image: Enormous curved crevasses near the Pine Island Glacier shear margin. view more
Credit: Image credit: Brooke Medley/NASA
Researchers report the evolution of damage on Antarctic Glaciers and implications for sea level rise. The Pine Island and Thwaites Glaciers, located in the Amundsen Sea Embayment of Antarctica, have undergone rapid acceleration, thinning, and grounding line retreat in recent decades, leading to enhanced instability. Projecting future changes in these glaciers that could have large consequences for sea level rise remains challenging. Stef Lhermitte and colleagues used satellite imagery to document the growth of damage areas on the ice shelves of these glaciers from 1997 to 2019. The damage areas consist of highly crevassed areas and open fractures within the shelves' shear zones, where the ice is thin and which experience high positive strain rates. This damage can precondition the ice shelves for further disintegration by compromising ice shelf integrity and because of feedbacks between damage, acceleration, and shearing. Ice sheet modeling that incorporates this damage identified damage feedback mechanisms as important drivers of ice shelf instability and grounding line retreat and, consequently, of future Antarctic contributions to sea level rise. According to the authors, the results emphasize the importance of incorporating damage processes in ice sheet models to improve sea level rise projections.
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Article #19-12890: "Damage accelerates ice shelf instability and mass loss in Amundsen Sea Embayment," by Stef Lhermitte et al.
MEDIA CONTACT: Stef Lhermitte, Delft University of Technology, NETHERLANDS; tel: +32-498569351; e-mail: <s.lhermitte@tudelft.nl>
Journal
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences