TY - JOUR
T1 - Activation of existing surface crevasses has limited impact on grounding line flux of Antarctic Ice Streams
AU - Gerli, Cristina
AU - Rosier, Sebastian
AU - Gudmundsson, Hilmar
N1 - Funding information: The authors would like to thank the editor and two anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments. Sebastian Rosier is supported by the PROPHET project, a component of the International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration (ITGC). Support from National Science Foundation (NSF: Grant 1739031) and Natural Environment Research Council (NERC: Grant NE/S006745/1). ITGC Contribution No. ITGC-098. There are no real or perceived financial conflicts of interest for any author.
PY - 2023/3/28
Y1 - 2023/3/28
N2 - Recent studies have identified widespread vulnerable ice shelf regions in Antarctica which are both highly buttressed and susceptible to crevasse hydrofracturing, raising concern for potential crevasse driven ice-shelf collapse and future sea level rise. Here, we employ the finite element ice flow model, Úa, to investigate whether crevasses which have propagated through the entire ice column have a significant impact on upstream flow and quantify their contribution to sea level rise. We find a large variability in the response of ice shelves to this perturbation, with changes in grounding line flux as large as 155% for the Filchner-Ronne and 46% for the Ross, when compared to the present day. Crevasses located close to the grounding lines contribute most of this change. When compared to a second perturbation in which ice shelves are completely removed, however, the response is relatively small for all modeled ice shelves.
AB - Recent studies have identified widespread vulnerable ice shelf regions in Antarctica which are both highly buttressed and susceptible to crevasse hydrofracturing, raising concern for potential crevasse driven ice-shelf collapse and future sea level rise. Here, we employ the finite element ice flow model, Úa, to investigate whether crevasses which have propagated through the entire ice column have a significant impact on upstream flow and quantify their contribution to sea level rise. We find a large variability in the response of ice shelves to this perturbation, with changes in grounding line flux as large as 155% for the Filchner-Ronne and 46% for the Ross, when compared to the present day. Crevasses located close to the grounding lines contribute most of this change. When compared to a second perturbation in which ice shelves are completely removed, however, the response is relatively small for all modeled ice shelves.
KW - crevasse propagation
KW - ice shelf buttressing
KW - ice shelves vulnerability
KW - sea level rise
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85152566262&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1029/2022gl101687
DO - 10.1029/2022gl101687
M3 - Article
SN - 0094-8276
VL - 50
SP - 1
EP - 9
JO - Geophysical Research Letters
JF - Geophysical Research Letters
IS - 6
M1 - e2022GL101687
ER -
