Diverse landscapes beneath Pine Island Glacier influence ice flow

Robert Bingham; David Vaughan; Edward King; Damon  Davies; Stephen  Cornford; Andrew Smith; Robert  Arthern; Alex  Brisbourne; Jan  De Rydt; Alastair Graham; Matteo Spagnolo; Oliver  Marsh; David E Shean

doi:10.1038/s41467-017-01597-y

Diverse landscapes beneath Pine Island Glacier influence ice flow

Robert Bingham, David Vaughan, Edward King, Damon Davies, Stephen Cornford, Andrew Smith, Robert Arthern, Alex Brisbourne, Jan De Rydt, Alastair Graham, Matteo Spagnolo, Oliver Marsh, David E Shean

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Abstract

The retreating Pine Island Glacier (PIG), West Antarctica, presently contributes ~5–10% of global sea-level rise. PIG’s retreat rate has increased in recent decades with associated thinning migrating upstream into tributaries feeding the main glacier trunk. To project future change requires modelling that includes robust parameterisation of basal traction, the resistance to ice flow at the bed. However, most ice-sheet models estimate basal traction from satellite-derived surface velocity, without a priori knowledge of the key processes from which it is derived, namely friction at the ice-bed interface and form drag, and the resistance to ice flow that arises as ice deforms to negotiate bed topography. Here, we present high-resolution maps, acquired using ice-penetrating radar, of the bed topography across parts of PIG. Contrary to lower-resolution data currently used for ice-sheet models, these data show a contrasting topography across the ice-bed interface. We show that these diverse subglacial landscapes have an impact on ice flow, and present a challenge for modelling ice-sheet evolution and projecting global sea-level rise from ice-sheet loss.

Original language	English
Article number	1618
Number of pages	9
Journal	Nature Communications
Volume	8
Early online date	20 Nov 2017
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-017-01597-y
Publication status	Published - 20 Nov 2017

Bibliographical note

This work was supported by funding from the UK Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) iSTAR Programme (Grants NE/J005665 and NE/K011189), NERC grants NE/B502287/1 and NE/J004766/1 and the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) Polar Science for Planet Earth Programme. D.E.S. was supported by a NASA NESSF fellowship (NNX12AN36H). Bathymetric data used for Fig. 2c and f were sourced from the Bolin Centre Database Oden Mapping Data (cruise OSO 0910; http://oden.geo.su.se/oso0910) and NSF/IEDA Marine Geoscience Data System (http://www.marine-geo.org/tools/search/Files.php?data_set_uid=20080) respectively, and we thank the lead authors M. Jakobsson and F.O. Nitsche for their lodging. All fieldwork was supported by the staff at BAS’s Rothera Research Station and members of the iSTAR Traverse. In particular, we thank James Wake, Tim Gee, Jonny Yates (2013/14), David Routledge (2010/11) and Feargal Buckley, Chris Griffiths and Julian Scott (2007/08) for their help with data acquisition. We thank three anonymous referees for thorough and constructive reviews, which improved the final form of the manuscript.

Keywords

cryospheric science
geomorphology
geophysics

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10.1038/s41467-017-01597-yLicence: CC BY

Diverse landscapes beneath Pine Island Glacier influence ice flow
Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
Final published version, 3.84 MBLicence: CC BY

Matteo Spagnolo
- School of Geosciences, Geography & Environment - Personal Chair
- The North
- Cryosphere and Climate Change Research Group
Person: Academic

Cite this

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title = "Diverse landscapes beneath Pine Island Glacier influence ice flow",

abstract = "The retreating Pine Island Glacier (PIG), West Antarctica, presently contributes ~5–10% of global sea-level rise. PIG{\textquoteright}s retreat rate has increased in recent decades with associated thinning migrating upstream into tributaries feeding the main glacier trunk. To project future change requires modelling that includes robust parameterisation of basal traction, the resistance to ice flow at the bed. However, most ice-sheet models estimate basal traction from satellite-derived surface velocity, without a priori knowledge of the key processes from which it is derived, namely friction at the ice-bed interface and form drag, and the resistance to ice flow that arises as ice deforms to negotiate bed topography. Here, we present high-resolution maps, acquired using ice-penetrating radar, of the bed topography across parts of PIG. Contrary to lower-resolution data currently used for ice-sheet models, these data show a contrasting topography across the ice-bed interface. We show that these diverse subglacial landscapes have an impact on ice flow, and present a challenge for modelling ice-sheet evolution and projecting global sea-level rise from ice-sheet loss.",

keywords = "cryospheric science, geomorphology, geophysics",

author = "Robert Bingham and David Vaughan and Edward King and Damon Davies and Stephen Cornford and Andrew Smith and Robert Arthern and Alex Brisbourne and {De Rydt}, Jan and Alastair Graham and Matteo Spagnolo and Oliver Marsh and Shean, {David E}",

note = "This work was supported by funding from the UK Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) iSTAR Programme (Grants NE/J005665 and NE/K011189), NERC grants NE/B502287/1 and NE/J004766/1 and the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) Polar Science for Planet Earth Programme. D.E.S. was supported by a NASA NESSF fellowship (NNX12AN36H). Bathymetric data used for Fig. 2c and f were sourced from the Bolin Centre Database Oden Mapping Data (cruise OSO 0910; http://oden.geo.su.se/oso0910) and NSF/IEDA Marine Geoscience Data System (http://www.marine-geo.org/tools/search/Files.php?data_set_uid=20080) respectively, and we thank the lead authors M. Jakobsson and F.O. Nitsche for their lodging. All fieldwork was supported by the staff at BAS{\textquoteright}s Rothera Research Station and members of the iSTAR Traverse. In particular, we thank James Wake, Tim Gee, Jonny Yates (2013/14), David Routledge (2010/11) and Feargal Buckley, Chris Griffiths and Julian Scott (2007/08) for their help with data acquisition. We thank three anonymous referees for thorough and constructive reviews, which improved the final form of the manuscript. ",

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AU - Vaughan, David

AU - King, Edward

AU - Davies, Damon

AU - Cornford, Stephen

AU - Smith, Andrew

AU - Arthern, Robert

AU - Brisbourne, Alex

AU - De Rydt, Jan

AU - Graham, Alastair

AU - Spagnolo, Matteo

AU - Marsh, Oliver

AU - Shean, David E

N1 - This work was supported by funding from the UK Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) iSTAR Programme (Grants NE/J005665 and NE/K011189), NERC grants NE/B502287/1 and NE/J004766/1 and the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) Polar Science for Planet Earth Programme. D.E.S. was supported by a NASA NESSF fellowship (NNX12AN36H). Bathymetric data used for Fig. 2c and f were sourced from the Bolin Centre Database Oden Mapping Data (cruise OSO 0910; http://oden.geo.su.se/oso0910) and NSF/IEDA Marine Geoscience Data System (http://www.marine-geo.org/tools/search/Files.php?data_set_uid=20080) respectively, and we thank the lead authors M. Jakobsson and F.O. Nitsche for their lodging. All fieldwork was supported by the staff at BAS’s Rothera Research Station and members of the iSTAR Traverse. In particular, we thank James Wake, Tim Gee, Jonny Yates (2013/14), David Routledge (2010/11) and Feargal Buckley, Chris Griffiths and Julian Scott (2007/08) for their help with data acquisition. We thank three anonymous referees for thorough and constructive reviews, which improved the final form of the manuscript.

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N2 - The retreating Pine Island Glacier (PIG), West Antarctica, presently contributes ~5–10% of global sea-level rise. PIG’s retreat rate has increased in recent decades with associated thinning migrating upstream into tributaries feeding the main glacier trunk. To project future change requires modelling that includes robust parameterisation of basal traction, the resistance to ice flow at the bed. However, most ice-sheet models estimate basal traction from satellite-derived surface velocity, without a priori knowledge of the key processes from which it is derived, namely friction at the ice-bed interface and form drag, and the resistance to ice flow that arises as ice deforms to negotiate bed topography. Here, we present high-resolution maps, acquired using ice-penetrating radar, of the bed topography across parts of PIG. Contrary to lower-resolution data currently used for ice-sheet models, these data show a contrasting topography across the ice-bed interface. We show that these diverse subglacial landscapes have an impact on ice flow, and present a challenge for modelling ice-sheet evolution and projecting global sea-level rise from ice-sheet loss.

AB - The retreating Pine Island Glacier (PIG), West Antarctica, presently contributes ~5–10% of global sea-level rise. PIG’s retreat rate has increased in recent decades with associated thinning migrating upstream into tributaries feeding the main glacier trunk. To project future change requires modelling that includes robust parameterisation of basal traction, the resistance to ice flow at the bed. However, most ice-sheet models estimate basal traction from satellite-derived surface velocity, without a priori knowledge of the key processes from which it is derived, namely friction at the ice-bed interface and form drag, and the resistance to ice flow that arises as ice deforms to negotiate bed topography. Here, we present high-resolution maps, acquired using ice-penetrating radar, of the bed topography across parts of PIG. Contrary to lower-resolution data currently used for ice-sheet models, these data show a contrasting topography across the ice-bed interface. We show that these diverse subglacial landscapes have an impact on ice flow, and present a challenge for modelling ice-sheet evolution and projecting global sea-level rise from ice-sheet loss.

KW - cryospheric science

KW - geomorphology

KW - geophysics

U2 - 10.1038/s41467-017-01597-y

DO - 10.1038/s41467-017-01597-y

M3 - Article

SN - 2041-1723

VL - 8

JO - Nature Communications

JF - Nature Communications

M1 - 1618

ER -

Diverse landscapes beneath Pine Island Glacier influence ice flow

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

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Matteo Spagnolo

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