Antarctic ice-shelf advance driven by anomalous atmospheric and sea-ice circulation
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Publication Date
2022Journal Title
Nature Geoscience
ISSN
1752-0894
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Pages
1-7
Type
Article
This Version
AM
Metadata
Show full item recordCitation
Christie, F., Benham, T., Batchelor, C., Rack, W., Montelli, A., & Dowdeswell, J. (2022). Antarctic ice-shelf advance driven by anomalous atmospheric and sea-ice circulation. Nature Geoscience, 1-7. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-022-00938-x
Abstract
The disintegration of the eastern Antarctic Peninsula’s Larsen A and B ice shelves has been attributed to atmosphere and ocean warming, and increased mass-losses from the glaciers once restrained by these ice shelves have increased Antarctica’s total contribution to sea-level rise. Abrupt recessions in ice-shelf frontal position presaged the break-up of Larsen A and B, yet, in the ~20 years since these events, documented knowledge of frontal change along the entire ~1,400 km-long eastern Antarctic Peninsula is limited. Here, we show that 85% of the seaward ice-shelf perimeter fringing this coastline underwent uninterrupted advance between the early 2000s and 2019, in contrast to the two previous decades. We attribute this advance to enhanced ocean-wave dampening, ice-shelf buttressing and the absence of sea-surface slope-induced gravitational ice-shelf flow. These phenomena were, in turn, enabled by increased near-shore sea ice driven by a Weddell Sea-wide intensification of cyclonic surface winds around 2002. Collectively, our observations demonstrate that sea-ice change can either safeguard from, or set in motion, the final rifting and calving of even large Antarctic ice shelves.
Relationships
Sponsorship
Flotilla Foundation and Marine Archaeology Consultants Switzerland; Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation
Identifiers
External DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-022-00938-x
This record's URL: https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/336954
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