Vibrations of Mertz Glacier ice tongue, East Antarctica
At the time of its calving in February 2010, Mertz Glacier, East Antarctica, was characterized by a 145km long, 35km wide floating tongue. In this paper, we use GPS data from the Collaborative Research into Antarctic Calving and Iceberg Evolution (CRAC-ICE) 2007/08 and 2009/10 field seasons to inves...
| Published in: | Journal of Glaciology |
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| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
| Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
2012
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://eprints.utas.edu.au/16206/ https://eprints.utas.edu.au/16206/1/Coleman,_Richard_Jour_of_Glac_2_2012.pdf |
| Summary: | At the time of its calving in February 2010, Mertz Glacier, East Antarctica, was characterized by a 145km long, 35km wide floating tongue. In this paper, we use GPS data from the Collaborative Research into Antarctic Calving and Iceberg Evolution (CRAC-ICE) 2007/08 and 2009/10 field seasons to investigate the dynamics of Mertz Glacier. Twomonths of data were collected at the end of the 2007/08 field season from two kinematic GPS stations situated on each side of the main rift of the glacier tongue and from rock stations located around the ice tongue during 2008/09. Using Precise Point Positioning with integer ambiguity fixing, we observe that the two GPS stations recorded vibrations of the ice tongue with several dominant periods. We compare these results with a simple elastic model of the ice tongue and find that the natural vibration frequencies are similar to those observed. This information provides a better understanding of their possible effects on rift propagation and hence on the glacier calving processes. |
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