Riftquakes: Recording and Modeling Seismic Signals of Rifting at Pine Island Glacier

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Seth Olinger ◽  
Brad Lipovsky ◽  
Marine Denolle ◽  
Brendan Crowell
Keyword(s):  
Bending Moment ◽  
Seismic Signal ◽  
Stress Concentrations ◽  
Ice Shelf ◽  
Ice Dynamics ◽  
Low Frequencies ◽  
Ice Shelves ◽  
Rift Propagation ◽  
Glacier Ice ◽  
Using Data

<p>Nearly 50% of Antarctic ice discharge into the ocean occurs via iceberg calving (Depoorter et al 2013). Large tabular icebergs calve from ice shelves along large fractures called rifts, but the physics of rifting are poorly understood. How fast does rift propagation occur? Does the timing of rift fracture coincide with episodes of unusual ice motion? We investigate these questions using data from seismometers and GPS sensors deployed on Pine Island Glacier ice shelf (PIG) from January 2012 to December 2013 surrounding the calving of iceberg B31, which exceeded 700 km2 in size and calved in November 2013 along a large rift. Using TerraSAR-X imagery, we identify a large 7km-long rift that must have occurred between May 8 and May 11, 2012. We identify a large-amplitude seismic signal on May 9, 2012, which we attribute to the rifting event. The signal is broadband, containing energy at frequencies higher than 1 Hz and lower than 0.01 Hz, and exhibits pronounced dispersion characterized by high frequencies arriving before low frequencies. We use features of the May 9 “riftquake” to detect thousands of similar events, which we classify using K-shape clustering. We hypothesize that the observed signals are flexural gravity waves generated by a bending moment applied to the ice shelf during fracture. To test this hypothesis, we model the ice shelf as a dynamic beam supported by an inviscid, incompressible ocean. We find that the model reproduces observed riftquake waveforms when forced with a bending moment. We then use a Markov Chain Monte Carlo inversion to model representative events from each cluster of observed events. The inversion reveals that source durations on the order of seconds have the highest likelihood of explaining observed riftquake waveforms, suggesting that rifting occurs on elastic timescales. Finally, we locate the riftquakes and find that a swarm of events originating at the rift tip occurs just after the start of a period of acceleration at PIG, suggesting that the stress concentrations driving rift opening are influenced by changes in ice dynamics.</p>

scholarly journals Thermohaline structure and circulation beneath the Langhovde Glacier ice shelf in East Antarctica

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Masahiro Minowa ◽  
Shin Sugiyama ◽  
Masato Ito ◽  
Shiori Yamane ◽  
Shigeru Aoki
Keyword(s):  
Freezing Point ◽  
East Antarctica ◽  
Ice Shelf ◽  
Rate Estimate ◽  
Ice Shelves ◽  
Plume Water ◽  
Warm Deep Water ◽  
Glacier Ice ◽  
Basal Melting

AbstractBasal melting of ice shelves is considered to be the principal driver of recent ice mass loss in Antarctica. Nevertheless, in-situ oceanic data covering the extensive areas of a subshelf cavity are sparse. Here we show comprehensive structures of temperature, salinity and current measured in January 2018 through four boreholes drilled at a ~3-km-long ice shelf of Langhovde Glacier in East Antarctica. The measurements were performed in 302–12 m-thick ocean cavity beneath 234–412 m-thick ice shelf. The data indicate that Modified Warm Deep Water is transported into the grounding zone beneath a stratified buoyant plume. Water at the ice-ocean interface was warmer than the in-situ freezing point by 0.65–0.95°C, leading to a mean basal melt rate estimate of 1.42 m a−1. Our measurements indicate the existence of a density-driven water circulation in the cavity beneath the ice shelf of Langhovde Glacier, similar to that proposed for warm-ocean cavities of larger Antarctic ice shelves.

scholarly journals Ice shelf internal reflection horizons reveal ice provenance, dynamics, surface accumulation and oceanic melt

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Inka Koch ◽  
Reinhard Drews ◽  
Daniela Jansen ◽  
Steven Franke ◽  
Vjeran Visnjevic ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Shear Zones ◽  
Ultra Wideband ◽  
Internal Layers ◽  
Ice Shelf ◽  
Ice Streams ◽  
Catchment Scale ◽  
Ice Dynamics ◽  
Ice Shelves ◽  
Wideband Radar ◽  
Narrow Belt

<p>Ice shelves are widely known to slow the transfer of Antarctic grounded ice to the ocean, especially if their flow is decelerated by local pinning points. Their longevity is influenced by variations in ice dynamics, surface accumulation and oceanic conditions in the ice shelf cavity. This is reflected in the ice shelf structure, which can be characterized by the shape of internal radar reflection horizons.</p><p>We aim to map the internal ice shelf stratigraphy of ice shelves, starting with the narrow belt of ice-shelves in the Dronning Maud Land area. The final goal will be to evaluate these as a spatiotemporal archive of ice provenance and ice dynamics. The bulk of the data presented here were collected with AWI’s airborne multi frequency ultra-wideband radar and we combine these new observations with airborne and ground-based radar surveys from previous years. We present a consistent set of internal radar isochrones on a catchment scale for the Roi Baudoin area including the Ragnhild ice streams, the grounding-zone, the iceshelf and multiple ice rises.  Using pattern matching technique we can link isochrones across different ice rises in the area, and hence provide first observational constraints on how ice rises jointly react to changes in atmospheric and oceanographic forcings. We also find a number of interesting features including dynamically induced dips in shear zones, truncating layers at the ice-shelf base, and the development of a meteoric ice layer distinguishing advected from newly accumulated ice in the iceshelf. The time series provided by radar observations over the last 10 years also offers the potential to map temporal changes. We use ice-flow modelling to provide age constraints for some internal layers and delineate portions within the shelf as a function of their advection history, hence marking areas of differing rheologies within the shelf. Taken together, this case study on a catchment scale is a primer to unravel the information stored in the isochronal stratigraphy of coastal Antarctica and contributes to international efforts (e.g., SCAR AntArchitecture)  of mapping stratigraphy on ice sheet scales.</p>

scholarly journals Marine Ice Sheet Instability and Ice Shelf Buttressing Influenced Deglaciation of the Minch Ice Stream, Northwest Scotland

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Niall Gandy ◽  
Lauren J. Gregoire ◽  
Jeremy C. Ely ◽  
Christopher D. Clark ◽  
David M. Hodgson ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Ice Sheets ◽  
Ice Sheet ◽  
Last Deglaciation ◽  
Ice Shelf ◽  
Dynamical Processes ◽  
Ice Dynamics ◽  
Surface Mass ◽  
Ice Shelves ◽  
Ice Stream ◽  
The Last Deglaciation

Abstract. Uncertainties in future sea level projections are dominated by our limited understanding of the dynamical processes that control instabilities of marine ice sheets. A valuable case to examine these processes is the last deglaciation of the British-Irish Ice Sheet. The Minch Ice Stream, which drained a large proportion of ice from the northwest sector of the British-Irish Ice Sheet during the last deglaciation, is well constrained, with abundant empirical data which could be used to inform, validate and analyse numerical ice sheet simulations. We use BISICLES, a higher-order ice sheet model, to examine the dynamical processes that controlled the retreat of the Minch Ice Stream. We simulate retreat from the shelf edge under constant "warm" surface mass balance and subshelf melt, to isolate the role of internal ice dynamics from external forcings. The model simulates a slowdown of retreat as the ice stream becomes laterally confined at a "pinning-point" between mainland Scotland and the Isle of Lewis. At this stage, the presence of ice shelves became a major control on deglaciation, providing buttressing to upstream ice. Subsequently, the presence of a reverse slope inside the Minch Strait produces an acceleration in retreat, leading to a "collapsed" state, even when the climate returns to the initial "cold" conditions. Our simulations demonstrate the importance of the Marine Ice Sheet Instability and ice shelf buttressing during the deglaciation of parts of the British-Irish Ice Sheet. Thus, geological data could be used to constrain these processes in ice sheet models used for projecting the future of our contemporary ice sheets.

Constraining ice shelf basalt melting rates from isochrone data

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vjeran Visnjevic ◽  
Reinhard Drews ◽  
Clemens Schannwell ◽  
Inka Koch
Keyword(s):  
Ocean Circulation ◽  
Radar Data ◽  
Ice Shelf ◽  
Ice Dynamics ◽  
Ice Flow ◽  
Ice Shelves ◽  
Inverse Approach ◽  
History Of ◽  
Forward And Inverse Modeling ◽  
Basal Melting

<p>Ice shelves buttress ice flow from the continent towards the ocean, and their disintegration results in increased ice discharge.  Ice-shelf evolution and integrity is influenced by surface accumulation, basal melting, and ice dynamics. We find signals of all of these processes imprinted in the ice-shelf stratigraphy that can be mapped using isochrones imaged with radar.</p><p>Our aim is to develop an inverse approach to infer ice shelf basal melt rates using radar isochrones as observational constraints. Here, we investigate the influence of basalt melt rates on the shape of isochrones using combined insights from both forward and inverse modeling. We use the 3D full Stokes model Elmer/Ice in our forward simulations, aiming to reproduce isochrone patterns observed in our data. Moreover we develop an inverse approach based on the shallow shelf approximating, aiming to constrain basal melt rates using isochronal radar data and surface velocities. Insights obtained from our simulations can also guide the collection of new radar data (e.g., profile lines along vs. across-flow) in a way that ambiguities in interpreting the ice-shelf stratigraphy can be minimized. Eventually, combining these approaches will enable us to better constrain the magnitude and history of basal melting, which will give valuable input for ocean circulation and sea level rise projections.</p>

scholarly journals Dynamic influence of pinning points on marine ice-sheet stability: a numerical study in Dronning Maud Land, East Antarctica

2016 ◽  
Vol 10 (6) ◽  
pp. 2623-2635 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lionel Favier ◽  
Frank Pattyn ◽  
Sophie Berger ◽  
Reinhard Drews
Keyword(s):  
Data Assimilation ◽  
Sea Level ◽  
Ice Sheets ◽  
Ice Sheet ◽  
East Antarctica ◽  
Ice Shelf ◽  
Ice Dynamics ◽  
Outlet Glacier ◽  
Ice Shelves ◽  
Dronning Maud Land

Abstract. The East Antarctic ice sheet is likely more stable than its West Antarctic counterpart because its bed is largely lying above sea level. However, the ice sheet in Dronning Maud Land, East Antarctica, contains marine sectors that are in contact with the ocean through overdeepened marine basins interspersed by grounded ice promontories and ice rises, pinning and stabilising the ice shelves. In this paper, we use the ice-sheet model BISICLES to investigate the effect of sub-ice-shelf melting, using a series of scenarios compliant with current values, on the ice-dynamic stability of the outlet glaciers between the Lazarev and Roi Baudouin ice shelves over the next millennium. Overall, the sub-ice-shelf melting substantially impacts the sea-level contribution. Locally, we predict a short-term rapid grounding-line retreat of the overdeepened outlet glacier Hansenbreen, which further induces the transition of the bordering ice promontories into ice rises. Furthermore, our analysis demonstrated that the onset of the marine ice-sheet retreat and subsequent promontory transition into ice rise is controlled by small pinning points, mostly uncharted in pan-Antarctic datasets. Pinning points have a twofold impact on marine ice sheets. They decrease the ice discharge by buttressing effect, and they play a crucial role in initialising marine ice sheets through data assimilation, leading to errors in ice-shelf rheology when omitted. Our results show that unpinning increases the sea-level rise by 10 %, while omitting the same pinning point in data assimilation decreases it by 10 %, but the more striking effect is in the promontory transition time, advanced by two centuries for unpinning and delayed by almost half a millennium when the pinning point is missing in data assimilation. Pinning points exert a subtle influence on ice dynamics at the kilometre scale, which calls for a better knowledge of the Antarctic margins.

scholarly journals Characteristics of ice rises and ice rumples in Dronning Maud Land and Enderby Land, Antarctica

2020 ◽  
Vol 66 (260) ◽  
pp. 1064-1078
Author(s):  
Vikram Goel ◽  
Kenichi Matsuoka ◽  
Cesar Deschamps Berger ◽  
Ian Lee ◽  
Jørgen Dall ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mass Balance ◽  
Ice Cores ◽  
Ice Thickness ◽  
Ice Shelf ◽  
Ice Dynamics ◽  
Surface Mass ◽  
Ice Shelves ◽  
The Past ◽  
Dronning Maud Land ◽  
The Antarctic

AbstractIce rises and rumples, locally grounded features adjacent to ice shelves, are relatively small yet play significant roles in Antarctic ice dynamics. Their roles generally depend upon their location within the ice shelf and the stage of the ice-sheet retreat or advance. Large, long-stable ice rises can be excellent sites for deep ice coring and paleoclimate study of the Antarctic coast and the Southern Ocean, while small ice rises tend to respond more promptly and can be used to reveal recent changes in regional mass balance. The coasts of Dronning Maud Land (DML) and Enderby Land in East Antarctica are abundant with these features. Here we review existing knowledge, presenting an up-to-date status of research in these regions with focus on ice rises and rumples. We use regional datasets (satellite imagery, surface mass balance and ice thickness) to analyze the extent and surface morphology of ice shelves and characteristic timescales of ice rises. We find that large parts of DML have been changing over the past several millennia. Based on our findings, we highlight ice rises suitable for drilling ice cores for paleoclimate studies as well as ice rises suitable for deciphering ice dynamics and evolution in the region.

scholarly journals Changes in ice dynamics and mass balance of the Antarctic ice sheet

2006 ◽  
Vol 364 (1844) ◽  
pp. 1637-1655 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eric Rignot
Keyword(s):  
Mass Balance ◽  
Sea Level ◽  
Ice Sheet ◽  
East Antarctica ◽  
West Antarctica ◽  
Ice Shelf ◽  
Ice Dynamics ◽  
Antarctic Ice Sheet ◽  
Ice Shelves ◽  
The Antarctic

The concept that the Antarctic ice sheet changes with eternal slowness has been challenged by recent observations from satellites. Pronounced regional warming in the Antarctic Peninsula triggered ice shelf collapse, which led to a 10-fold increase in glacier flow and rapid ice sheet retreat. This chain of events illustrated the vulnerability of ice shelves to climate warming and their buffering role on the mass balance of Antarctica. In West Antarctica, the Pine Island Bay sector is draining far more ice into the ocean than is stored upstream from snow accumulation. This sector could raise sea level by 1 m and trigger widespread retreat of ice in West Antarctica. Pine Island Glacier accelerated 38% since 1975, and most of the speed up took place over the last decade. Its neighbour Thwaites Glacier is widening up and may double its width when its weakened eastern ice shelf breaks up. Widespread acceleration in this sector may be caused by glacier ungrounding from ice shelf melting by an ocean that has recently warmed by 0.3 °C. In contrast, glaciers buffered from oceanic change by large ice shelves have only small contributions to sea level. In East Antarctica, many glaciers are close to a state of mass balance, but sectors grounded well below sea level, such as Cook Ice Shelf, Ninnis/Mertz, Frost and Totten glaciers, are thinning and losing mass. Hence, East Antarctica is not immune to changes.

scholarly journals Assimilation of Antarctic velocity observations provides evidence for uncharted pinning points

2015 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 1461-1502
Author(s):  
J. J. Fürst ◽  
G. Durand ◽  
F. Gillet-Chaulet ◽  
N. Merino ◽  
L. Tavard ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Ice Shelf ◽  
Ice Flow ◽  
Ice Shelves ◽  
Basal Friction ◽  
A Value ◽  
Model Community ◽  
Glacier Ice ◽  
The Antarctic ◽  
Shelf Flow ◽  
Velocity Mismatch

Abstract. In ice flow modelling, the use of control methods to assimilate the dynamic and geometric state of an ice body has become common practice. These methods have primarily focussed on inverting for one of the two least known properties in glaciology, namely the basal friction coefficient or the ice viscosity parameter. Here, we present an approach to infer both properties simultaneously for the whole of the Antarctic ice sheet. During the assimilation, the root-mean-square deviation between modelled and observed surface velocities is reduced to 12.3 m a−1, with a value of 16.4 m a−1 for the ice shelves. An exception in terms of the velocity mismatch is the Thwaites Glacier ice shelf, where the RMS value attains almost 80 m a−1. The reason is that the underlying BEDMAP2 geometry ignores the presence of an ice rise, that exerts major control on the dynamics of the eastern part of the ice shelf. On these grounds, we suggest an approach to account for pinning points not included in BEDMAP2 by locally allowing an optimisation of basal friction during the inversion. In this way, the velocity mismatch on the Thwaites ice shelf is more than halved. A characteristic velocity mismatch pattern emerges for unaccounted pinning points close to the marine shelf front. This pattern is exploited to manually identify 7 uncharted features around Antarctica that exert significant resistance to the shelf flow. Potential pinning points are detected on Fimbul, West, Shakelton, Nickerson and Venable ice shelves. As pinning points can provide substantial resistance to shelf flow, with considerable consequences if they became ungrounded in the future, the model community is in need of detailed bathymetry there. Our data assimilation points to some of these dynamically important features, not present in BEDMAP2, and implicitly quantifies their relevance.

scholarly journals Assessing Controls on Ice Dynamics at Crane Glacier, Antarctic Peninsula Using a Numerical Ice Flow Model

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rainey Aberle
Keyword(s):  
Antarctic Peninsula ◽  
Flow Model ◽  
Ice Shelf ◽  
Ice Dynamics ◽  
Ice Flow ◽  
Surface Mass ◽  
Climate Conditions ◽  
Ice Shelves ◽  
Tidewater Glacier ◽  
Mass Discharge

The widespread retreat of glaciers and the collapse of ice shelves along the Antarctic Peninsula has been attributed to atmospheric and oceanic warming, which promotes mass loss. However, several glaciers on the eastern peninsula that were buttressed by the Larsen A and B ice shelves prior to collapse in 1995 and 2002, respectively, have been advancing in recent years. This asymmetric pattern of rapid retreat and long-term re-advance is similar to the tidewater glacier cycle, which can occur largely independent of climate forcing. Here, I use a width- and depth-integrated numerical ice flow model to investigate glacier response to ice shelf collapse and the influence of changing climate conditions at Crane Glacier, formerly a tributary of the Larsen B ice shelf, over the last ~10 years. Sensitivity tests to explore the influence of perturbations in surface mass balance and submarine melt (up to 10 m a-1) and fresh water impounded in crevasses (up to 10 m) on glacier dynamics reveal that by 2100, the modeled mass discharge ranges from 0.53-98 Gt a-1, with the most substantial changes due to surface melt-induced thinning. My findings suggest that the growth of a floating ice tongue can hinder enhanced flow, allowing the grounding zone to remain steady for many decades, analogous to the advancing stage of the tidewater glacier cycle. Additionally, former tributary glaciers can take several decades to geometrically adjust to ice shelf collapse at their terminal boundary while elevated glacier discharge persists.

The role of ocean circulation in the propagation of rifts on ice shelves.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mattia Poinelli ◽  
Eric Larour ◽  
Riccardo Riva
Keyword(s):  
Ocean Circulation ◽  
Regional Climate ◽  
Ice Sheets ◽  
Ice Sheet ◽  
Ice Shelf ◽  
Ice Shelves ◽  
Rift Propagation ◽  
Break Up ◽  
The Stability

<p>The break-up of large ice shelves and the associated loss of ice are thought to play a destabilizing role in the ice sheet dynamics. Although ice shelves are a substantial buttressing source in the stability of continental ice sheets, the propagation of large rifts eventually leads to the break-up of icebergs into the ocean. As consequence, this loss of ice would trigger further glacier acceleration and ice sheets retreat, destabilizing the ice cap. Retreat and collapse of ice sheets are also thought to be related to regional climate warming. Indeed, satellite observations suggest that a warming surrounding would induce the ice sheet to progressive thinning and weakening.</p><p>The prolongation of un-grounded ice into the ocean is often interrupted by the propagation of fractures that eventually separates large icebergs from the ice shelf. These fractures are called rifts and range from dimensions of 10 to 100 km. A recent example of such phenomena is the massive break-up of the Larsen C in July, 2017 which followed the disintegration of Larsen A in 1995 and the partial break-up of Larsen B in 2002. The tabular iceberg formed by Larsen C was limited by the propagation of a large rift that began in summer 2016, although the ice shelf had already been thinning since 1992.</p><p>Rift initiation and propagation are thought to be the result of glaciological and oceanographic sources that trigger ice to break. Nonetheless, exact mechanisms remain elusive. The on-going project focuses on ice-ocean interactions in ice shelves that accommodate rifts by using oceanographic models. The goal is to couple rift propagation and ocean circulation underneath ice cavities in order to infer how basal melting affects the development of rifts. The numerical framework is developed within the capabilities of the MITgcm. We aim to identify the sensitivity of propagation rate and opening rate of rifts to variations in the ocean circulation that have occurred during the separation of part of the ice shelf.</p><p>On a larger scale, we are interested in the role of rifting in the stability of Antarctic shelves. Therefore, we work toward a better understanding of which processes are involved in the triggering of rift propagation.</p>

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