Ice shelves play a key role in the mass balance of the Antarctic ice sheets by buttressing their seaward-flowing outlet glaciers; however, they are exposed to the underlying ocean and may weaken if ocean thermal forcing increases. An expedition to the ice shelf of the remote Pine Island Glacier, a major outlet of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet that has rapidly thinned and accelerated in recent decades, has been completed. Observations from geophysical surveys and long-term oceanographic instruments deployed down bore holes into the ocean cavity reveal a buoyancy-driven boundary layer within a basal channel that melts the channel apex by 0.06 meter per day, with near-zero melt rates along the flanks of the channel. A complex pattern of such channels is visible throughout the Pine Island Glacier shelf.

Item Type:	Refereed Article
Keywords:	oceanography, ocean-ice interactions
Research Division:	Earth Sciences
Research Group:	Oceanography
Research Field:	Oceanography not elsewhere classified
Objective Division:	Environmental Policy, Climate Change and Natural Hazards
Objective Group:	Understanding climate change
Objective Field:	Effects of climate change on Antarctic and sub-Antarctic environments (excl. social impacts)
UTAS Author:	Peters, LE (Dr Leo Peters)
ID Code:	103754
Year Published:	2013
Web of Science® Times Cited:	76
Deposited By:	IMAS Research and Education Centre
Deposited On:	2015-10-27
Last Modified:	2017-10-31
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