St Andrews Research Repository

St Andrews University Home
View Item 
  •   St Andrews Research Repository
  • University of St Andrews Research
  • University of St Andrews Research
  • University of St Andrews Research
  • View Item
  •   St Andrews Research Repository
  • University of St Andrews Research
  • University of St Andrews Research
  • University of St Andrews Research
  • View Item
  •   St Andrews Research Repository
  • University of St Andrews Research
  • University of St Andrews Research
  • University of St Andrews Research
  • View Item
  • Login
JavaScript is disabled for your browser. Some features of this site may not work without it.

Suppressed basal melting in the eastern Thwaites Glacier grounding zone

Thumbnail
View/Open
Davis_2023_Nature_Suppressed_basal_melting_CC.pdf (13.97Mb)
Date
16/02/2023
Author
Davis, Peter E.D.
Nicholls, Keith W.
Holland, David M.
Schmidt, Britney E.
Washam, Peter
Riverman, Kiya L.
Arthern, Robert J.
Vankova, Irena
Eayrs, Clare
Smith, James A.
Anker, Paul G.D.
Mullen, Andrew D.
Dichek, Daniel
Lawrence, Justin D.
Meister, Matthew M.
Clyne, Elisabeth
Baskinski-Ferris, Aurora
Rignot, Eric
Queste, Bastien Y.
Boehme, Lars
Heywood, Karen J
Anandakrishnan, Sridhar
Makinson, Keith
Funder
NERC
Grant ID
NE/S006591/1
Keywords
GE Environmental Sciences
3rd-DAS
MCC
Metadata
Show full item record
Altmetrics Handle Statistics
Altmetrics DOI Statistics
Abstract
Thwaites Glacier is one of the fastest-changing ice–ocean systems in Antarctica1,2,3. Much of the ice sheet within the catchment of Thwaites Glacier is grounded below sea level on bedrock that deepens inland4, making it susceptible to rapid and irreversible ice loss that could raise the global sea level by more than half a metre2,3,5. The rate and extent of ice loss, and whether it proceeds irreversibly, are set by the ocean conditions and basal melting within the grounding-zone region where Thwaites Glacier first goes afloat3,6, both of which are largely unknown. Here we show—using observations from a hot-water-drilled access hole—that the grounding zone of Thwaites Eastern Ice Shelf (TEIS) is characterized by a warm and highly stable water column with temperatures substantially higher than the in situ freezing point. Despite these warm conditions, low current speeds and strong density stratification in the ice–ocean boundary layer actively restrict the vertical mixing of heat towards the ice base7,8, resulting in strongly suppressed basal melting. Our results demonstrate that the canonical model of ice-shelf basal melting used to generate sea-level projections cannot reproduce observed melt rates beneath this critically important glacier, and that rapid and possibly unstable grounding-line retreat may be associated with relatively modest basal melt rates.
Citation
Davis , P E D , Nicholls , K W , Holland , D M , Schmidt , B E , Washam , P , Riverman , K L , Arthern , R J , Vankova , I , Eayrs , C , Smith , J A , Anker , P G D , Mullen , A D , Dichek , D , Lawrence , J D , Meister , M M , Clyne , E , Baskinski-Ferris , A , Rignot , E , Queste , B Y , Boehme , L , Heywood , K J , Anandakrishnan , S & Makinson , K 2023 , ' Suppressed basal melting in the eastern Thwaites Glacier grounding zone ' , Nature , vol. 614 , pp. 479-485 . https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-05586-0
Publication
Nature
Status
Peer reviewed
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-05586-0
ISSN
0028-0836
Type
Journal article
Rights
Copyright © The Author(s) 2023. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
Description
Funding: This work is from the MELT project, a component of the International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration (ITGC). Support from the National Science Foundation (NSF, grant no. 1739003) and the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC, grant no. NE/S006656/1). Logistics provided by NSF U.S. Antarctic Program and NERC British Antarctic Survey. The ship-based CTD data were supported by the ITGC TARSAN project (NERC grant nos. NE/S006419/1 and NE/S006591/1; NSF grant no. 1929991). ITGC contribution no. ITGC 047.
Collections
  • University of St Andrews Research
URI
http://hdl.handle.net/10023/27000

Items in the St Andrews Research Repository are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.

Advanced Search

Browse

All of RepositoryCommunities & CollectionsBy Issue DateNamesTitlesSubjectsClassificationTypeFunderThis CollectionBy Issue DateNamesTitlesSubjectsClassificationTypeFunder

My Account

Login

Open Access

To find out how you can benefit from open access to research, see our library web pages and Open Access blog. For open access help contact: openaccess@st-andrews.ac.uk.

Accessibility

Read our Accessibility statement.

How to submit research papers

The full text of research papers can be submitted to the repository via Pure, the University's research information system. For help see our guide: How to deposit in Pure.

Electronic thesis deposit

Help with deposit.

Repository help

For repository help contact: Digital-Repository@st-andrews.ac.uk.

Give Feedback

Cookie policy

This site may use cookies. Please see Terms and Conditions.

Usage statistics

COUNTER-compliant statistics on downloads from the repository are available from the IRUS-UK Service. Contact us for information.

© University of St Andrews Library

University of St Andrews is a charity registered in Scotland, No SC013532.

  • Facebook
  • Twitter