The cavity under the Amery Ice Shelf, East Antarctica
Ocean circulation under ice shelves and associated rates of melting and freezing are strongly influenced by the shape of the sub-ice-shelf cavity. We have refined an existing method and used additional in situ measurements to estimate the cavity shape under the Amery Ice Shelf, East Antarctica. A fi...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
2008
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://eprints.utas.edu.au/8443/ https://eprints.utas.edu.au/8443/1/Galton-Fenzi_etal_JGlac_2008.pdf http://www.igsoc.org/journal/54/188/t08J021.pdf |
| Summary: | Ocean circulation under ice shelves and associated rates of melting and freezing are strongly influenced by the shape of the sub-ice-shelf cavity. We have refined an existing method and used additional in situ measurements to estimate the cavity shape under the Amery Ice Shelf, East Antarctica. A finite-element hydrodynamic ocean-tide model was used to simulate the major tidal constituents for a range of different sub-Amery Ice Shelf cavity water-column thicknesses. The data are adjusted in the largely unsurveyed southern region of the ice-shelf cavity by comparing the complex error between simulated tides and in situ tides, derived from GPS observations. We show a significant improvement in the simulated tides, with a combined complex error of 1.8 cm, in comparison with past studies which show a complex error of ∼5.3 cm. Our bathymetry incorporates ice-draft data at the grounding line and seismic surveys, which have provided a considerable amount of new data. This technique has particular application when the water column beneath ice shelves is inaccessible and in situ GPS data are available. |
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