 |
| Titel |
Coupling of ice-shelf melting and buttressing is a key process in ice-sheets dynamics |
| VerfasserIn |
Olivier Gagliardini, Gael Durand, Thomas Zwinger, Richard Hindmarsh, Emmanuel Le Meur |
| Konferenz |
EGU General Assembly 2010
|
| Medientyp |
Artikel
|
| Sprache |
Englisch
|
| Digitales Dokument |
PDF |
| Erschienen |
In: GRA - Volume 12 (2010) |
| Datensatznummer |
250034964
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Zusammenfassung |
| Ocean warming and the consequent increase of ice-shelf melting are presumed to be the
trigger of coastal ice-sheet thinning. Using a full-Stokes finite element model which includes
a proper description of the grounding line dynamics, we investigate the impact of melting
below ice shelves. We argue that the influence of ice-shelf melting on the ice-sheet dynamics
induces a complex response, and the first naive view that melting could steadily encroach on
grounded ice is erroneous. We demonstrate that melting acts directly on the magnitude of the
buttressing force by modifying both the area experiencing lateral friction and the ice-shelf
velocity, indicating that the decrease of back stress imposed by the ice-shelf is the
prevailing process responsible of inland dynamical thinning. We further show that
feedbacks between melting and buttressing forces may lead to counterintuitive
results as an increase of the average melting rate may lead to inland ice thickening. |
|
|
|
|
|
|