1 / 10

ICE STREAMS OF THE ANTARCTIC

ICE STREAMS OF THE ANTARCTIC. The Antarctic Ice Sheets. The East Antarctic Ice Sheet Covers 1.0 x 10 7 km 2 Contains 2.6 x 10 7 km 3 of ice The West Antarctic Ice Sheet Covers 2.0 x 10 6 km 2 Contains 3.3 x 10 6 km 3 of ice. What is an Ice Stream?.

justin-rojas
Download Presentation

ICE STREAMS OF THE ANTARCTIC

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. ICE STREAMS OF THE ANTARCTIC

  2. The Antarctic Ice Sheets • The East Antarctic Ice Sheet • Covers 1.0 x 107 km2 • Contains 2.6 x 107 km3 of ice • The West Antarctic Ice Sheet • Covers 2.0 x 106 km2 • Contains 3.3 x 106 km3 of ice

  3. What is an Ice Stream? • Ice Streams are channels of rapidly moving ice within a ice sheet. • Ice Streams dynamics can have a significant effect on glacial stability

  4. Where are Ice Streams found in Antarctica? • There are Ice streams within each of the two major Ice Sheets of Antarctica • The East Antarctic Ice Sheet (EAIS) • The West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) • The most critical of these are streams are those that flow into the Ross Ice Shelf (RIS) and the Ronne-Filchner Ice Shelf (RFIS)

  5. Siple Dome Ice Streams

  6. Ice Stream Flow • The Antarctic ice streams flow at rates ranging from 100s to 1000s of meters per year • Stoppages and slow downs have been documented to occur rapidly • These variations in velocity significantly affect the mass balance of the RIS

  7. Ice Stream Controls • There are a number of factors that can affect ice stream flow rates • Melt Water Availability • Geothermal Heat Availability • Underlying Topography

More Related