Accelerated ice shelf rifting and retreat at Pine Island Glacier, West Antarctica

• Published in: Geophysical Research Letters
• Main Authors: Jeong, Seongsu, Howat, Ian M., Bassis, Jeremy N.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: Wiley Periodicals, Inc. 2016
• Subjects: basal crevasse; Landsat; calving; rifting; Pine Island Glacier; Geological Sciences; Science; West Antarctica; Antarc*; Antarctica; Ice Sheet; Ice Shelf; Ice Shelves; Pine Island
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/2027.42/135693; https://doi.org/10.1002/2016GL071360

Pine Island Glacier has undergone several major iceberg calving events over the past decades. These typically occurred when a rift at the heavily fractured shear margin propagated across the width of the ice shelf. This type of calving is common on polar ice shelves, with no clear connection to ocean‐ice dynamic forcing. In contrast, we report on the recent development of multiple rifts initiating from basal crevasses in the center of the ice shelf, resulted in calving further upglacier than previously observed. Coincident with rift formation was the sudden disintegration of the ice mélange that filled the northern shear margin, resulting in ice sheet detachment from this margin. Examination of ice velocity suggests that this internal rifting resulted from the combination of a change in ice shelf stress regime caused by disintegration of the mélange and intensified melting within basal crevasses, both of which may be linked to ocean forcing.Key PointsThe 2015 calving event from Pine Island Glacier, West Antarctica, resulted from rifts that initiated from the center of the ice shelfThe calving event coincided with disintegration of mélange and rotation of the ice shelfWe attribute the increased rifting and calving to ice‐ocean interaction associated with basal crevasse development Peer Reviewed http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/135693/1/grl55204.pdf http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/135693/2/grl55204_am.pdf