The far reach of ice-shelf thinning in Antarctica
Floating ice shelves, which fringe most of Antarctica’s coastline, regulate ice flow into the Southern Ocean1,2,3. Their thinning4,5,6,7 or disintegration8,9 can cause upstream acceleration of grounded ice and raise global sea levels. So far the effect has not been quantified in a comprehensive and...
Published in: | Nature Climate Change |
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Online Access: | https://nrl.northumbria.ac.uk/id/eprint/34450/ https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-017-0020-x |
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ftunivnorthumb:oai:nrl.northumbria.ac.uk:34450 2023-05-15T13:56:54+02:00 The far reach of ice-shelf thinning in Antarctica Reese, Ronja Gudmundsson, Hilmar Levermann, Anders Winkelmann, Ricarda 2018-01-01 https://nrl.northumbria.ac.uk/id/eprint/34450/ https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-017-0020-x unknown Nature Publishing Reese, Ronja, Gudmundsson, Hilmar, Levermann, Anders and Winkelmann, Ricarda (2018) The far reach of ice-shelf thinning in Antarctica. Nature Climate Change, 8 (1). pp. 53-57. ISSN 1758-678X F800 Physical and Terrestrial Geographical and Environmental Sciences Article PeerReviewed 2018 ftunivnorthumb https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-017-0020-x 2022-09-25T06:07:21Z Floating ice shelves, which fringe most of Antarctica’s coastline, regulate ice flow into the Southern Ocean1,2,3. Their thinning4,5,6,7 or disintegration8,9 can cause upstream acceleration of grounded ice and raise global sea levels. So far the effect has not been quantified in a comprehensive and spatially explicit manner. Here, using a finite-element model, we diagnose the immediate, continent-wide flux response to different spatial patterns of ice-shelf mass loss. We show that highly localized ice-shelf thinning can reach across the entire shelf and accelerate ice flow in regions far from the initial perturbation. As an example, this ‘tele-buttressing’ enhances outflow from Bindschadler Ice Stream in response to thinning near Ross Island more than 900 km away. We further find that the integrated flux response across all grounding lines is highly dependent on the location of imposed changes: the strongest response is caused not only near ice streams and ice rises, but also by thinning, for instance, well-within the Filchner–Ronne and Ross Ice Shelves. The most critical regions in all major ice shelves are often located in regions easily accessible to the intrusion of warm ocean waters10,11,12, stressing Antarctica’s vulnerability to changes in its surrounding ocean. Article in Journal/Newspaper Antarc* Antarctica Bindschadler Ice Stream Ice Shelf Ice Shelves Ross Island Northumbria University, Newcastle: Northumbria Research Link (NRL) Bindschadler Ice Stream ENVELOPE(-142.000,-142.000,-81.000,-81.000) Ross Island Nature Climate Change 8 1 53 57 |
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Northumbria University, Newcastle: Northumbria Research Link (NRL) |
op_collection_id |
ftunivnorthumb |
language |
unknown |
topic |
F800 Physical and Terrestrial Geographical and Environmental Sciences |
spellingShingle |
F800 Physical and Terrestrial Geographical and Environmental Sciences Reese, Ronja Gudmundsson, Hilmar Levermann, Anders Winkelmann, Ricarda The far reach of ice-shelf thinning in Antarctica |
topic_facet |
F800 Physical and Terrestrial Geographical and Environmental Sciences |
description |
Floating ice shelves, which fringe most of Antarctica’s coastline, regulate ice flow into the Southern Ocean1,2,3. Their thinning4,5,6,7 or disintegration8,9 can cause upstream acceleration of grounded ice and raise global sea levels. So far the effect has not been quantified in a comprehensive and spatially explicit manner. Here, using a finite-element model, we diagnose the immediate, continent-wide flux response to different spatial patterns of ice-shelf mass loss. We show that highly localized ice-shelf thinning can reach across the entire shelf and accelerate ice flow in regions far from the initial perturbation. As an example, this ‘tele-buttressing’ enhances outflow from Bindschadler Ice Stream in response to thinning near Ross Island more than 900 km away. We further find that the integrated flux response across all grounding lines is highly dependent on the location of imposed changes: the strongest response is caused not only near ice streams and ice rises, but also by thinning, for instance, well-within the Filchner–Ronne and Ross Ice Shelves. The most critical regions in all major ice shelves are often located in regions easily accessible to the intrusion of warm ocean waters10,11,12, stressing Antarctica’s vulnerability to changes in its surrounding ocean. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Reese, Ronja Gudmundsson, Hilmar Levermann, Anders Winkelmann, Ricarda |
author_facet |
Reese, Ronja Gudmundsson, Hilmar Levermann, Anders Winkelmann, Ricarda |
author_sort |
Reese, Ronja |
title |
The far reach of ice-shelf thinning in Antarctica |
title_short |
The far reach of ice-shelf thinning in Antarctica |
title_full |
The far reach of ice-shelf thinning in Antarctica |
title_fullStr |
The far reach of ice-shelf thinning in Antarctica |
title_full_unstemmed |
The far reach of ice-shelf thinning in Antarctica |
title_sort |
far reach of ice-shelf thinning in antarctica |
publisher |
Nature Publishing |
publishDate |
2018 |
url |
https://nrl.northumbria.ac.uk/id/eprint/34450/ https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-017-0020-x |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(-142.000,-142.000,-81.000,-81.000) |
geographic |
Bindschadler Ice Stream Ross Island |
geographic_facet |
Bindschadler Ice Stream Ross Island |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctica Bindschadler Ice Stream Ice Shelf Ice Shelves Ross Island |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctica Bindschadler Ice Stream Ice Shelf Ice Shelves Ross Island |
op_relation |
Reese, Ronja, Gudmundsson, Hilmar, Levermann, Anders and Winkelmann, Ricarda (2018) The far reach of ice-shelf thinning in Antarctica. Nature Climate Change, 8 (1). pp. 53-57. ISSN 1758-678X |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-017-0020-x |
container_title |
Nature Climate Change |
container_volume |
8 |
container_issue |
1 |
container_start_page |
53 |
op_container_end_page |
57 |
_version_ |
1766264492077875200 |