Crystal orientation fabric anisotropy causes directional hardening of the Northeast Greenland Ice Stream.

• Main Authors: Gerber, Tamara Annina, Lilien, David A, Rathmann, Nicholas Mossor, Franke, Steven, Young, Tun Jan, Valero-Delgado, Fernando, Ershadi, M Reza, Drews, Reinhard, Zeising, Ole, Humbert, Angelika, Stoll, Nicolas, Weikusat, Ilka, Grinsted, Aslak, Hvidberg, Christine Schøtt, Jansen, Daniela, Miller, Heinrich, Helm, Veit, Steinhage, Daniel, O'Neill, Charles, Paden, John, Gogineni, Siva Prasad, Dahl-Jensen, Dorthe, Eisen, Olaf
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Springer Science and Business Media LLC 2023
• Subjects: 37 Earth Sciences; 3709 Physical Geography and Environmental Geoscience; 3705 Geology; Canada; Greenland; ice core; Ice Sheet
• Online Access: https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/349708

Funder: Canada Excellence Research Chairs, Government of Canada (Canada Excellence Research Chairs Program); doi: https://doi.org/10.13039/501100002784 Funder: Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (German Academic Exchange Service); doi: https://doi.org/10.13039/501100001655 The dynamic mass loss of ice sheets constitutes one of the biggest uncertainties in projections of ice-sheet evolution. One central, understudied aspect of ice flow is how the bulk orientation of the crystal orientation fabric translates to the mechanical anisotropy of ice. Here we show the spatial distribution of the depth-averaged horizontal anisotropy and corresponding directional flow-enhancement factors covering a large area of the Northeast Greenland Ice Stream onset. Our results are based on airborne and ground-based radar surveys, ice-core observations, and numerical ice-flow modelling. They show a strong spatial variability of the horizontal anisotropy and a rapid crystal reorganisation on the order of hundreds of years coinciding with the ice-stream geometry. Compared to isotropic ice, parts of the ice stream are found to be more than one order of magnitude harder for along-flow extension/compression while the shear margins are potentially softened by a factor of two for horizontal-shear deformation.