A Speed Limit on Ice Shelf Collapse Through Hydrofracture
A Speed Limit on Ice Shelf Collapse Through Hydrofracture
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DOI：
10.1029/2019gl084397
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发表时间：
2019-10
影响因子：
5.2
通讯作者：
A. Robel;A. Banwell
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
A. Robel;A. Banwell
在过去几十年里，南极几个冰架的崩溃与不断增加的表面融化有关，包括2002年拉森B冰架在短短几周内的崩溃。冰架解体的速度强烈地决定了随后的地面冰损失和海平面上升，但对崩溃速度的控制还没有很好的理解。在这里，我们表明，使用一种新的元胞自动机模型，有一个内在的速度限制冰架崩溃通过级联的相互作用的融化池水力压裂事件。虽然崩溃速度增加的水力压裂影响的区域，南极冰架的典型弯曲长度尺度确保水力压裂相互作用保持本地化。我们认为，拉森B冰架崩溃的速度是由一个季节的异常高的表面融水生产。
Increasing surface melt has been implicated in the collapse of several Antarctic ice shelves over the last few decades, including the collapse of Larsen B Ice Shelf over a period of just a few weeks in 2002. The speed at which an ice shelf disintegrates strongly determines the subsequent loss of grounded ice and sea level rise, but the controls on collapse speed are not well understood. Here we show, using a novel cellular automaton model, that there is an intrinsic speed limit on ice shelf collapse through cascades of interacting melt pond hydrofracture events. Though collapse speed increases with the area of hydrofracture influence, the typical flexural length scales of Antarctic ice shelves ensure that hydrofracture interactions remain localized. We argue that the speed at which Larsen B Ice Shelf collapsed was caused by a season of anomalously high surface meltwater production.