Fast Flow of Antarctic Ice Streams - Bed Deformation or Basal Sliding? Borehole Study of Ice Streams B and C

该奖项是对一项钻孔研究计划的支持，该计划旨在解决有关导致西南极冰流快速移动(每天约1米)的机制的基本问题。这种快速移动的机制通常被认为是由软冰川变形直到冰层下的底部“润滑”的，然而，通过在冰床上钻入的钻孔直接观察这种冰床变形的努力并没有给出明确的迹象。钻孔观测表明，存在软弱的冰下冰层，物理条件有利于冰层变形或底部滑动作为快速流动机制。将开发改进的钻孔技术，分别测量冰运动的底部滑动分量和床面变形分量，并应有助于深入了解是什么控制了冰流运动。

This award is for support for a program of borehole studies to resolve fundamental questions about the mechanisms responsible for the rapid movement (~1 m per day) of the West Antarctic ice stream. Basal "lubrication" by deformation of soft glacial till underlying the ice is often given as the mechanism responsible for this rapid movement, however, efforts to observe this bed deformation directly by measurements in boreholes drilled to the bed have not given a definite indication of it. Borehole observations have shown that soft subglacial till is present and that physical conditions favor either till-deformation or basal-sliding as the rapid-flow mechanism. Improved borehole techniques for measuring separately the basal-sliding component of ice movement and the bed-deformation component will be developed and should help to provide insight into what controls ice stream motion.