Ice-stream demise dynamically conditioned by trough shape and bed strength

Ice sheet mass loss is currently dominated by fast-flowing glaciers (ice streams) terminating in the ocean as ice shelves and resting on beds below sea level. The factors controlling ice-stream flow and retreat over longer time scales (>100 years), especially the role of three-dimensional bed sha...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Science Advances
Main Authors: Bradwell, Tom, Small, David, Fabel, Derek, Smedley, Rachel K., Clark, Chris D., Saher, Margot H., Callard, S. Louise, Chiverrell, Richard C., Dove, Dayton, Moreton, Steven G., Roberts, David H., Duller, Geoff A.T., Ó Cofaigh, Colm
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: American Association for the Advancement of Science 2019
Subjects:
Ice Sheet
Ice Shelves
Online Access:https://eprints.gla.ac.uk/186359/
https://eprints.gla.ac.uk/186359/1/186359.pdf
Description
Summary:Ice sheet mass loss is currently dominated by fast-flowing glaciers (ice streams) terminating in the ocean as ice shelves and resting on beds below sea level. The factors controlling ice-stream flow and retreat over longer time scales (>100 years), especially the role of three-dimensional bed shape and bed strength, remain major uncertainties. We focus on a former ice stream where trough shape and bed substrate are known, or can be defined, to reconstruct ice-stream retreat history and grounding-line movements over 15 millennia since the Last Glacial Maximum. We identify a major behavioral step change around 18,500 to 16,000 years ago—out of tune with external forcing factors—associated with the collapse of floating ice sectors and rapid ice-front retreat. We attribute this step change to a marked geological transition from a soft/weak bed to a hard/strong bed coincident with a change in trough geometry. Both these factors conditioned and ultimately hastened ice-stream demise.

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