Dupont, T. Role of small ice shelves in sea-level rise. Assessment of the importance of ice-shelf buttressing to ice-sheet flow. Glacier acceleration and thinning after ice shelf collapse in the Larsen B embayment, Antarctica.
Hulbe, C. Patterns of glacier response to disintegration of the Larsen B ice shelf, Antarctic Peninsula. Global and Planetary Change , From ice-shelf tributary to tidewater glacier: continued glacier recession, acceleration and thinning following the collapse of the Prince Gustav Ice Shelf on the Antarctic Peninsula. Journal of Glaciology 57, Davies, B.
Variable glacier response to atmospheric warming, northern Antarctic Peninsula, — The Cryosphere 6 , Joughin, I. Stability of the West Antarctic ice sheet in a warming world. Nature Geosci , Pingback: Prat watch 7. Pingback: Antarctic ice shelves and sea ice — a tale of two parts - AntarcticGlaciers. No doubt environmental changes have some effect on the rate of collapse, but do they not collapse at all when the environment is steady? If you think of loss of South coast of England cliffs due to seawater erosion then surely that happens all the time mostly from storms , not just when the environment changes.
Ice shelf collapse needs some trigger. In numerical models initiated under stable conditions, ice shelves do not develop some kind of physical instability and spontaneously collapse.
They calve icebergs in response to numerous external pressures. Around the Antarctic Peninsula, changes in ocean currents, and in particular, changes in circumpolar deep water flowing onto the continental shelf, is melting ice shelves from below. When this is combined with rapid surface melt during warm summers, the ice shelves can disintegrate very quickly. We can look at marine sediment cores to see if this is an unusual or normal occurrence. It seems that more northerly ice shelves around the northern Antarctic Peninsula Prince Gustav, Larsen A and on the western peninsula George VI Ice Shelf , may have disintegrated previously during warm phases in the Holocene.
However, some ice shelves such as Larsen B appeared to be stable for most of the Holocene. Is it possible that ice shelfs are exposed to the corioli effect? It generate tensions that explode when the ice structure is thinning. Ice shelfs are huge masses, exposed to tensions due to the rotation of the earth. These tensions are not mitigated by contact with the soil.
Instead they are accumulated by a support of water that is practical neutal in respec to that forces. I am currently working on a dissertation on this subject, and am using your page to help me in my layout. I was just wondering if the image you used for the basal melting was found somewhere, or if you made it yourself.
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Ice shelf collapse Mechanisms of ice shelf collapse Ice shelf buttressing References Comments What is an ice shelf? Larsen Ice Shelf in Ice shelves are floating extension of land ice and are firmly attached to the land.
Global warming contributes to weakening ice shelves as warmer ocean water erodes the underbelly of the ice shelves, while rising air temperatures weaken them from above. But this theory did not sit well with the Larsen C ice shelf split, because the ice had been frozen solid for months. So to find answers, NASA scientists focused on the melange, which has natural properties similar to glue: It fills cracks or gaps and sticks to ice and rock.
When it accumulates in a crack in an ice shelf, it creates a layer — thin but as hard as the surrounding ice — that holds the crack together. The scientists assessed the rifts in the ice shelf that were most vulnerable to breaking. They selected 11 rifts for their analysis. The researchers found that only when the melange grew thinner that the rifts in the ice shelves grew larger. While it remains to be seen if and when Larsen C will meet the same fate, warning signs are already in place.
See 2 comments. This article would be less scary if we had an administration that wasn't scientifically illiterate. The family of nations must take action to protect the planet, but sadly the U. The government isn't so much scientifically illiterate as very protective of the corporate interests who put them in office, namely oil and banking cartels.
They should all be tried for crimes against humanity. Here's why it worries scientists. Huge Antarctic iceberg breaks off. Antarctica: A frontline for climate change So far, scientists have been hesitant to attribute the Larsen C ice shelf breakup to rising global temperatures.
Still, the magnitude and timing of this ice loss warrants attention. Sign in. Thanks for reading Scientific American. Create your free account or Sign in to continue. See Subscription Options. Discover World-Changing Science. Nature at work The development of rifts and the calving of icebergs is part of the natural cycle of an ice shelf.
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