Actively evolving subglacial conduits and eskers initiate ice shelf channels at an Antarctic grounding line
Ice-shelf channels are long curvilinear tracts of thin ice found on Antarctic ice shelves. Many of them originate near the grounding line, but their formation mechanisms remain poorly understood. Here we use ice-penetrating radar data from Roi Baudouin Ice Shelf, East Antarctica, to infer that the m...
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ftpubmed:oai:pubmedcentral.nih.gov:5482720 2023-05-15T13:53:10+02:00 Actively evolving subglacial conduits and eskers initiate ice shelf channels at an Antarctic grounding line Drews, R. Pattyn, F. Hewitt, I. J. Ng, F. S. L. Berger, S. Matsuoka, K. Helm, V. Bergeot, N. Favier, L. Neckel, N. 2017-05-09 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5482720/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28485400 https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms15228 en eng Nature Publishing Group http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5482720/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28485400 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ncomms15228 Copyright © 2017, The Author(s) http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ CC-BY Article Text 2017 ftpubmed https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms15228 2017-07-09T00:06:16Z Ice-shelf channels are long curvilinear tracts of thin ice found on Antarctic ice shelves. Many of them originate near the grounding line, but their formation mechanisms remain poorly understood. Here we use ice-penetrating radar data from Roi Baudouin Ice Shelf, East Antarctica, to infer that the morphology of several ice-shelf channels is seeded upstream of the grounding line by large basal obstacles indenting the ice from below. We interpret each obstacle as an esker ridge formed from sediments deposited by subglacial water conduits, and calculate that the eskers' size grows towards the grounding line where deposition rates are maximum. Relict features on the shelf indicate that these linked systems of subglacial conduits and ice-shelf channels have been changing over the past few centuries. Because ice-shelf channels are loci where intense melting occurs to thin an ice shelf, these findings expose a novel link between subglacial drainage, sedimentation and ice-shelf stability. Text Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica East Antarctica Ice Shelf Ice Shelves PubMed Central (PMC) Antarctic East Antarctica Roi Baudouin ENVELOPE(24.461,24.461,-70.438,-70.438) Nature Communications 8 1 |
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English |
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Article Drews, R. Pattyn, F. Hewitt, I. J. Ng, F. S. L. Berger, S. Matsuoka, K. Helm, V. Bergeot, N. Favier, L. Neckel, N. Actively evolving subglacial conduits and eskers initiate ice shelf channels at an Antarctic grounding line |
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Article |
description |
Ice-shelf channels are long curvilinear tracts of thin ice found on Antarctic ice shelves. Many of them originate near the grounding line, but their formation mechanisms remain poorly understood. Here we use ice-penetrating radar data from Roi Baudouin Ice Shelf, East Antarctica, to infer that the morphology of several ice-shelf channels is seeded upstream of the grounding line by large basal obstacles indenting the ice from below. We interpret each obstacle as an esker ridge formed from sediments deposited by subglacial water conduits, and calculate that the eskers' size grows towards the grounding line where deposition rates are maximum. Relict features on the shelf indicate that these linked systems of subglacial conduits and ice-shelf channels have been changing over the past few centuries. Because ice-shelf channels are loci where intense melting occurs to thin an ice shelf, these findings expose a novel link between subglacial drainage, sedimentation and ice-shelf stability. |
format |
Text |
author |
Drews, R. Pattyn, F. Hewitt, I. J. Ng, F. S. L. Berger, S. Matsuoka, K. Helm, V. Bergeot, N. Favier, L. Neckel, N. |
author_facet |
Drews, R. Pattyn, F. Hewitt, I. J. Ng, F. S. L. Berger, S. Matsuoka, K. Helm, V. Bergeot, N. Favier, L. Neckel, N. |
author_sort |
Drews, R. |
title |
Actively evolving subglacial conduits and eskers initiate ice shelf channels at an Antarctic grounding line |
title_short |
Actively evolving subglacial conduits and eskers initiate ice shelf channels at an Antarctic grounding line |
title_full |
Actively evolving subglacial conduits and eskers initiate ice shelf channels at an Antarctic grounding line |
title_fullStr |
Actively evolving subglacial conduits and eskers initiate ice shelf channels at an Antarctic grounding line |
title_full_unstemmed |
Actively evolving subglacial conduits and eskers initiate ice shelf channels at an Antarctic grounding line |
title_sort |
actively evolving subglacial conduits and eskers initiate ice shelf channels at an antarctic grounding line |
publisher |
Nature Publishing Group |
publishDate |
2017 |
url |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5482720/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28485400 https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms15228 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(24.461,24.461,-70.438,-70.438) |
geographic |
Antarctic East Antarctica Roi Baudouin |
geographic_facet |
Antarctic East Antarctica Roi Baudouin |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica East Antarctica Ice Shelf Ice Shelves |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica East Antarctica Ice Shelf Ice Shelves |
op_relation |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5482720/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28485400 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ncomms15228 |
op_rights |
Copyright © 2017, The Author(s) http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms15228 |
container_title |
Nature Communications |
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8 |
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1 |
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1766258144291323904 |