Analysis of Antarctic Ice-Shelf Rifting, Calving and Ice-Front Ocean Interaction Using SAR Interferometry, Ice-Shelf Thermomechanical Models and Ocean Tidel Models

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This award is to support a study of Antarctic ice-shelf rifting, calving, and ice-front ocean interaction using synthetic aperture radar (SAR) interferometry, ice-shelf thermomechanical models and ocean tidal models. The mass balance of the Antarctic ice sheet is governed in large part by iceberg calving from the large-scale ice shelves which surround the ice sheet's seaward perimeter. This work is designed to develop an understanding of ice-shelf flow and rifting processes. The recent break-up of the northernmost portion of the Larsen Ice Shelf suggests that ice shelves can catastrophically disintegrate in response to environmental change by a "disaggregation" process involving pre-existing detachment rifts. This work will address the question of whether similar break-up could be possible for the larger Filchner-Ronne and Ross ice shelves. The existence of rifts is believed to be a necessary condition for sudden ice-shelf break-up, and processes such as meltwater formation and surface ponding are believed to be the additional sufficient (enabling) condition that causes rifts to separate. The focus of this study will be on the governing tidal and creep-flow processes by which rifts are created. This study will involve synthetic aperture radar (SAR) interferometry, finite difference modeling of ocean tides, and finite-element thermomechanical modeling of ice-shelf creep flow. The processes that govern ice-shelf fracture, calving, flow and interaction with the ocean and atmosphere will be investigated.