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| Titel |
From Heinrich Events to cyclic ice streaming: the grow-and-surge instability in the Parallel Ice Sheet Model |
| VerfasserIn |
Johannes Feldmann, Anders Levermann |
| Konferenz |
EGU General Assembly 2017
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| Medientyp |
Artikel
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| Sprache |
en
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| Digitales Dokument |
PDF |
| Erschienen |
In: GRA - Volume 19 (2017) |
| Datensatznummer |
250153421
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| Publikation (Nr.) |
 EGU/EGU2017-18394.pdf |
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| Zusammenfassung |
| Here we report on a cyclic, physical ice-discharge instability in the Parallel Ice Sheet Model, simulating the flow of a three-dimensional, inherently buttressed ice-sheet-shelf system which periodically surges on a millennial timescale. The thermo-mechanically coupled model on 1 km horizontal resolution includes an enthalpy-based formulation of the thermodynamics, a non-linear stress-balanced based sliding law and a very simple sub-glacial hydrology. The simulated unforced surging is characterized by rapid ice streaming through a bed trough, resulting in abrupt discharge of ice across the grounding line which is eventually calved into the ocean. We identify and visualize the central feedbacks that dominate the sub-sequent phases of ice build-up, surge and stabilization which emerge from the interaction between ice dynamics, thermodynamics and the sub-glacial till layer. A reduction in the surface mass balance or basal roughness yields a damping of the feedback loop which suggests that thinner ice sheets may be less susceptible to surging. The presented mechanisms underlying our simulations of self-maintained, periodic ice growth and destabilization may play a role in large-scale ice-sheet surging, such as the surging of the Laurentide Ice Sheet, which is associated with Heinrich Events, and ice-stream shut-down and reactivation, such as observed in the Siple Coast region of West Antarctica. |
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