Channelized ice melting in the ocean boundary layer beneath Pine Island Glacier, Antarctica

Ice shelves play a key role in the mass balance of the Antarctic ice sheets by buttressing their seaward-flowing outlet glaciers; however, they are exposed to the underlying ocean and may weaken if ocean thermal forcing increases. An expedition to the ice shelf of the remote Pine Island Glacier, a m...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Science
Main Authors: Stanton, TP, Shaw, WJ, Truffer, M, Corr, HFJ, Peters, LE, Riverman, KL, Bindschadler, R, Holland, DM, Anandakrishnan, S
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Amer Assoc Advancement Science 2013
Subjects:
Earth Sciences
Oceanography
Oceanography not elsewhere classified
Antarctic
Pine Island Glacier
The Antarctic
West Antarctic Ice Sheet
Antarc*
Antarctica
Ice Sheet
Ice Shelf
Ice Shelves
Pine Island
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1239373
http://ecite.utas.edu.au/103754
Description
Summary:Ice shelves play a key role in the mass balance of the Antarctic ice sheets by buttressing their seaward-flowing outlet glaciers; however, they are exposed to the underlying ocean and may weaken if ocean thermal forcing increases. An expedition to the ice shelf of the remote Pine Island Glacier, a major outlet of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet that has rapidly thinned and accelerated in recent decades, has been completed. Observations from geophysical surveys and long-term oceanographic instruments deployed down bore holes into the ocean cavity reveal a buoyancy-driven boundary layer within a basal channel that melts the channel apex by 0.06 meter per day, with near-zero melt rates along the flanks of the channel. A complex pattern of such channels is visible throughout the Pine Island Glacier shelf.

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