An investigation into recent outlet glacier dynamics within Vincennes Bay, Wilkes Land, East Antarctica.

• Main Author: PICTON, HANNAH,JANE
• Format: Thesis
• Language: unknown
• Published: 2023
• Subjects: Glaciology; Ice Dynamics; East Antarctica; Outlet Glacier; Antarctic; Anzac; East Antarctic Ice Sheet; The Antarctic; Underwood; Vanderford Glacier; Vincennes Bay; West Antarctic Ice Sheet; Wilkes Land; Antarc*; Antarctica; Ice Sheet; Sea ice
• Online Access: http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/14833/; http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/14833/1/Picton000977207.pdf

The Antarctic Ice Sheet has been in a state of negative mass balance over recent decades, with mass loss largely occurring from the West Antarctic Ice Sheet. However, recent studies indicate that Wilkes Land, East Antarctica, has lost mass at accelerating rates over the past two decades, exhibiting a dynamic response to oceanic forcing. Overlying the marine-based Aurora Subglacial Basin (ASB), Wilkes Land has been referred to as the potential ‘weak underbelly’ of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet and is drained by several major outlet glaciers. Despite their potential importance, few of these glaciers have been studied in detail. This includes the six outlet glaciers draining into Vincennes Bay, a region recently reported to have the warmest intrusions of modified Circumpolar Deep Water (mCDW) ever recorded in East Antarctica. This thesis seeks to improve our understanding of the understudied Vincennes Bay outlet glaciers, providing a first overview of recent ice dynamics observed between 1963 and 2022. Optical satellite imagery, differential satellite synthetic aperture radar interferometry (DInSAR) techniques and a range of secondary datasets were employed in order to assess change across four fundamental glacier parameters: terminus position, ice surface velocity, ice surface elevation, and grounding line position. Decadal fluctuations between terminus advance and terminus retreat recorded across the Vincennes Bay outlet glaciers correspond closely with wider patterns reported across Wilkes Land, potentially correlated to variations in sea ice production. Ice surface velocities were generally stable between 2000 and 2021, with some fluctuations measured across the grounding line of Bond East Glacier. Observed changes in ice surface elevation were spatially variable, with a consistent, albeit relatively modest, thinning trend seen across Vanderford Glacier between 2003 and 2017. Enhanced rates of ice thinning were measured across each of the Vanderford, Adams, Anzac, and Underwood Glaciers between 2017 and 2020, ...