Analysis of 2001 US-ITASE Traverse Deep-Penetrating Radar Studies in West Antarctica

The 2001 US-ITASE traverse route covered 835 km from Byrd Surface Camp to Pine Island Glacier (PIG), crossing the Ross Sea/Amundsen Sea (RS/AS) divide and the PIG/ Rutford Ice Stream divide at two separate locations and recording bed topography and internal layers along most of the route. In regions where previous radar data have been available our bed topography corresponds well with the BedMap dataset. Elsewhere, disagreements as high as 50 percent, but generally less than 20 percent of the ice thickness, appear to be the result of interpolation necessary in creating BedMap where no data previously existed. These results have implications for those developing regional or continental-scale ice flow models based on BedMap. The location where the traverse crossed the RS/AS divide is just south of the proposed inland West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) deep core location. One of our goals is to assist in characterizing the ice sheet flow in the vicinity of the proposed deep core site and at other divide locations. Using the deep-penetrating radar data taken along the traverse, we have analyzed the internal ice stratigraphy to make a preliminary investigation of ice flow and ice divide stability at the RS/AS and PIG/Rutford Ice Stream divides. Ice divide stability is a key factor in determining where an ice core should be drilled. Cores should be drilled where the ice flow and accumulation history are well known in order to interpret the ice core record. A qualitative inspection of ice internal stratigraphy near the RS/AS divide indicates possible changes in local or regional ice velocity and/or ice accumulation rates. These factors should be taken into account when determining the location for the Inland WAIS Deep Core drill site.