West Antarctica Ice Streams – A Review of the Proposed Mechanisms of Ice Streaming.
The Antarctic Ice Sheet, which covers most of the continent’s land surface, is divided into two separate entities by the Transantarctic Mountains. These are regarded as the West and East Antarctic Ice Sheets (Figure 1). The West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) contains 3.8 million km3 of ice and, unlike...
Main Author: | |
---|---|
Format: | Other/Unknown Material |
Language: | English |
Published: |
University of Canterbury
2009
|
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/10092/13920 |
id |
ftunivcanter:oai:ir.canterbury.ac.nz:10092/13920 |
---|---|
record_format |
openpolar |
spelling |
ftunivcanter:oai:ir.canterbury.ac.nz:10092/13920 2023-05-15T13:49:25+02:00 West Antarctica Ice Streams – A Review of the Proposed Mechanisms of Ice Streaming. Armstrong, Martina 2009 application/pdf http://hdl.handle.net/10092/13920 English en eng University of Canterbury http://hdl.handle.net/10092/13920 All Rights Reserved Theses / Dissertations 2009 ftunivcanter 2022-09-08T13:36:41Z The Antarctic Ice Sheet, which covers most of the continent’s land surface, is divided into two separate entities by the Transantarctic Mountains. These are regarded as the West and East Antarctic Ice Sheets (Figure 1). The West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) contains 3.8 million km3 of ice and, unlike the East Antarctic Ice Sheet (EAIS), is a marine ice sheet which implies that the groundingline is below sea-level (Figure 2). Weertman (1974) originally proposed that a marine ice sheet, such as the WAIS, is inherently unstable. However, this analysis was based on a simple model of a marine ice sheet that did not include fast-flowing, wet-based ice streams, which are now known to dominate the grounded ice sheet (Bentley, 1998). It has been estimated that the ice streams on the WAIS move ~10-100 times faster than the adjacent non-streaming ice sheet (Bindschaler and Scambos, 1991; Whillans and van der Veen, 1993). Swithinbank (1954) defines an ice stream as part of an inland ice sheet in which the ice flows more rapidly than, and not necessarily in the same direction as, the surrounding ice. This definition indicates two main points: (1) ice streams are surrounded by ice as, if it were surrounded by rock, it would be considered an outlet glacier, and (2) it is part of the inland ice sheet, therefore it is not floating. Other/Unknown Material Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica Ice Sheet West Antarctica University of Canterbury, Christchurch: UC Research Repository Antarctic The Antarctic West Antarctica West Antarctic Ice Sheet East Antarctic Ice Sheet Transantarctic Mountains Whillans ENVELOPE(-64.250,-64.250,-84.450,-84.450) Weertman ENVELOPE(-67.753,-67.753,-66.972,-66.972) |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
University of Canterbury, Christchurch: UC Research Repository |
op_collection_id |
ftunivcanter |
language |
English |
description |
The Antarctic Ice Sheet, which covers most of the continent’s land surface, is divided into two separate entities by the Transantarctic Mountains. These are regarded as the West and East Antarctic Ice Sheets (Figure 1). The West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) contains 3.8 million km3 of ice and, unlike the East Antarctic Ice Sheet (EAIS), is a marine ice sheet which implies that the groundingline is below sea-level (Figure 2). Weertman (1974) originally proposed that a marine ice sheet, such as the WAIS, is inherently unstable. However, this analysis was based on a simple model of a marine ice sheet that did not include fast-flowing, wet-based ice streams, which are now known to dominate the grounded ice sheet (Bentley, 1998). It has been estimated that the ice streams on the WAIS move ~10-100 times faster than the adjacent non-streaming ice sheet (Bindschaler and Scambos, 1991; Whillans and van der Veen, 1993). Swithinbank (1954) defines an ice stream as part of an inland ice sheet in which the ice flows more rapidly than, and not necessarily in the same direction as, the surrounding ice. This definition indicates two main points: (1) ice streams are surrounded by ice as, if it were surrounded by rock, it would be considered an outlet glacier, and (2) it is part of the inland ice sheet, therefore it is not floating. |
format |
Other/Unknown Material |
author |
Armstrong, Martina |
spellingShingle |
Armstrong, Martina West Antarctica Ice Streams – A Review of the Proposed Mechanisms of Ice Streaming. |
author_facet |
Armstrong, Martina |
author_sort |
Armstrong, Martina |
title |
West Antarctica Ice Streams – A Review of the Proposed Mechanisms of Ice Streaming. |
title_short |
West Antarctica Ice Streams – A Review of the Proposed Mechanisms of Ice Streaming. |
title_full |
West Antarctica Ice Streams – A Review of the Proposed Mechanisms of Ice Streaming. |
title_fullStr |
West Antarctica Ice Streams – A Review of the Proposed Mechanisms of Ice Streaming. |
title_full_unstemmed |
West Antarctica Ice Streams – A Review of the Proposed Mechanisms of Ice Streaming. |
title_sort |
west antarctica ice streams – a review of the proposed mechanisms of ice streaming. |
publisher |
University of Canterbury |
publishDate |
2009 |
url |
http://hdl.handle.net/10092/13920 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(-64.250,-64.250,-84.450,-84.450) ENVELOPE(-67.753,-67.753,-66.972,-66.972) |
geographic |
Antarctic The Antarctic West Antarctica West Antarctic Ice Sheet East Antarctic Ice Sheet Transantarctic Mountains Whillans Weertman |
geographic_facet |
Antarctic The Antarctic West Antarctica West Antarctic Ice Sheet East Antarctic Ice Sheet Transantarctic Mountains Whillans Weertman |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica Ice Sheet West Antarctica |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica Ice Sheet West Antarctica |
op_relation |
http://hdl.handle.net/10092/13920 |
op_rights |
All Rights Reserved |
_version_ |
1766251355483144192 |