Ice sheet Dynamics and Processes along the West Antarctic Continental Shelf

摘要项目负责人：Frank O. nitsche提案号：0838735标题：南极西部大陆架的冰盖动力学和过程本奖项是根据2009年美国复苏和再投资法案（公法111-5）资助的。南极西部冰原被认为很容易受到气候变化的影响，因为它位于海平面以下，被快速流动的冰流排干，并被漂浮的冰架所包围，相对温暖的南极环极水的入侵容易使其融化。目前，南极洲冰川变薄最快的地区是阿蒙森海和别令斯豪森海。本研究试图通过高分辨率的大陆架海底特征测绘，将目前的观测结果置于更大范围的长期地质背景下，以表明过去冰的存在和行为。针对罗斯、阿蒙森和别令斯豪森海板块的冰川线和指示冰流方向的槽和古搁浅带楔的现有调查覆盖范围的空白。这些调查将作为2010年“奥登科学机遇号”破冰船的一部分进行，并将利用“奥登”号破冰船。美国最先进的测绘系统。更广泛的影响：这项活动将补充和补充美国、瑞典、英国、法国、日本和波兰的合作者在奥登号上进行的更集中的区域研究。PI将在项目期间将奥登号和该地区其他船只获得的测深数据汇编到现有的测深数据库中。汇编的数据集将通过国家科学基金会建立的南极多波束测深和地球物理数据综合（AMBS）网站公开。它还将被纳入GEBCO国际南大洋水深图（IBCSO），从而大大改善南大洋太平洋部分船舶航行的基础。本科生将通过拉蒙特暑期实习项目在PI的指导下参与研究。PI是一位年轻的研究者，这将是他作为PI获得的第一个NSF资助。

AbstractPI: Frank O. NitscheProposal Number: 0838735Title: Sheet Dynamics and Processes along the West Antarctic Continental ShelfThis award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5). The West Antarctic Ice Sheet is believed to be vulnerable to climate change as it is grounded below sea level, is drained by rapidly flowing ice streams and is fringed by floating ice shelves subject to melting by incursions of relatively warm Antarctic circumpolar water. Currently, the most rapidly thinning glaciers in Antarctica occur in the Amundsen and Bellingshausen Sea sectors. This study seeks to place the present day observations into a longer-term geological context over a broad scale by high-resolution swath bathymetric mapping of continental shelf sea floor features that indicate past ice presence and behavior. Gaps in existing survey coverage of glacial lineations and troughs indicating ice flow direction and paleo-grounding zone wedges over the Ross, Amundsen and Bellingshausen Sea sectors are targeted. The surveys will be conducted as part of the 2010 Icebreaker Oden science opportunity and will take advantage of the vessel?s state-of-the-art swath mapping system.Broader impacts:This activity will supplement and complement more focused regional studies by US, Swedish, UK, French, Japanese and Polish collaborators also sailing on the Oden. The PI will compile bathymetric data to be acquired by the Oden and other ships in the region over the duration of the project into the existing bathymetric data base. The compiled data set will be made publically available through the NSF founded Antarctic Multibeam Bathymetry and Geophysical Data Synthesis (AMBS) site. It will also be integrated into the GEBCO International Bathymetric Chart of the Southern Ocean (IBCSO) and so significantly improve the basis for ship navigation in the Pacific sector of the Southern Ocean. Undergraduate students will be involved in the research under supervision of the PI via the Lamont summer internship program. The PI is a young investigator and this will be his first NSF grant as a PI.