Ocean Heat Drives Rapid Basal Melt of the Totten Ice Shelf

Overview

Journal Sci Adv

Specialties Biology
Science

Date 2016 Dec 29

PMID 28028540

Citations 24

Authors

Stephen Rich Rintoul

Alessandro Silvano

Beatriz Pena-Molino

Esmee van Wijk

Mark Rosenberg

Jamin Stevens Greenbaum

Donald D Blankenship

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Mass loss from the West Antarctic ice shelves and glaciers has been linked to basal melt by ocean heat flux. The Totten Ice Shelf in East Antarctica, which buttresses a marine-based ice sheet with a volume equivalent to at least 3.5 m of global sea-level rise, also experiences rapid basal melt, but the role of ocean forcing was not known because of a lack of observations near the ice shelf. Observations from the Totten calving front confirm that (0.22 ± 0.07) × 10 m s of warm water enters the cavity through a newly discovered deep channel. The ocean heat transport into the cavity is sufficient to support the large basal melt rates inferred from glaciological observations. Change in ocean heat flux is a plausible physical mechanism to explain past and projected changes in this sector of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet and its contribution to sea level.

Citing Articles

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