Brief communication: Thwaites Glacier cavity evolution
Abstract
Between 2014 and 2017, ocean melt eroded a large cavity beneath and along the western margin of the fast-flowing core of Thwaites Glacier. Here we show that from 2017 to the end of 2020 the cavity persisted but did not expand. This behaviour, of melt concentrated at the grounding line within confined sub-shelf cavities, fits with prior observations and modelling studies. We also show that acceleration and thinning of Thwaites Glacier grounded ice continued, with an increase in speed of 400 m a-1 and a thinning rate of at least 1.5 m a-1, between 2012 and 2020.
Citation
Bevan , S L , Luckman , A J , Benn , D I , Adusumilli , S & Crawford , A 2021 , ' Brief communication: Thwaites Glacier cavity evolution ' , Cryosphere , vol. 15 , no. 7 , pp. 3317-3328 . https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-15-3317-2021
Publication
Cryosphere
Status
Peer reviewed
ISSN
1994-0416Type
Journal article
Rights
Copyright © Author(s) 2021. Open Access. This work is distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Description
The research was completed under Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) projects CALISMO (Calving laws for ice-sheet models) and DOMINOS (Disintegration of marine ice-sheets using novel optimised solutions). The DOMINOS project is a component of the International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration (ITGC) supported by National Science Foundation (NSF: Grant PLR 1738896).Collections
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