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Increased ice loading in the Antarctic Peninsula since the 1850s and its effect on glacial isostatic adjustment

Lookup NU author(s): Grace Nield, Professor Matt King, Professor Peter ClarkeORCiD

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Abstract

Antarctic Peninsula (AP) ice core records indicate significant accumulation increase since 1855, and any resultant ice mass increase has the potential to contribute substantially to present-day glacial isostatic adjustment (GIA). We derive empirical orthogonal functions from climate model output to infer typical spatial patterns of accumulation over the AP and, by combining with ice core records, estimate annual accumulation for the period 1855-2010. In response to this accumulation history, high resolution ice-sheet modeling predicts ice thickness increases of up to 45 m, with the greatest thickening in the northern and western AP. Whilst this thickening is predicted to affect GRACE estimates by no more than 6.2 Gt/yr, it may contribute up to -7 mm/yr to the present-day GIA uplift rate, depending on the chosen Earth model, with a strong east-west gradient across the AP. Its consideration is therefore critical to the interpretation of observed GPS velocities in the AP. Citation: Nield, G. A., P. L. Whitehouse, M. A. King, P. J. Clarke, and M. J. Bentley (2012), Increased ice loading in the Antarctic Peninsula since the 1850s and its effect on glacial isostatic adjustment, Geophys. Res. Lett., 39, L17504, doi: 10.1029/2012GL052559.


Publication metadata

Author(s): Nield GA, Whitehouse PL, King MA, Clarke PJ, Bentley MJ

Publication type: Article

Publication status: Published

Journal: Geophysical Research Letters

Year: 2012

Volume: 39

Issue: 17

Print publication date: 12/09/2012

ISSN (print): 0094-8276

ISSN (electronic): 1944-8007

Publisher: American Geophysical Union

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2012GL052559

DOI: 10.1029/2012GL052559


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Funding

Funder referenceFunder name
NERC PhD studentship
RCUK Academic Fellowship
ES0701COST Action "Improved constraints on models of glacial isostatic adjustment."

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