Prepared in cooperation with the Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom Coastal-Change and Glaciological Map of the Ross Island Area, Antarctica: 1962–2005 By Jane G. Ferrigno, Kevin M. Foley, Charles Swithinbank, and Richard S. Williams, Jr. Pamphlet to accompany Geologic Investigations Series Map I–2600–I 2010 U.S. Department of the Interior U.S. Geological Survey U.S. Department of the Interior KEN SALAZAR, Secretary U.S. Geological Survey Marcia K. McNutt, Director U.S. Geological Survey, Reston, Virginia: 2010 For more information on the USGS—the Federal source for science about the Earth, its natural and living resources, natural hazards, and the environment, visit http://www.usgs.gov or call 1-888-ASK-USGS For an overview of USGS information products, including maps, imagery, and publications, visit http://www.usgs.gov/pubprod To order this and other USGS information products, visit http://store.usgs.gov Any use of trade, product, or firm names is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Government. Although this report is in the public domain, permission must be secured from the individual copyright owners to reproduce any copyrighted materials contained within this report. Suggested citation: Ferrigno, J.G., Foley, K.M., Swithinbank, Charles, and Williams, R.S., Jr., 2010, Coastal-change and glaciological map of the Ross Island area, Antarctica: 1962–2005: U.S. Geological Survey Geologic Investigations Series Map I–2600–I, 1 map sheet, 23-p. text. ISBN 978-1-4113-2477-0 iii Contents Introduction.....................................................................................................................................................1 Background ...........................................................................................................................................1 Objectives...............................................................................................................................................2 Sources...................................................................................................................................................3 Methodology ..........................................................................................................................................3 RADARSAT Image Mosaic of Antarctica and its Geodetic Accuracy .........................................4 Geographic Description ................................................................................................................................4 Glacier Inventory and Glaciological Features ..........................................................................................4 Coastal-Change Analysis—Discussion of Selected Glaciological Features ......................................5 Glaciers that Drain from or through the Transantarctic Mountains .............................................5 Byrd Glacier ..................................................................................................................................5 Darwin Glacier..............................................................................................................................6 Hatherton Glacier ........................................................................................................................6 Mulock Glacier .............................................................................................................................6 Skelton Glacier .............................................................................................................................6 Koettlitz Glacier ............................................................................................................................6 Erebus Glacier Tongue .........................................................................................................................6 McMurdo Dry Valleys ..........................................................................................................................7 Icebergs..................................................................................................................................................7 Ice Cores ................................................................................................................................................7 Blue-Ice Areas and Meteorites ..........................................................................................................8 Subglacial Lakes ...................................................................................................................................8 Summary..........................................................................................................................................................9 Acknowledgments .........................................................................................................................................9 References Cited............................................................................................................................................9 Appendix—Tables 2 and 3 ..........................................................................................................................15 Figures 1. Index map of the planned and published 1:1,000,000-scale coastal-change and glacio- logical maps of Antarctica ..........................................................................................................2 2. Location map of Antarctica showing West and East Antarctica, the Transantarctic Mountains, the Ross Ice Shelf, and the Antarctic Peninsula ................................................4 iv Tables 1. Coastal-change and glaciological maps of Antarctica at 1:1,000,000 scale, published to date .................................................................................................................................................2 2. Topographic, satellite image, and photo maps in the Ross Island map area, produced by the USGS and cooperators ..................................................................................................16 3. Inventory of named glaciers and glaciological features on the coastal-change and glaciological map of the Ross Island area .............................................................................19 Conversion Factors Multiply By To obtain Length meter (m) 3.281 foot (ft) kilometer (km) 0.6214 mile (mi) Area square kilometer (km2) 0.3861 square mile (mi2) Volume cubic kilometer (km3) 0.2399 cubic mile (mi3) Coastal-Change and Glaciological Map of the Ross Island Area, Antarctica: 1962–2005 By Jane G. Ferrigno,1 Kevin M. Foley,1 Charles Swithinbank,2 and Richard S. Williams, Jr.3 Introduction Antarctic ice sheet is thought by Davis and others (2005) to be positive on the basis of the change in satellite-altimetry measurements made between 1992 and 2003. On the basis of Gravity, Recovery, and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellite Background measurements of Earth’s gravity from 2002 to 2005, Velicogna and Wahr (2006) concluded that the mass of the Antarctic ice Reduction in the area and volume of the two polar ice sheet decreased during the period of measurement, and that the sheets is intricately linked to changes in global climate, West Antarctic ice sheet accounted for most of the loss of ice. and the resulting rise in sea level could severely impact the Rignot and others (2008) studied loss of ice from the Antarctic densely populated coastal regions on Earth. Antarctica is ice sheet on the basis of regional climate modeling and Earth’s largest reservoir of glacial ice. Melting of the West satellite interferometric synthetic-aperture radar measurements Antarctic part alone of the Antarctic ice sheet would cause a acquired during the period between 1992 and 2006. They sea-level rise of approximately 6 meters (m), and the potential concluded that ice in East Antarctica is at near-equilibrium or sea-level rise after melting of the entire Antarctic ice sheet has a slightly negative mass balance; ice in West Antarctica, is estimated to be 65 m (Lythe and others, 2001) to 73 m including the Antarctic Peninsula, has a negative mass (Williams and Hall, 1993). Shepherd and Wingham (2007) balance. discussed change in the Antarctic ice sheet as part of the Measurement of changes in area and mass balance global picture, and Jenkins and Holland (2007) discussed the of the Antarctic ice sheet was given a very high priority in real potential of sea-level rise from the melting of floating ice recommendations by the Polar Research Board of the National such as ice shelves and icebergs. The mass balance (the net Research Council (1986), in subsequent recommendations volumetric gain or loss) of the Antarctic ice sheet is highly by the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) complex, responding differently to different climatic and other (1989, 1993), and by the National Science Foundation’s conditions in each region (Vaughan, 2005). In a review paper, (1990) Division of Polar Programs. On the basis of these Rignot and Thomas (2002) concluded that the West Antarctic recommendations, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) ice sheet is probably becoming thinner overall; although it decided that the archive of early 1970s Landsat 1, 2, and 3 is known to be thickening in the west, it is thinning in the Multispectral Scanner (MSS) images of Antarctica and the north. Thomas and others (2004), on the basis of aircraft and