Investigation of a Step Feature near the Skiway on McMurdo Ice Shelf, Antarctica

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This award is for support of a Small Grant for Exploratory Research (SGER) to Hamilton to investigate a step feature which has been observed in satellite imagery near the Williams Field skiway on the McMurdo Ice Shelf, near McMurdo Station, Antarctica. This study has severe urgency and therefore is appropriate for an SGER award since there is a concern that the step feature may be a precursor to ice shelf breakup, which would have drastic implications to the United States Antarctic Program (USAP). This can be considered "quick-response research"...on an "unanticipated event" and therefore falls under the guidelines in the Grant Proposal Guide for SGERs. Field studies will involve precision GPS surveys to obtain surface velocities and strain rates and the results will be used to test if the step results from rifting near the ice shelf terminus or has some other origin. This work will provide a baseline against which to monitor the future behavior of the ice shelf.