New measurements of how the boundary between onshore glacier and floating ice shelf glides back-and- forth could help predict melting.
New measurements of how the boundary between onshore glacier and floating ice shelf glides back-and- forth could help predict melting.
The grounding line of the southern Ronne Ice Shelf in Antarctica can shift up to 15 km (six miles) with changing tides, new analysis shows. The research, published today in The Cryosphere, examines the key region where land-based Antarctic ice spills over into the surrounding ocean. Observing and understanding the dynamics of this region can help scientists predict Antarctica’s response to climate change, and so how much global sea levels will rise.
“We typically think of ice sheet change as being very slow, taking place over decades, centuries or even millennia. But our findings highlight that there are some processes operating over minutes to hours that may have significant impacts,” says Bryony Freer, lead author and glaciologist at the British Antarctic Survey and the Centre for Satellite Data in Environmental Science at the University of Leeds.
Read more at British Antarctic Survey
Image: The grounding line is the boundary between the land-based section of the ice sheet and the floating ice shelf. (Credit: BAS)
