Vulnerable Antarctic ice shelves

Transoceanic infragravity waves impacting Antarctic ice shelves

[1] Long-period oceanic infragravity (IG) waves (ca. [250, 50] s period) are generated along continental coastlines by nonlinear wave interactions of storm-forced shoreward propagating swell. Seismic observations on the Ross Ice Shelf show that free IG waves generated along the Pacific coast of North America propagate transoceanically to Antarctica, where they induce a much higher amplitude she...

Tsunami and infragravity waves impacting Antarctic ice shelves

The responses of the Ross Ice Shelf (RIS) to the 16 September 2015 8.3 (Mw) Chilean earthquake tsunami (>75 s period) and to oceanic infragravity (IG) waves (50–300 s period) were recorded by a broadband seismic array deployed on the RIS from November 2014 to November 2016. Here we show that tsunami and IG-generated signals within the RIS propagate at gravity wave speeds ( 70 m/s) as water-ice ...

Melting and freezing under Antarctic ice shelves from a combination of ice-sheet modelling and observations

Effect of Ocean Warming on West Antarctic Ice Streams and Ice Shelves

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has deemed the Western Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) as very likely to have contributed to sea level rice over the past two decades, estimating a loss of 44 ±13 Gt/yr. Focus has shifted to the behavior and dynamics of the WAIS ice streams since ~90 % of the outward ice flux flows through the ice streams. The behavior and movement of the ice stre...

The suppression of Antarctic bottom water formation by melting ice shelves in Prydz Bay

A fourth production region for the globally important Antarctic bottom water has been attributed to dense shelf water formation in the Cape Darnley Polynya, adjoining Prydz Bay in East Antarctica. Here we show new observations from CTD-instrumented elephant seals in 2011-2013 that provide the first complete assessment of dense shelf water formation in Prydz Bay. After a complex evolution involv...