A thermomechanical model of ice-shelf flow

An ice-shelf model which features efficient numerical techniques is developed to determine the back-force exerted by sides and pinning points, such as islands of an embayed ice shelf. The model is applied to three ideal geometries and shows that the restraint exerted by a small island, even far downstream from the grounding line, can represent about one-half of the total restraint due to the embayment. Our results are further interpreted to suggest several criteria useful for testing any ice-shelf model.