Ocean heat drives rapid basal melt of the Totten Ice Shelf

Mass loss from the West Antarctic ice shelves and glaciers has been linked to basal melt by ocean heat flux. The Totten Ice Shelf in East Antarctica, which buttresses a marine-based ice sheet with a volume equivalent to at least 3.5 m of global sea-level rise, also experiences rapid basal melt, but...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Science Advances
Main Authors: Rintoul, SR, Silvano, A, Pena-Molino, B, van Wijk, E, Rosenberg, M, Greenbaum, JS, Blankenship, DD
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: American Association for the Advancement of Science (A A A S) 2016
Subjects:
Earth Sciences
Oceanography
Physical Oceanography
Antarctic
East Antarctic Ice Sheet
East Antarctica
Antarc*
Antarctica
Ice Sheet
Ice Shelf
Ice Shelves
Totten Ice Shelf
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.1601610
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28028540
http://ecite.utas.edu.au/113780
Description
Summary:Mass loss from the West Antarctic ice shelves and glaciers has been linked to basal melt by ocean heat flux. The Totten Ice Shelf in East Antarctica, which buttresses a marine-based ice sheet with a volume equivalent to at least 3.5 m of global sea-level rise, also experiences rapid basal melt, but the role of ocean forcing was not known because of a lack of observations near the ice shelf. Observations from the Totten calving front confirm that (0.22 0.07) 10 6 m 3 s −1 of warm water enters the cavity through a newly discovered deep channel. The ocean heat transport into the cavity is sufficient to support the large basal melt rates inferred from glaciological observations. Change in ocean heat flux is a plausible physical mechanism to explain past and projected changes in this sector of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet and its contribution to sea level.

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