C13D-08
Grounding Zones, Subglacial Lakes, and Dynamics of an Antarctic Ice Stream: The WISSARD Glaciological Experiment
Monday, 14 December 2015: 15:25
3007 (Moscone West)
Slawek M Tulaczyk1, Susan Y Schwartz1, Andrew T Fisher1, Ross D Powell2, Helen A Fricker3, Sridhar Anandakrishnan4, Huw Joseph Horgan4,5, Reed P Scherer2, Jake Walter1,6, Jill Mikucki7, Knut Christenson4,8, Lucas Beem1, Kenneth D Mankoff1,9, Sasha P Carter10, Timothy O Hodson2, Oliver Marsh10, Catherine G Barcheck1, Carolyn Branecky1, Sarah Neuhaus1, Robert W Jacobel11 and WISSARD Science Team, (1)University of California Santa Cruz, Earth and Planetary Sciences, Santa Cruz, CA, United States, (2)Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, IL, United States, (3)Scripps Institution of Oceanography, La Jolla, CA, United States, (4)Pennsylvania State University, Department of Geosciences, University Park, PA, United States, (5)Victoria University of Wellington, Antarctic Research Centre, Wellington, New Zealand, (6)Institute for Geophysics, Austin, TX, United States, (7)Middlebury College, Department of Biology, Middlebury, VT, United States, (8)University of Washington, Earth and Space Sciences, Seattle, WA, United States, (9)Woods Hole Oceanographic Inst, New York, NY, United States, (10)University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, United States, (11)St. Olaf College, Northfield, MN, United States
Abstract:
Interactions of West Antarctic ice streams with meltwater at their beds, and with seawater at their grounding lines, are widely considered to be the primary drivers of ice stream flow variability on different timescales. Understanding of processes controlling ice flow variability is needed to build quantitative models of the Antarctic Ice Sheet that can be used to help predict its future behavior and to reconstruct its past evolution. The ice plain of Whillans Ice Stream provides a natural glaciological laboratory for investigations of Antarctic ice flow dynamics because of its highly variable flow rate modulated by tidal processes and fill-drain cycles of subglacial lakes. Moreover, this part of Antarctica has one of the longest time series of glaciological observations, which can be used to put recently acquired datasets in a multi-decadal context. Since 2007 Whillans Ice Stream has been the focus of a regional glaciological experiment, which included surface GPS and passive-source seismic sensors, radar and seismic imaging of subglacial properties, as well as deep borehole geophysical sensors. This experiment was possible thanks to the NSF-funded multidisciplinary WISSARD project (Whillans Ice Stream Subglacial Access Research Drilling). Here we will review the datasets collected during the WISSARD glaciological experiment and report on selected results pertaining to interactions of this ice stream with water at its bed and its grounding line.
