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Scientists image vast subglacial water system under West Antarctica's Thwaites Glacier
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-07/uota-siv070813.php[font face=Serif]Public release date: 9-Jul-2013
Contact: J.B. Bird
jbird@jsg.utexas.edu
512-232-9623
University of Texas at Austin
[font size=5]Scientists image vast subglacial water system under West Antarctica's Thwaites Glacier[/font]
[font size=4]Offers first look from observation of water system affecting fate of crucial glacier[/font]
[font size=3]AUSTIN, Texas — In a development that will help predict potential sea level rise from the Antarctic ice sheet, scientists from The University of Texas at Austin's Institute for Geophysics have used an innovation in radar analysis to accurately image the vast subglacial water system under West Antarctica's Thwaites Glacier. They have detected a swamp-like canal system beneath the ice that is several times as large as Florida's Everglades.
The findings, as described this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, use new observational techniques to address long-standing questions about subglacial water under Thwaites, a Florida-sized outlet glacier in the Amundsen Sea Embayment considered a key factor in projections of global sea level rise. On its own, Thwaites contains enough fresh water to raise oceans by about a meter, and it is a critical gateway to the majority of West Antarctica's potential sea level contribution of about 5 meters.
…
Observations of the subglacial stream-and-swamp dynamic and the sub-ice topography suggest that Thwaites Glacier is stable in the short term, holding its current position on the continent. However, the large pile of ice that has built up in the transition zone could rapidly collapse if undermined by the ocean warming or changes to the water system.
"Like many systems, the ice can be stabilized until some external factor causes it to jump its stability point," said Blankenship. "We now understand both how the water system is organized and where that dynamic is playing itself out. Our challenge is to begin to understand the timing and processes that will be involved when that stability is breached."
…[/font][/font]
http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1302828110Contact: J.B. Bird
jbird@jsg.utexas.edu
512-232-9623
University of Texas at Austin
[font size=5]Scientists image vast subglacial water system under West Antarctica's Thwaites Glacier[/font]
[font size=4]Offers first look from observation of water system affecting fate of crucial glacier[/font]
This is a figure showing transition from swamp-like water to stream-like water beneath Thwaites Glacier, West Antarctica. — University of Texas Institute for Geophysics
[font size=3]AUSTIN, Texas — In a development that will help predict potential sea level rise from the Antarctic ice sheet, scientists from The University of Texas at Austin's Institute for Geophysics have used an innovation in radar analysis to accurately image the vast subglacial water system under West Antarctica's Thwaites Glacier. They have detected a swamp-like canal system beneath the ice that is several times as large as Florida's Everglades.
The findings, as described this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, use new observational techniques to address long-standing questions about subglacial water under Thwaites, a Florida-sized outlet glacier in the Amundsen Sea Embayment considered a key factor in projections of global sea level rise. On its own, Thwaites contains enough fresh water to raise oceans by about a meter, and it is a critical gateway to the majority of West Antarctica's potential sea level contribution of about 5 meters.
…
Observations of the subglacial stream-and-swamp dynamic and the sub-ice topography suggest that Thwaites Glacier is stable in the short term, holding its current position on the continent. However, the large pile of ice that has built up in the transition zone could rapidly collapse if undermined by the ocean warming or changes to the water system.
"Like many systems, the ice can be stabilized until some external factor causes it to jump its stability point," said Blankenship. "We now understand both how the water system is organized and where that dynamic is playing itself out. Our challenge is to begin to understand the timing and processes that will be involved when that stability is breached."
…[/font][/font]