Continued deceleration of Whillans ice stream, West Antarctica

Earlier observations indicated that Whillans Ice Stream slowed from 1973 to 1997. We collected new GPS observations of the ice stream's speed in 2003 and 2004. These data show that the ice stream is continuing to decelerate at rates of about 0.61%/yr 2 , with faster rates near the grounding lin...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Geophysical Research Letters
Main Authors: Joughin, I, Bindschadler, RA, King, MA, Voigt, D, Alley, RB, Anandakrishnan, S, Horgan, H, Peters, L, Winberry, P, Das, SB, Catania, G
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Amer Geophysical Union 2005
Subjects:
Earth Sciences
Physical Geography and Environmental Geoscience
Physical Geography and Environmental Geoscience not elsewhere classified
West Antarctica
Whillans
Whillans Ice Stream
Antarc*
Antarctica
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1029/2005GL024319
http://ecite.utas.edu.au/81813
Description
Summary:Earlier observations indicated that Whillans Ice Stream slowed from 1973 to 1997. We collected new GPS observations of the ice stream's speed in 2003 and 2004. These data show that the ice stream is continuing to decelerate at rates of about 0.61%/yr 2 , with faster rates near the grounding line. Our data also indicate that the deceleration extends over the full width of the ice plain. Extrapolation of the deceleration trend suggests the ice stream could stagnate sometime between the middle of the 21st and 22nd Centuries.

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