Crevasse Extent and Lateral Shearing of the McMurdo Shear Zone, Antarctica: Implications of Ice Shelf Stability
Abstract
Antarctica's ice shelves modulate the flow of inland ice towards the ocean. Understanding the controls on ice-shelf stability is critical for predicting the future evolution of the ice sheet. For the western sector of the Ross Ice Shelf (RIS), a potentially important region of lateral resistance is the McMurdo Shear Zone (MSZ) just downstream of Minna Bluff. Here the fast-moving Ross Ice Shelf ( 450 m/yr) shears past the slower-moving McMurdo Ice Shelf ( 200 m/yr) creating a zone of intense crevassing. An analysis of several satellite image datasets including a high-resolution digital elevation model (DEM) extracted from stereo Worldview imagery suggests that many of these flow features originate as the RIS flows past Minna Bluff. Here we present a sensitivity analysis of RIS ice flow using the Ice Sheet System Model (ISSM) (Larour et al. 2012) and the Design Analysis Kit for Optimization and Terascale Applications (DAKOTA). In this analysis we assess the sensitivity of model flow of RIS tributary glaciers to boundary condition perturbations within the Minna Bluff/MSZ region. Perturbations include ice shelf thickness variations as well as a scalar damage variable that quantifies the loss of load-bearing surface area due to ice shelf fracture. Field observations of surface flow and strain (GPS) and crevasse distribution and geometry (GPR)in the MSZ help constrain the model simulations. Initial results point to the importance of sub-ice shelf topography and its interaction with features such as Minna Bluff in determining stress distribution on the western RIS. Larour, E.; Seroussi, H.; Morlighem, M.; Rignot, E. 2012. Continental scale, high order, high spatial resolution, ice sheet modeling using the Ice Sheet System Model (ISSM), Journal of Geophysical Research
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2016
- Bibcode:
- 2016AGUFM.C13C0850K
- Keywords:
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- 0726 Ice sheets;
- CRYOSPHEREDE: 0728 Ice shelves;
- CRYOSPHEREDE: 1217 Time variable gravity;
- GEODESY AND GRAVITYDE: 4207 Arctic and Antarctic oceanography;
- OCEANOGRAPHY: GENERAL