scholarly journals Sequential stagnation of Kamb Ice Stream, West Antarctica

2006 ◽  
Vol 33 (14) ◽  
Author(s):  
G. A. Catania ◽  
T. A. Scambos ◽  
H. Conway ◽  
C. F. Raymond
Geology ◽  
2004 ◽  
Vol 32 (6) ◽  
pp. 481 ◽  
Author(s):  
Felix Ng ◽  
Howard Conway

2013 ◽  
Vol 54 (63) ◽  
pp. 287-298 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hermann Engelhardt ◽  
Barclay Kamb

AbstractA basal zone, tens of meters thick, of debris-laden ice was observed in Kamb Ice Stream, West Antarctica, using a video camera lowered into boreholes made by hot-water drilling. The debris content varies, sometimes abruptly, forming a sequence of layers that reflect the complex history of fast ice flow and bed interaction. In most parts, the concentration of debris is low, a few percent by weight, with particles, often mud clots, dispersed in a matrix of clear ice. The nature of the debris distribution can be interpreted in terms of specific time intervals in the history of fast motion of Kamb Ice Stream including processes leading up to the termination of its streaming behavior and possible reactivation.


2013 ◽  
Vol 118 (1) ◽  
pp. 97-110 ◽  
Author(s):  
Narelle van der Wel ◽  
Poul Christoffersen ◽  
Marion Bougamont

2018 ◽  
Vol 12 (9) ◽  
pp. 2821-2829 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicholas Holschuh ◽  
Knut Christianson ◽  
Howard Conway ◽  
Robert W. Jacobel ◽  
Brian C. Welch

Abstract. Variations in properties controlling ice flow (e.g., topography, accumulation rate, basal friction) are recorded by structures in glacial stratigraphy. When anomalies that disturb the stratigraphy are fixed in space, the structures they produce advect away from the source and can be used to trace flow pathways and reconstruct ice-flow patterns of the past. Here we provide an example of one of these persistent tracers: a prominent unconformity in the glacial layering that originates at Mt. Resnik, part of a subglacial volcanic complex near Kamb Ice Stream in central West Antarctica. The unconformity records a change in the regional thinning behavior seemingly coincident (∼3440±117 a) with stabilization of grounding-line retreat in the Ross Sea Embayment. We argue that this feature records both the flow and thinning history far upstream of the Ross Sea grounding line, indicating a limited influence of observed ice-stream stagnation cycles on large-scale ice-sheet routing over the last ∼ 5700 years.


2005 ◽  
Vol 51 (174) ◽  
pp. 423-431 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. A. Catania ◽  
H. Conway ◽  
C.F. Raymond ◽  
T.A. Scambos

AbstractSatellite images of Kamb Ice Stream (formerly Ice Stream C), West Antarctica, reveal several long, curved linear features (lineations) oriented sub-parallel to the ice-flow direction. We use ground-based radar to characterize the internal layer stratigraphy of these lineations and the terrains that they bound. Some lineations are relict ice-stream shear margins, identified by hyperbolic diffractors near the surface (interpreted to be buried crevasses) and highly disturbed internal layers at depth. Satellite images show another set of lineations outside the relict margins that wrap around the ends of the surrounding inter-ice-stream ridges. Internal layers beneath these lineations are downwarped strongly into a syncline shape. The internal stratigraphy of the terrain between these lineations and the relict margins is characterized by deep hyperbolic line diffractors. Our preferred hypothesis for the origin of this terrain is that it was floating sometime in the past; the deep hyperbolas are interpreted to be basal crevasses, and the strongly downwarped internal layers mark the position of a relict grounding line. Our study shows that lineations and intervening terrains have different internal layer characteristics implying different origins. Differentiation between these features is not possible using satellite images alone.


2009 ◽  
Vol 50 (51) ◽  
pp. 98-104 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kenichi Matsuoka ◽  
Anthony Gades ◽  
Howard Conway ◽  
Ginny Catania ◽  
Charles F. Raymond

AbstractVisible and infrared satellite images reveal numerous lineations on the Siple Coast region of West Antarctica. We used 5 MHz ice-penetrating radar to probe the interior and the bed of the ice sheet beneath a lineation at the boundary between Engelhardt Ice Ridge and flat-ice terrain to the south of the Kamb Ice Stream (KIS) outlet. Results show curved reflectors that emerge from the bed beneath 600 m thick ice. The tops of the reflectors extend about 100m into the ice above the bed, where they become almost horizontal. Apparent reflectivity of the horizontal section is about 20 dB less than that of the bed. We conclude that the likely cause of such strong reflection is sea water that was accreted into basal crevasses when the flat-ice terrain was floating. Internal layers are warped downward just downslope from the basal reflectors. It is thought that the downwarping was caused by localized basal melting in the past. The spatial pattern of downwarping suggests that localized basal melting was stronger on the north side than on the south side of KIS; apparently ice/ocean interactions on the two sides of KIS were different.


2009 ◽  
Vol 50 (51) ◽  
pp. 10-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert W. Jacobel ◽  
Brian C. Welch ◽  
David Osterhouse ◽  
Rickard Pettersson ◽  
Joseph A. MacGregor

AbstractRadar profiles of bed echo intensity can survey conditions at the ice–bed interface and test for the presence or absence of water. However, extracting information about basal conditions from bed echo intensities requires an estimate of the attenuation loss through the ice. We used the relationship between bed echo intensities from constant-offset radar data and ice thickness to estimate depth-averaged attenuation rates at several locations on and near Kamb Ice Stream (KIS), West Antarctica. We found values varying from 29 dBkm–1 at Siple Dome to 15 dBkm–1 in the main trunk region of KIS, in agreement with a previous measurement and models. Using these attenuation-rate values, we calculated the relative bed reflectivity throughout our KIS surveys and found that most of the bed in the trunk has high basal reflectivities, similar to those obtained in the location of boreholes that found water at the bed. Areas of lower bed reflectivity are limited to the sticky spot, where a borehole found a dry bed, and along the margins of KIS. These results support previous hypotheses that the basal conditions at locations like the sticky spot on KIS control its stagnation and possible reactivation.


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