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

该奖项旨在支持钻孔研究计划，以解决有关西南极冰流快速移动（每天约1米）机制的基本问题。 冰下软冰碛物变形的底部“润滑”常常被认为是造成这种快速运动的机制，然而，通过在河床上钻孔直接观测河床变形的努力并没有给出一个明确的指示。钻孔观测表明，冰下软冰碛物存在，物理条件有利于冰碛物变形或基底变形。滑动作为快速流动机制。 将开发改进的钻孔技术，分别测量冰运动的基底滑动部分和河床变形部分，这将有助于深入了解是什么控制冰流运动。

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.