Ocean mixing and heat transport processes observed under the Ross Ice Shelf control its basal melting
The stability of large Antarctic ice shelves has important implications for global sea level, sea ice area, and ocean circulation. A significant proportion of ice mass loss from these ice shelves is through ocean-driven melting which is controlled by largely unobserved oceanic thermodynamic and circ...
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ftpubmed:oai:pubmedcentral.nih.gov:7382223 2023-05-15T13:58:40+02:00 Ocean mixing and heat transport processes observed under the Ross Ice Shelf control its basal melting Stevens, Craig Hulbe, Christina Brewer, Mike Stewart, Craig Robinson, Natalie Ohneiser, Christian Jendersie, Stefan 2020-07-21 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7382223/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32601211 https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1910760117 en eng National Academy of Sciences http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7382223/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32601211 http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1910760117 Copyright © 2020 the Author(s). Published by PNAS. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/This open access article is distributed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License 4.0 (CC BY-NC-ND) (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/) . CC-BY-NC-ND Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A Physical Sciences Text 2020 ftpubmed https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1910760117 2020-08-02T00:30:05Z The stability of large Antarctic ice shelves has important implications for global sea level, sea ice area, and ocean circulation. A significant proportion of ice mass loss from these ice shelves is through ocean-driven melting which is controlled by largely unobserved oceanic thermodynamic and circulatory processes in the cavity beneath the ice shelf. Here we use direct measurements to provide evidence of the changing water column structure in the cavity beneath the Ross Ice Shelf, the planet’s largest ice shelf by area. The cavity water column data exhibit both basal and benthic boundary layers, along with evidence of tidally modulated and diffusively convecting internal mixing processes. A region of thermohaline interleaving in the upper–middle water column indicates elevated diffusion and the potential to modify the cavity circulation. The measurements were recorded using the Aotearoa New Zealand Ross Ice Shelf Program hot water drill borehole melted in the central region of the shelf in December 2017 (HWD2), only the second borehole through the central region of the ice shelf, following J9 in 1977. These data, and comparison with the 1977 data, provide valuable insight into ice shelf cavity circulation and aid understanding of the evolution of the presently stable Ross Ice Shelf. Text Antarc* Antarctic Ice Shelf Ice Shelves Ross Ice Shelf Sea ice PubMed Central (PMC) Antarctic New Zealand Ross Ice Shelf Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 117 29 16799 16804 |
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PubMed Central (PMC) |
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ftpubmed |
language |
English |
topic |
Physical Sciences |
spellingShingle |
Physical Sciences Stevens, Craig Hulbe, Christina Brewer, Mike Stewart, Craig Robinson, Natalie Ohneiser, Christian Jendersie, Stefan Ocean mixing and heat transport processes observed under the Ross Ice Shelf control its basal melting |
topic_facet |
Physical Sciences |
description |
The stability of large Antarctic ice shelves has important implications for global sea level, sea ice area, and ocean circulation. A significant proportion of ice mass loss from these ice shelves is through ocean-driven melting which is controlled by largely unobserved oceanic thermodynamic and circulatory processes in the cavity beneath the ice shelf. Here we use direct measurements to provide evidence of the changing water column structure in the cavity beneath the Ross Ice Shelf, the planet’s largest ice shelf by area. The cavity water column data exhibit both basal and benthic boundary layers, along with evidence of tidally modulated and diffusively convecting internal mixing processes. A region of thermohaline interleaving in the upper–middle water column indicates elevated diffusion and the potential to modify the cavity circulation. The measurements were recorded using the Aotearoa New Zealand Ross Ice Shelf Program hot water drill borehole melted in the central region of the shelf in December 2017 (HWD2), only the second borehole through the central region of the ice shelf, following J9 in 1977. These data, and comparison with the 1977 data, provide valuable insight into ice shelf cavity circulation and aid understanding of the evolution of the presently stable Ross Ice Shelf. |
format |
Text |
author |
Stevens, Craig Hulbe, Christina Brewer, Mike Stewart, Craig Robinson, Natalie Ohneiser, Christian Jendersie, Stefan |
author_facet |
Stevens, Craig Hulbe, Christina Brewer, Mike Stewart, Craig Robinson, Natalie Ohneiser, Christian Jendersie, Stefan |
author_sort |
Stevens, Craig |
title |
Ocean mixing and heat transport processes observed under the Ross Ice Shelf control its basal melting |
title_short |
Ocean mixing and heat transport processes observed under the Ross Ice Shelf control its basal melting |
title_full |
Ocean mixing and heat transport processes observed under the Ross Ice Shelf control its basal melting |
title_fullStr |
Ocean mixing and heat transport processes observed under the Ross Ice Shelf control its basal melting |
title_full_unstemmed |
Ocean mixing and heat transport processes observed under the Ross Ice Shelf control its basal melting |
title_sort |
ocean mixing and heat transport processes observed under the ross ice shelf control its basal melting |
publisher |
National Academy of Sciences |
publishDate |
2020 |
url |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7382223/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32601211 https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1910760117 |
geographic |
Antarctic New Zealand Ross Ice Shelf |
geographic_facet |
Antarctic New Zealand Ross Ice Shelf |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctic Ice Shelf Ice Shelves Ross Ice Shelf Sea ice |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctic Ice Shelf Ice Shelves Ross Ice Shelf Sea ice |
op_source |
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A |
op_relation |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7382223/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32601211 http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1910760117 |
op_rights |
Copyright © 2020 the Author(s). Published by PNAS. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/This open access article is distributed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License 4.0 (CC BY-NC-ND) (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/) . |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY-NC-ND |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1910760117 |
container_title |
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences |
container_volume |
117 |
container_issue |
29 |
container_start_page |
16799 |
op_container_end_page |
16804 |
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1766267009435172864 |