期刊
GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS
卷 42, 期 14, 页码 5909-5917出版社
AMER GEOPHYSICAL UNION
DOI: 10.1002/2015GL064236
关键词
Glaciology; Greenland; multibeam echo sounding; physical oceanography; bathymetry; ice-ocean interactions
资金
- University of California Irvine from Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation [3280]
- UC Irvine
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Cryospheric Science Program [NNX12AB86G]
- Jet Propulsion Laboratory
- California Institute of Technology from NASA
- Oak Ridge Associate Universities through NASA
- NSFgrant [ARC-1023499]
- NASA [NNX12AB86G, 30960] Funding Source: Federal RePORTER
Marine-terminating glaciers control most of Greenland's ice discharge into the ocean, but little is known about the geometry of their frontal regions. Here we use side-looking, multibeam echo sounding observations to reveal that their frontal ice cliffs are grounded deeper below sea level than previously measured and their ice faces are neither vertical nor smooth but often undercut by the ocean and rough. Deep glacier grounding enables contact with subsurface, warm, salty Atlantic waters (AW) which melts ice at rates of meters per day. We detect cavities undercutting the base of the calving faces at the sites of subglacial water (SGW) discharge predicted by a hydrological model. The observed pattern of undercutting is consistent with numerical simulations of ice melt in which buoyant plumes of SGW transport warm AW to the ice faces. Glacier undercutting likely enhances iceberg calving, impacting ice front stability and, in turn, the glacier mass balance.
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