Hokkaido University: Elucidation of the mechanism of melting Antarctic glaciers: Observation at Shirase Glacier
Hokkaido University:
August 24, published in the electronic version of the science magazine Nature Communications.
Glaciers in Antarctica:
The glaciers in Antarctica have discovered the “mechanism that the warm seawater that flows into the bottom of the ice warms it up to water.”
Elucidated by observation data at the Shirase Glacier near Showa Station, Antarctica.
According to the team, about 90% of the ice on the earth exists in Antarctica.
When everything is water, the sea level is said to rise by about 60 meters.
KYODO communication
https://this.kiji.is/670567675336262753
Strong ice-ocean interaction beneath Shirase Glacier Tongue in East Antarctica
DaisukeHirano,TakeshiTamura,Shigeru Aokiら
volume11, Article number: 4221 (2020)
Abstract
Mass loss from the Antarctic ice sheet, Earth’s largest freshwater reservoir, results directly in global sea-level rise and Southern Ocean freshening.
Observational and modeling studies have demonstrated that ice shelf basal melting, resulting from the inflow of warm water onto the Antarctic continental shelf, plays a key role in the ice sheet’s mass balance.
In recent decades, warm ocean-cryosphere interaction in the Amundsen and Bellingshausen seas has received a great deal of attention.
However, except for Totten Ice Shelf, East Antarctic ice shelves typically have cold ice cavities with low basal melt rates.
Here we present direct observational evidence of high basal melt rates (7–16 m yr−1) beneath an East Antarctic ice shelf, Shirase Glacier Tongue,
driven by southward-flowing warm water guided by a deep continuous trough extending to the continental slope.
The strengthof the alongshore wind controls the thickness of the inflowing warm water layer and the rate of basal melting.