Shelf ice, as found in Antarctica, refers to giant floating ice sheets that can span thousands of square kilometres. Pieces break off at their edges which form icebergs in the ocean. In order to more effectively predict these break-offs, in a process known as calving, Julia Christmann from the University of Kaiserslautern (TU) has developed mathematical models in cooperation with the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI). On the basis of physical factors, it is claimed that these models can be used to predict when and where the ice may collapse. This is important particularly for research teams situated on the ice shelf.
Shelf ice, as found in Antarctica, refers to giant floating ice sheets that can span thousands of square kilometres. Pieces break off at their edges which form icebergs in the ocean. In order to more effectively predict these break-offs, in a process known as calving, Julia Christmann from the University of Kaiserslautern (TU) has developed mathematical models in cooperation with the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI). On the basis of physical factors, it is claimed that these models can be used to predict when and where the ice may collapse. This is important particularly for research teams situated on the ice shelf.
The ice rises up like a sheer cliff face – shelf ice is not only several thousand square kilometres large, it is also more than a hundred metres high in many places. From time to time, pieces break off the edge and crash into the sea below, where they float away in the ocean as icebergs. This was also recently the case with the Larsen C ice shelf.
Science is unable to accurately predict when and where the ice shelf will break. “Assumptions were always previously based on observations by glaciologists and other researchers. Concrete calculations with physical parameters did not exist,” says Julia Christmann, who is researching technical mechanics at the University of Kaiserslautern with Professor Dr Ralf Müller. As a rule of thumb, she explains, the ice tends to break where it is thinner than 200 metres; in reality, however, there are also many ice shelves that are even thinner.
Read more at University of Kaiserslautern
Image: Julia Christmann in front of the icebreaker ''RV Polarstern'' in the Antarctica.
Credit: Julia Christmann
