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    Marine ice cliff instability mitigated by slow removal of ice shelves

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    Date
    2019-10-21
    Author
    Clerc, Fiona  Concept link
    Minchew, Brent M.  Concept link
    Behn, Mark D.  Concept link
    Metadata
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    Citable URI
    https://hdl.handle.net/1912/25343
    As published
    https://doi.org/10.1029/2019GL084183
    DOI
    10.1029/2019GL084183
    Keyword
     marine ice cliff; buttressing ice shelf; Antarctic Ice Sheet; ice‐shelf collapse; brittle‐ductile transition; marine ice cliff instability 
    Abstract
    The accelerated calving of ice shelves buttressing the Antarctic Ice Sheet may form unstable ice cliffs. The marine ice cliff instability hypothesis posits that cliffs taller than a critical height (~90 m) will undergo structural collapse, initiating runaway retreat in ice‐sheet models. This critical height is based on inferences from preexisting, static ice cliffs. Here we show how the critical height increases with the timescale of ice‐shelf collapse. We model failure mechanisms within an ice cliff deforming after removal of ice‐shelf buttressing stresses. If removal occurs rapidly, the cliff deforms primarily elastically and fails through tensile‐brittle fracture, even at relatively small cliff heights. As the ice‐shelf removal timescale increases, viscous relaxation dominates, and the critical height increases to ~540 m for timescales greater than days. A 90‐m critical height implies ice‐shelf removal in under an hour. Incorporation of ice‐shelf collapse timescales in prognostic ice‐sheet models will mitigate the marine ice cliff instability, implying less ice mass loss.
    Description
    Author Posting. © American Geophysical Union, 2019. This article is posted here by permission of American Geophysical Union for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Geophysical Research Letters 46, (2019): 12108-12116, doi: 10.1029/2019GL084183.
    Collections
    • Geology and Geophysics (G&G)
    Suggested Citation
    Clerc, F., Minchew, B. M., & Behn, M. D. (2019). Marine ice cliff instability mitigated by slow removal of ice shelves. Geophysical Research Letters, 46, 12108-12116.
     

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