High Basal Melt Rates and High Strain Rates Lead to More Fractured Ice

Watkins, Ray H.; Bassis, Jeremy N.; Thouless, M. D.; Luckman, Adrian

doi:10.1029/2023jf007366

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High Basal Melt Rates and High Strain Rates Lead to More Fractured Ice

Ray H. Watkins

, Jeremy N. Bassis

, M. D. Thouless, Adrian Luckman

Journal of Geophysical Research: Earth Surface, Volume: 129, Issue: 4

Swansea University Author: Adrian Luckman

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DOI (Published version): 10.1029/2023jf007366

Abstract

Ice shelves limit the flux of grounded ice into the ocean by buttressing the discharge of land-based ice upstream. Ice shelf weakening and collapse can lead to decreased buttressing and observations increasingly show that some ice shelves have experienced increased melt and increased calving, with r...

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Published in:	Journal of Geophysical Research: Earth Surface
ISSN:	2169-9003 2169-9011
Published:	American Geophysical Union (AGU) 2024
Online Access:	Check full text
URI:	https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa66110
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spelling	v2 66110 2024-04-22 High Basal Melt Rates and High Strain Rates Lead to More Fractured Ice 008cb668b2671b653a88677f075799a9 0000-0002-9618-5905 Adrian Luckman Adrian Luckman true false 2024-04-22 BGPS Ice shelves limit the flux of grounded ice into the ocean by buttressing the discharge of land-based ice upstream. Ice shelf weakening and collapse can lead to decreased buttressing and observations increasingly show that some ice shelves have experienced increased melt and increased calving, with recent hypotheses suggesting that increased melt leads to increased fracturing. However, the specific processes that control this correlation are not yet understood, with mechanisms other than melt affecting fracturing. Here we use the topography of the ice shelf base from BedMachine to investigate how basal melting and ice deformation contribute to crevasse and melt channel formation and evolution on the Pine Island Ice Shelf in West Antarctica. We find that high basal melt rates and high first principal strain rates lead to substantial roughening of the ice shelf through a collection of features, including melt channels and crevasses. Critically, melt channels and crevasses are the deepest in all directions at locations where the highest rates of melting and straining occur simultaneously. This suggests that the combination of melt rates and strain rates work in tandem to excavate and seed the deepest melt channels and crevasses on ice shelves. These features then may form lines of weakness that transform into rifts and, ultimately, the detachment boundary for calving events. This implies that melt and fracture play an important role in controlling the dynamics of ice shelves. Journal Article Journal of Geophysical Research: Earth Surface 129 4 American Geophysical Union (AGU) 2169-9003 2169-9011 ice shelf; ice sheet; Antartica; mellting; strain rate; roughness 20 4 2024 2024-04-20 10.1029/2023jf007366 COLLEGE NANME Biosciences Geography and Physics School COLLEGE CODE BGPS Swansea University Another institution paid the OA fee NASA. Grant Number: 80NSSC22K0378 NSF. Grant Number: 1738896 DOMINOS project International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration Natural Environment Research Council. Grant Number: NE/S006605/1 2024-05-20T14:59:44.0507239 2024-04-22T09:25:33.4669269 Faculty of Science and Engineering School of Biosciences, Geography and Physics - Geography Ray H. Watkins 0000-0003-1019-872x 1 Jeremy N. Bassis 0000-0003-2946-7176 2 M. D. Thouless 3 Adrian Luckman 0000-0002-9618-5905 4 66110__30408__63013fb2f4eb450899d6e022f8369861.pdf 66110.VoR.pdf 2024-05-20T14:58:18.9514884 Output 6536559 application/pdf Version of Record true © 2024. The Authors. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. true eng http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
title	High Basal Melt Rates and High Strain Rates Lead to More Fractured Ice
spellingShingle	High Basal Melt Rates and High Strain Rates Lead to More Fractured Ice Adrian Luckman
title_short	High Basal Melt Rates and High Strain Rates Lead to More Fractured Ice
title_full	High Basal Melt Rates and High Strain Rates Lead to More Fractured Ice
title_fullStr	High Basal Melt Rates and High Strain Rates Lead to More Fractured Ice
title_full_unstemmed	High Basal Melt Rates and High Strain Rates Lead to More Fractured Ice
title_sort	High Basal Melt Rates and High Strain Rates Lead to More Fractured Ice
author_id_str_mv	008cb668b2671b653a88677f075799a9
author_id_fullname_str_mv	008cb668b2671b653a88677f075799a9_***_Adrian Luckman
author	Adrian Luckman
author2	Ray H. Watkins Jeremy N. Bassis M. D. Thouless Adrian Luckman
format	Journal article
container_title	Journal of Geophysical Research: Earth Surface
container_volume	129
container_issue	4
publishDate	2024
institution	Swansea University
issn	2169-9003 2169-9011
doi_str_mv	10.1029/2023jf007366
publisher	American Geophysical Union (AGU)
college_str	Faculty of Science and Engineering
hierarchytype
hierarchy_top_id	facultyofscienceandengineering
hierarchy_top_title	Faculty of Science and Engineering
hierarchy_parent_id	facultyofscienceandengineering
hierarchy_parent_title	Faculty of Science and Engineering
department_str	School of Biosciences, Geography and Physics - Geography{{{_:::_}}}Faculty of Science and Engineering{{{_:::_}}}School of Biosciences, Geography and Physics - Geography
document_store_str	1
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description	Ice shelves limit the flux of grounded ice into the ocean by buttressing the discharge of land-based ice upstream. Ice shelf weakening and collapse can lead to decreased buttressing and observations increasingly show that some ice shelves have experienced increased melt and increased calving, with recent hypotheses suggesting that increased melt leads to increased fracturing. However, the specific processes that control this correlation are not yet understood, with mechanisms other than melt affecting fracturing. Here we use the topography of the ice shelf base from BedMachine to investigate how basal melting and ice deformation contribute to crevasse and melt channel formation and evolution on the Pine Island Ice Shelf in West Antarctica. We find that high basal melt rates and high first principal strain rates lead to substantial roughening of the ice shelf through a collection of features, including melt channels and crevasses. Critically, melt channels and crevasses are the deepest in all directions at locations where the highest rates of melting and straining occur simultaneously. This suggests that the combination of melt rates and strain rates work in tandem to excavate and seed the deepest melt channels and crevasses on ice shelves. These features then may form lines of weakness that transform into rifts and, ultimately, the detachment boundary for calving events. This implies that melt and fracture play an important role in controlling the dynamics of ice shelves.
published_date	2024-04-20T14:59:42Z
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score	11.016235

High Basal Melt Rates and High Strain Rates Lead to More Fractured Ice

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