Vapor transport and sublimation on Mullins Glacier, Antarctica

Vapor transport and sublimation on Mullins Glacier, Antarctica

Distribution and origin of patterned ground on Mullins Valley debris-covered glacier, Antarctica: the roles of ice flow and sublimation

We map polygonally patterned ground formed in sublimation tills that overlie debris-covered glaciers in Mullins Valley and central Beacon Valley, in southern Victoria Land, Antarctica, and distinguish five morphological zones. Where the Mullins Valley debris-covered glacier debouches into Beacon Valley, polygonal patterning transitions from radial (orthogonal) intersections to non-oriented (hex...

Dating buried glacier ice using cosmogenic 3He in surface clasts: Theory and application to Mullins Glacier, Antarctica

We develop a modeling framework to describe the accumulation of terrestrial cosmogenic 3He in Antarctic debris-covered glaciers. The framework helps quantify the expected range in cosmogenic-nuclide inventories for measured clasts at the surface of supraglacial debris. We first delineate the physical factors that impact clast movement within, and on top of, debris-covered glaciers, including th...

Surface "Waves" on Byrd Glacier, Antarctica

Byrd Glacier has one of the largest ice catchment areas in Antarctica, delivers more ice to the Ross Ice Shelf than any other ice stream, and is the fastest of these ice streams. A force balance, combined with a mass balance, demonstrates that stream flow in Byrd Glacier is transitional from sheet flow in East Antarctica to shelf flow in the Ross Ice Shelf. The longitudinal pulling stress, calc...

Shallow seismic surveys and ice thickness estimates of the Mullins Valley debris-covered glacier, McMurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica

Several debris-covered glaciers occupy tributaries of upper Beacon Valley, Antarctica. Understanding their flow dynamics and ice thickness is important for palaeoclimate studies and for understanding the origins of ancient ice elsewhere in the McMurdo Dry Valleys region. We present the results of several shallow seismic surveys in Mullins Valley, where the largest of these debris-covered glacie...