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

该奖项是为了支持汉密尔顿的探索性研究小额赠款（SGER），以调查在南极洲麦克默多站附近的麦克默多冰架威廉姆斯场滑雪道附近的卫星图像中观察到的台阶特征。这项研究具有严重的紧迫性，因此适合授予SGER奖，因为人们担心阶梯式特征可能是冰架破裂的前兆，这将对美国南极计划（USAP）产生重大影响。这可以被认为是“快速反应研究”……“意外事件”，因此属于sgs奖助金建议指南的指导方针。实地研究将包括精确的全球定位系统调查，以获得地表速度和应变率，结果将用于测试台阶是由冰架末端附近的裂谷引起的，还是有其他原因。这项工作将为监测冰架未来的行为提供一个基线。

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.