Subglacial hydrology and the formation of ice streams.

Antarctic ice streams are associated with pressurized subglacial meltwater but the role this water plays in the dynamics of the streams is not known. To address this, we present a model of subglacial water flow below ice sheets, and particularly below ice streams. The base-level flow is fed by subgl...

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Published in:Proceedings of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences
Main Authors: Kyrke-Smith, T, Katz, R, Fowler, A
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: 2016
Subjects:
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1098/rspa.2013.0494
https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:836f7e8e-3a65-4580-95ad-4264a3aef2af
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spelling ftuloxford:oai:ora.ox.ac.uk:uuid:836f7e8e-3a65-4580-95ad-4264a3aef2af 2023-05-15T14:00:02+02:00 Subglacial hydrology and the formation of ice streams. Kyrke-Smith, T Katz, R Fowler, A 2016-07-28 https://doi.org/10.1098/rspa.2013.0494 https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:836f7e8e-3a65-4580-95ad-4264a3aef2af eng eng doi:10.1098/rspa.2013.0494 https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:836f7e8e-3a65-4580-95ad-4264a3aef2af https://doi.org/10.1098/rspa.2013.0494 info:eu-repo/semantics/embargoedAccess Journal article 2016 ftuloxford https://doi.org/10.1098/rspa.2013.0494 2022-06-28T20:17:00Z Antarctic ice streams are associated with pressurized subglacial meltwater but the role this water plays in the dynamics of the streams is not known. To address this, we present a model of subglacial water flow below ice sheets, and particularly below ice streams. The base-level flow is fed by subglacial melting and is presumed to take the form of a rough-bedded film, in which the ice is supported by larger clasts, but there is a millimetric water film which submerges the smaller particles. A model for the film is given by two coupled partial differential equations, representing mass conservation of water and ice closure. We assume that there is no sediment transport and solve for water film depth and effective pressure. This is coupled to a vertically integrated, higher order model for ice-sheet dynamics. If there is a sufficiently small amount of meltwater produced (e.g. if ice flux is low), the distributed film and ice sheet are stable, whereas for larger amounts of melt the ice-water system can become unstable, and ice streams form spontaneously as a consequence. We show that this can be explained in terms of a multi-valued sliding law, which arises from a simplified, one-dimensional analysis of the coupled model. Article in Journal/Newspaper Antarc* Antarctic Ice Sheet ORA - Oxford University Research Archive Antarctic Proceedings of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences 470 2161 20130494
institution Open Polar
collection ORA - Oxford University Research Archive
op_collection_id ftuloxford
language English
description Antarctic ice streams are associated with pressurized subglacial meltwater but the role this water plays in the dynamics of the streams is not known. To address this, we present a model of subglacial water flow below ice sheets, and particularly below ice streams. The base-level flow is fed by subglacial melting and is presumed to take the form of a rough-bedded film, in which the ice is supported by larger clasts, but there is a millimetric water film which submerges the smaller particles. A model for the film is given by two coupled partial differential equations, representing mass conservation of water and ice closure. We assume that there is no sediment transport and solve for water film depth and effective pressure. This is coupled to a vertically integrated, higher order model for ice-sheet dynamics. If there is a sufficiently small amount of meltwater produced (e.g. if ice flux is low), the distributed film and ice sheet are stable, whereas for larger amounts of melt the ice-water system can become unstable, and ice streams form spontaneously as a consequence. We show that this can be explained in terms of a multi-valued sliding law, which arises from a simplified, one-dimensional analysis of the coupled model.
format Article in Journal/Newspaper
author Kyrke-Smith, T
Katz, R
Fowler, A
spellingShingle Kyrke-Smith, T
Katz, R
Fowler, A
Subglacial hydrology and the formation of ice streams.
author_facet Kyrke-Smith, T
Katz, R
Fowler, A
author_sort Kyrke-Smith, T
title Subglacial hydrology and the formation of ice streams.
title_short Subglacial hydrology and the formation of ice streams.
title_full Subglacial hydrology and the formation of ice streams.
title_fullStr Subglacial hydrology and the formation of ice streams.
title_full_unstemmed Subglacial hydrology and the formation of ice streams.
title_sort subglacial hydrology and the formation of ice streams.
publishDate 2016
url https://doi.org/10.1098/rspa.2013.0494
https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:836f7e8e-3a65-4580-95ad-4264a3aef2af
geographic Antarctic
geographic_facet Antarctic
genre Antarc*
Antarctic
Ice Sheet
genre_facet Antarc*
Antarctic
Ice Sheet
op_relation doi:10.1098/rspa.2013.0494
https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:836f7e8e-3a65-4580-95ad-4264a3aef2af
https://doi.org/10.1098/rspa.2013.0494
op_rights info:eu-repo/semantics/embargoedAccess
op_doi https://doi.org/10.1098/rspa.2013.0494
container_title Proceedings of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences
container_volume 470
container_issue 2161
container_start_page 20130494
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