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Abstract Ice‐shelf basal channels form due to concentrated submarine melting. They are present in many Antarctic ice shelves and can reduce ice‐shelf structural integrity, potentially destabilizing ice shelves by full‐depth incision. Here, we describe the viscous ice response to a basal channel—secondary flow—which acts perpendicular to the channel axis and is induced by gradients in ice thickness. We use a full‐Stokes ice‐flow model to systematically assess the transient evolution of a basal channel in the presence of melting. Secondary flow increases with channel size and reduces the rate of channel incision, such that linear extrapolation or the Shallow‐Shelf Approximation cannot project future channel evolution. For thick ice shelves (m) secondary flow potentially stabilizes the channel, but is insufficient to significantly delay breakthrough for thinner ice (m). Using synthetic data, we assess the impact of secondary flow when inferring basal‐channel melt rates from satellite observations.
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Treatment of ice-shelf evolution combining flow and flexure
Abstract We develop a two-dimensional, plan-view formulation of ice-shelf flow and viscoelastic ice-shelf flexure. This formulation combines, for the first time, the shallow-shelf approximation for horizontal ice-shelf flow (and shallow-stream approximation for flow on lubricated beds such as where ice rises and rumples form), with the treatment of a thin-plate flexure. We demonstrate the treatment by performing two finite-element simulations: one of the relict pedestalled lake features that exist on some debris-covered ice shelves due to strong heterogeneity in surface ablation, and the other of ice rumpling in the grounding zone of an ice rise. The proposed treatment opens new venues to investigate physical processes that require coupling between the longitudinal deformation and vertical flexure, for instance, the effects of surface melting and supraglacial lakes on ice shelves, interactions with the sea swell, and many others.
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- PAR ID:
- 10322206
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Journal of Glaciology
- Volume:
- 67
- Issue:
- 265
- ISSN:
- 0022-1430
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.1017/jog.2021.39
