The Antarctic Ice Sheet

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The Antarctic Ice Sheet Global distribution of glaciers Significance of the Antarctic glaciers Topography, ice thickness and sub-ice maps Flow rates: ice-streams, ice divides Floating ice shelves Sub-glacial lakes Climate change and melting in Antarctica Significance of the Antarctic Glaciers Antarctica: 90% of world’s ice volume (~10 x greater than Greenland). If it all melts sea level will rise by 60 to 70 m. The ice sheet is much thicker than Greenland’s. It is considerably colder on Antarctica, with lower snow-fall rates. The Antarctic ice sheet is divided into eastern and western components. The eastern ice sheet is several times larger than the western one, and about twice as thick. Dome F Dome A Dome C 2000 1000 3000 Land surface above and below sea level, and areas of exposed rock (yellow) Topography of the sub-ice surface. With ice Antarctica is easily the most elevated continent. But even without ice there are large parts of it that are very high. Topography after melting and isostatic rebound Ice thickness (from British Antarctic Survey) Exaggerated topography and ice thickness (The thickest ice is over 4000 m) 4000 m+ There are many orders of magnitude of difference in the rate of flow of Antarctic ice, from less than 1.5 m/y along the ice divides, to over 1000 m/y in some of the ice- stream areas and on the ice shelves. http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/video/index.php?id=1015 I B F A H G E D C Some ice streams are situated over areas of soft sedimentary rock, the postulated connection being that the ice can slide faster if the underlying material will deform. Ice shelves • Antarctica has extensive floating ice shelves on almost all of it’s coasts • The largest (Ross) is about ½ the size of British Columbia • The shelves range in thickness from a few tens of m to around 750 m Larsen Ice Shelf (NSIDC) http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/WorldOfChange/larsenb.php Sub-glacial lakes Locations of approx. 150 subglacial lakes in Antarctica Scambos et al. 2007 NSIDC Three projects to collect samples from subglacial lakes: Ellesmere (UK) Vostok (Russia) Whillans (USA) Climate change in Anarctica .

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Download Factsheet
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