Files

Abstract

The stability of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet depends on the buttressing ability of its ice shelves. These ice shelves are threatened by a warming ocean and atmosphere, and if lost due to melting, then the West Antarctic Ice Sheet will face accelerated movement toward the coasts, where melting will contribute to global sea-level rise. The ROSETTA-Ice Project used the ICEPOD instrument suite to collect shallow ice radar profiles of the Ross Ice Shelf that reveal the extent of ice stream and glacier-ice versus accumulation-ice constituents of the shelf. My research focus is on the ice that flowed into the shelf from Kamb Ice Stream. The ice volume can be identified in the shallow ice radar images as a jagged reflection. Distinct repeated features in the reflectors at the top and base of the glacier-ice volume can be tracked from line to line and across the length of the glacier within the shelf. The consistent glacier-ice reflectors of Kamb Ice Stream provide markers for strain, depth variation, and thickness change between flight-line profiles. Once mapped, depth, width, and thickness variations in the glacier-ice volumes can be used to assess the processes responsible for thickness change. Strain is the dominant process verified by prior studies. Our work seeks to isolate and quantify change resulting from basal processes such as melting and freeze-on that could reveal areas of importance for study of ocean-ice interactions in the sub-ice shelf Ross Sea marine cavity. After accounting for vertical strain, an average thinning of Ross Ice Shelf along the Kamb Ice Stream flow is 3.2 meters per decade, attributable to basal melting. Evidence was found for the existence of an ocean current pathway bringing in warmer water underneath the Ross Ice Shelf and creating a basal melt cavity beneath the left margin of Kamb, within approximately 70 km of the front. Basal channels evident in the radar profiles appear to coincide with channel and crevasse locations identified in previous studies. PLEASE NOTE: This thesis is available only by request and will not be viewable by the public until June 1, 2021. All requests to view the thesis before June 1, 2021 must be directed to Christine Siddoway (csiddoway@coloradocollege.edu).

Details

PDF

Statistics

from
to
Export
Download Full History