The Terminal Disintegration of Steensby Gletscher, North Greenland
The Terminal Disintegration of Steensby Gletscher, North Greenland
复制标题
北格陵兰斯廷斯比冰川的最终解体
作者：
F. Ahnert
Steensby Gletscher位于Nyeboes Land和Warming Land之间，是北极为数不多的具有漂浮舌头的冰流之一。它与北极其他漂浮的冰川的不同之处在于，它在夏天流入一个有开阔水域的峡湾，在它漂浮的冰舌上存在裂缝，而且它的末端实际上分解成亚裂片，而不是通过简单的崩解脱落出“北极”式的冰山。冰川的最终解体是由于峡湾延伸部分的轻微向北弯曲，其中包含了漂浮的冰舌。舌头沿着一条笔直的路径进入弯道，在弯道的外部靠近岸边的地方略微搁浅，而舌头仍然漂浮的中央部分继续向前移动。这就导致了冰舌部分的旋转运动，这些部分沿着主要的冰隙从主要的冰块中分离出来，形成了由大缝隙隔开的亚裂片，只在根部与主要的冰块相连。
Abstract Steensby Gletscher, located between Nyeboes Land and Warming Land, is one of the few Arctic ice streams with a floating tongue. It differs from other floating glaciers of the Arctic in that it discharges into a fjord with open water in the summer, in the presence of crevasses on its floating tongue, and in the way its terminus disintegrates areally into sublobes rather than shedding “Arctic” type icebergs by simple calving. The glacier’s terminal disintegration is ascribed to a slight northward bend of the fjord stretch which contains the floating tongue. The tongue, moving into the bend along a straight path, runs marginally aground near the shore at the outside of the bend, while the still-floating central part of the tongue continues to move forward. This leads to rotational movement of parts of the tongue which split off from the main ice mass along major crevasses to form sublobes separated from each other by wide gaps, and connected with the main ice mass only at their roots.