Meteorite Ice Field, Antarctica

Results of the glaciological work made in 1969 and 1973-1974 near the Yamato Mountains showed that the dynamical features of the southern Meteorite Ice Field (bare ice) were quite different from those of the ice sheet in the Shirase drainage, East Antarctica. In the ice field, ice flowed toward the...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Renji Naruse
Format: Report
Language:English
Published: The Institute of Low Temperature Science, Hokkaido University 1979
Subjects:
Online Access:https://nipr.repo.nii.ac.jp/?action=repository_uri&item_id=956
http://id.nii.ac.jp/1291/00000956/
https://nipr.repo.nii.ac.jp/?action=repository_action_common_download&item_id=956&item_no=1&attribute_id=18&file_no=1
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Summary:Results of the glaciological work made in 1969 and 1973-1974 near the Yamato Mountains showed that the dynamical features of the southern Meteorite Ice Field (bare ice) were quite different from those of the ice sheet in the Shirase drainage, East Antarctica. In the ice field, ice flowed toward the Yamato Mountains with the small horizontal velocity less than 2m/year; the vertical movement of ice indicated the emergence velocity of 5cm/year on the average, and the mean ablation rate amounted to 5cm/year in water equivalent. Discussions were also made whether or not the hypothetical idea of the concentration of meteorites within a limited area is possible, in terms of a mass budget study in the present drainage system. The result revealed that, if a number of meteorites had once fallen uniformly over the hinterland of the drainages of the Shirase Glacier and of the Meteorite Ice Field, more than 95% of the meteorites were drained off through the coast of the ice sheet, and only a few percent of them were conveyed to and exposed on the bare ice field around the Yamato Mountains.