Pine Island Glacier

Last updated
Pine Island Glacier
Fieldcamp.jpg
British Antarctic Survey field camp on PIG
Antarctica relief location map.jpg
Red pog.svg
Type Ice stream
Location West Antarctic Ice Sheet, Antarctica
Coordinates 75°10′S100°0′W / 75.167°S 100.000°W / -75.167; -100.000 [1]
Area175,000 km2 (68,000 sq mi) (whole catchment) [2]
LengthApprox. 250 km (160 mi) [2]
ThicknessApprox. 2 km (1.2 mi)
TerminusFloating Ice shelf
StatusAccelerating

Pine Island Glacier (PIG) is a large ice stream, and the fastest melting glacier in Antarctica, responsible for about 25% of Antarctica's ice loss. [3] The glacier ice streams flow west-northwest along the south side of the Hudson Mountains into Pine Island Bay, Amundsen Sea, Antarctica. It was mapped by the United States Geological Survey (USGS) from surveys and United States Navy (USN) air photos, 1960–66, and named by the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names (US-ACAN) in association with Pine Island Bay. [1] [4]

Contents

The area drained by Pine Island Glacier comprises about 10% of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet. [5] Satellite measurements have shown that the Pine Island Glacier Basin has a greater net contribution of ice to the sea than any other ice drainage basin in the world and this has increased due to recent acceleration of the ice stream. [6] [7]

An iceberg about twice the size of Washington, DC broke off from the glacier in February 2020. Pine Island Glacier's ice velocity has accelerated to over 33 feet per day. [8]

The ice stream is extremely remote, with the nearest continually occupied research station at Rothera, nearly 1,300 km (810 mi) away. [9] The area is not claimed by any nations and the Antarctic Treaty prohibits any new claims while it is in force. [10]

Major rift in the Pine Island Glacier.
Pine Island Glacier, at left, and Thwaites Glacier have recently averaged ice elevation losses of 6 meters per year in places.
This "airborne" tour was created from only a small portion of the images collected during a flight over the Pine Island Glacier crack on October 26, 2011.

Ice sheet drainage

Floating ice shelf at the downstream end of Pine Island Glacier. The crack shows the start of a large iceberg calving Pigshelf.jpg
Floating ice shelf at the downstream end of Pine Island Glacier. The crack shows the start of a large iceberg calving

The Antarctic ice sheet is the largest mass of ice on earth, containing a volume of water equivalent to 57 m (187 ft) of global sea level. [11] The ice sheet forms from snow which falls onto the continent and compacts under its own weight. The ice then moves under its own weight toward the edges of the continent. Most of this transport to the sea is by ice streams (faster moving channels of ice surrounded by slower moving ice walls) and outlet glaciers. [11] The Antarctic ice sheet consists of the large, relatively stable, East Antarctic Ice Sheet and a smaller, less stable, West Antarctic Ice Sheet. The West Antarctic Ice Sheet is drained into the sea by several large ice streams, most of which flow into either Ross Ice Shelf, or Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf. Pine Island and Thwaites Glaciers are two major West Antarctic ice streams which do not flow into a large ice shelf. They are part of an area called the Amundsen Sea Embayment. A total area of 175,000 km2 (68,000 sq mi), 10 percent of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, drains out to the sea via Pine Island Glacier, this area is known as the Pine Island Glacier drainage basin. [2] [5]

Weak underbelly of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet

The Pine Island and Thwaites glaciers are two of Antarctica's five largest ice streams. Scientists have found that the flow of these ice streams has accelerated in recent years, and suggested that if they were to melt, global sea levels would rise by 1 to 2 m (3 ft 3 in to 6 ft 7 in), destabilising the entire West Antarctic Ice Sheet and perhaps sections of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet. [12]

In 1981 Terry Hughes proposed that the region around Pine Island Bay may be a "weak underbelly" of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet. [13] This is based on the fact that, unlike the majority of the large West Antarctic ice streams, those flowing into the Amundsen Sea are not protected from the ocean by large floating ice shelves. Also, although the surface of the glacier is above sea level, the base lies below sea level and slopes downward inland, this suggests that there is no geological barrier to stop a retreat of the ice once it has started. [13]

Acceleration and thinning

The Pine Island glacier began to retreat in the 1940s. [14] Prior to this retreat, the grounding line of Pine Island Glacier was located on a prominent seabed ridge. This ridge now acts as a barrier, restricting the amount of relatively warm circumpolar deep water that can reach the thickest ice. [15]

The speed of Pine Island Glacier increased by 77 percent from 1974 to the end of 2013, with half of this increase occurring between 2003 and 2009. [16] This speed up has meant that by the end of 2007 the Pine Island Glacier system had a negative mass balance of 46  gigatonnes per year, [7] which is equivalent to 0.13 mm (0.0051 in) per year global sea level rise. [17] In other words, much more water was being put into the sea by PIG than was being replaced by snowfall. Measurements along the centre of the ice stream by GPS demonstrated that this acceleration is still high nearly 200 km (120 mi) inland, at around 4 percent over 2007. [18] It has been suggested that this recent acceleration could have been triggered by warm ocean waters at the end of PIG, where it has a floating section (ice shelf) approximately 50 km (31 mi) long. [4] [5] [19] It has also been shown that PIG underwent rapid thinning during the Holocene, and that this process may continue for centuries after it is initiated. [20]

As the ice stream accelerates it is also getting steeper. [18] The rate of thinning within the central trunk has quadrupled from 1995 to 2006. [18] [21] If the current rate of acceleration were to continue the main trunk of the glacier could be afloat within 100 years. [21]

The ice front stayed in a more or less stable position from 1973 to 2014, with a 10 km retreat in 2015. [22]

Subglacial volcano

In January 2008, British Antarctic Survey (BAS) scientists reported that 2,200 years ago a volcano erupted under the Antarctic ice sheet. This was the biggest Antarctic eruption in the last 10,000 years. The volcano is situated in the Hudson Mountains, close to Pine Island Glacier. [23] [24] The eruption spread a layer of volcanic ash and tephra over the surface of the ice sheet. This ash was then buried under the snow and ice. The date of the eruption was estimated from the depth of burial of the ash. This method uses dates calculated from nearby ice cores. [24] The presence of the volcano raises the possibility that volcanic activity could have contributed, or may contribute in the future, to increases in the flow of the glacier. [25] In 2018 it was found that there is a substantial volcanic heat source beneath Pine Island Glacier approximately half as large as the active Grimsvötn volcano on Iceland. [26] The same year a study was published concluding that the bedrock below WAIS was uplifted at a higher rate than previously thought, the authors suggested this could eventually help to stabilize the ice sheet. [27]

Climate engineering

Pine Island Glacier, as well as the better known Thwaites Glacier, can both substantially exacerbate future sea level rise. Consequently, some scientists, most notably Michael J. Wolovick and John C. Moore, have suggested stabilizing them via climate engineering aiming to block warm water flows from the ocean. Their first proposal focused on Thwaites, and estimated that even reinforcing it physically at weakest points, without building larger structures to block water flows, would be among "the largest civil engineering projects that humanity has ever attempted", yet only 30% likely to work. [28]

This section is an excerpt from Thwaites Glacier § Engineering options for stabilization.[ edit ]
A proposed "underwater sill" blocking 50% of warm water flows heading for the glacier could have the potential to delay its collapse and the resultant sea level rise by many centuries. Wolovick2018 Thwaites sill timelines.png
A proposed "underwater sill" blocking 50% of warm water flows heading for the glacier could have the potential to delay its collapse and the resultant sea level rise by many centuries.

In 2023, it was proposed that an installation of underwater curtains, made of a flexible material and anchored to the Amundsen Sea floor would be able to interrupt warm water flow. This approach would reduce costs and increase the longevity of the material (conservatively estimated at 25 years for curtain elements and up to 100 years for the foundations) relative to more rigid structures. With them in place, Thwaites Ice Shelf and Pine Island Ice Shelf would presumably regrow to a state they last had a century ago, thus stabilizing these glaciers. [30] [31] [32] To achieve this, the curtains would have to be placed at a depth of around 600 metres (0.37 miles) (to avoid damage from icebergs which would be regularly drifting above) and be 80 km (50 mi) long. The authors acknowledged that while work on this scale would be unprecedented and face many challenges in the Antarctic (including polar night and the currently insufficient numbers of specialized polar ships and underwater vessels), it would also not require any new technology and there is already experience of laying down pipelines at such depths. [30] [31]

Diagram of a proposed "curtain". Wolovick2023 Thwaites curtain.jpeg
Diagram of a proposed "curtain".
The authors estimated this project would take a decade to construct, at $40–80 billion initial cost, while the ongoing maintenance would cost $1–2 billion a year. [30] [31] Yet, a single seawall capable of protecting the entire New York City may cost twice as much on its own, [32] and the global costs of adaptation to sea level rise caused by the glaciers' collapse are estimated to reach $40 billion annually: [30] [31] The authors also suggested that their proposal would be competitive with the other climate engineering proposals like stratospheric aerosol injection (SAI) or carbon dioxide removal (CDR), as while those would stop a much larger spectrum of climate change impacts, their estimated annual costs range from $7–70 billion for SAI to $160–4500 billion for CDR powerful enough to help meet the 1.5 °C (2.7 °F) Paris Agreement target. [30] [31]

History of fieldwork

On the ice

Seismic surveying on Pine Island Glacier Iceseismic.jpg
Seismic surveying on Pine Island Glacier
Birth of an iceberg. Birth of an Iceberg, Pine Island Glacier, Antarctica - NASA Earth Observatory.jpg
Birth of an iceberg.
This animation shows a drill site location on the Pine Island Ice Shelf along with velocity-colored ocean flows.

Due to the remoteness of Pine Island Glacier, most of the information available on the ice stream comes from airborne [2] or satellite-based measurements. [5] [7]

The first expedition to visit the ice stream was a United States over-snow traverse, which spent around a week in the area of PIG during January 1961. They dug snow pits to measure snow accumulation and carried out seismic surveys to measure ice thickness. One of the scientists on this traverse was Charles R. Bentley, [33] who said "we didn't know we were crossing a glacier at the time." PIG is around 50 km (31 mi) wide at the point visited and at ground level cannot be visually distinguished from the surrounding ice. This expedition was called the "Ellsworth Highland Traverse". [34] [35]

In the 2004–2005 field season a team of nine, using a British Antarctic Survey (BAS) Twin Otter aircraft equipped with ice-penetrating radar, completed an aerial survey of PIG and its adjacent ice sheet. The team of seven British and two Americans flew 30 km grid patterns over the PIG until January 5, mapping the sub-glacial terrain of an area roughly the size of Nevada.

Due to the remoteness of PIG and the logistical difficulties of caching enough fuel for the 2004–05 expedition and future project(s), BAS used the resources of the United States Antarctic Program (USAP) and their ski-equipped LC130 aircraft. After many weeks of weather delays the first four men arrived from McMurdo Station on 9 November 2004, and began to establish camp and build a skiway for the C130s. The remaining members of the team arrived from Rothera Research Station 10 days later in a Twin Otter.

Because of unusually good weather in the area that season the survey completed flying their grids by mid-January, and began flying 15 km grids of Thwaites Glacier for a USAP expedition who had been experiencing unusually poor weather in their area that year. Flying over Antarctica's Pine Island Glacier on October 14, 2011, in a DC-8 research plane, scientists participating in NASA's IceBridge mission discovered a massive crack running about 29 kilometers (18 mi) across the glacier's floating tongue. The rift is 80 metres (260 feet) wide on average and 50 to 60 meters (160 to 200 ft) deep.

Another team from the British Antarctic Survey arrived at the ice stream on 8 December 2006 for the first of two field seasons. In the second field season, they spent three months there from November 2007 to February 2008. Work on the glacier included radar measurements and seismic surveys. [9]

In January 2008 Bob Bindschadler of NASA landed on the floating ice shelf of PIG, the first ever landing on this ice shelf, for a reconnaissance mission to investigate the feasibility of drilling through around 500 m (1,600 ft) of ice, to lower instruments into the ocean cavity below. It was decided that the small crevasse free area was too hard for further landings and so further fieldwork had to be postponed. Therefore, two Global Positioning System (GPS) units and a weather station were positioned as near as possible to PIG. [36]

In the 2011–2012 field season, after five weeks of delays, the camp staff was finally able to establish the Main Camp just before New Year. [37] The following week, Bindschadler and his team were able to arrive. Due to additional weather delays, the helicopters were not able to arrive by the NSF 'drop dead' date[ clarification needed ] and the field season was cancelled. [38] Limited science was still accomplished by the team thanks to a series of flights by KBA back onto the glacier; conditions had changed drastically since the last Twin Otter flights. [39]

The British Antarctic Survey deployed a small team of four during the 2011–12 summer field season to carry out a series of seismic and radar surveys on PIG. They also installed a series of overwintering GPS stations. During the season, a separate BAS team travelled to the field party's location and installed an overwintering autonomous VLF station. This was followed by a radar traverse upstream using snowmobiles. This survey linked previous radar lines.

From the sea

The first ship to reach Pine Island Glacier's ice shelf, in Pine Island Bay, was the USS/USCGC Glacier in 1985. This ship was an icebreaker operated by the U.S. Coast Guard. The mission, known as Deep Freeze, had scientists on board who took sediment samples from the ocean floor. [40]

During the summer field season, over two months from January to February 2009, researchers aboard the U.S. Antarctic Program research vessel Nathaniel B. Palmer reached the ice shelf. This was the second time that the Palmer had successfully made it up to the glacier, the first time being in 1994. In collaboration with the British, the scientists used a robotic submarine to explore the glacier-carved channels on the continental shelf as well as the cavity below the ice shelf and glacier. [41] The submarine, known as Autosub 3, was developed and built at the National Oceanography Centre in the UK. It completed six successful missions, travelling a total of 500 km (310 mi) under the ice shelf. [42] Autosub is able to map the base of the ice shelf as well as the ocean floor and take various measurements and samples of the water on the way. The success of Autosub 3 was particularly notable because its predecessor Autosub 2 was lost beneath the Fimbul Ice Shelf on only its second such mission. [43]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ice shelf</span> Large platform of glacial ice

An ice shelf is a large platform of glacial ice floating on the ocean, fed by one or multiple tributary glaciers. Ice shelves form along coastlines where the ice thickness is insufficient to displace the more dense surrounding ocean water. The boundary between the ice shelf (floating) and grounded ice is referred to as the grounding line; the boundary between the ice shelf and the open ocean is the ice front or calving front.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ice sheet</span> Large mass of glacial ice

In glaciology, an ice sheet, also known as a continental glacier, is a mass of glacial ice that covers surrounding terrain and is greater than 50,000 km2 (19,000 sq mi). The only current ice sheets are the Antarctic ice sheet and the Greenland ice sheet. Ice sheets are bigger than ice shelves or alpine glaciers. Masses of ice covering less than 50,000 km2 are termed an ice cap. An ice cap will typically feed a series of glaciers around its periphery.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Amundsen Sea</span> Arm of the Southern Ocean

The Amundsen Sea is an arm of the Southern Ocean off Marie Byrd Land in western Antarctica. It lies between Cape Flying Fish to the east and Cape Dart on Siple Island to the west. Cape Flying Fish marks the boundary between the Amundsen Sea and the Bellingshausen Sea. West of Cape Dart there is no named marginal sea of the Southern Ocean between the Amundsen and Ross Seas. The Norwegian expedition of 1928–1929 under Captain Nils Larsen named the body of water for the Norwegian polar explorer Roald Amundsen while exploring this area in February 1929.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Transantarctic Mountains</span> Mountain range in Antarctica

The Transantarctic Mountains comprise a mountain range of uplifted rock in Antarctica which extends, with some interruptions, across the continent from Cape Adare in northern Victoria Land to Coats Land. These mountains divide East Antarctica and West Antarctica. They include a number of separately named mountain groups, which are often again subdivided into smaller ranges.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">West Antarctic Ice Sheet</span> Segment of Antarctic ice sheet

The West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) is the segment of the continental ice sheet that covers West Antarctica, the portion of Antarctica on the side of the Transantarctic Mountains that lies in the Western Hemisphere. It is classified as a marine-based ice sheet, meaning that its bed lies well below sea level and its edges flow into floating ice shelves. The WAIS is bounded by the Ross Ice Shelf, the Ronne Ice Shelf, and outlet glaciers that drain into the Amundsen Sea.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Larsen Ice Shelf</span> Ice shelf in Antarctica

The Larsen Ice Shelf is a long ice shelf in the northwest part of the Weddell Sea, extending along the east coast of the Antarctic Peninsula from Cape Longing to Smith Peninsula. It is named after Captain Carl Anton Larsen, the master of the Norwegian whaling vessel Jason, who sailed along the ice front as far as 68°10' South during December 1893. In finer detail, the Larsen Ice Shelf is a series of shelves that occupy distinct embayments along the coast. From north to south, the segments are called Larsen A, Larsen B, and Larsen C by researchers who work in the area. Further south, Larsen D and the much smaller Larsen E, F and G are also named.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marie Byrd Land</span> Unclaimed West Antarctic region

Marie Byrd Land (MBL) is an unclaimed region of Antarctica. With an area of 1,610,000 km2 (620,000 sq mi), it is the largest unclaimed territory on Earth. It was named after the wife of American naval officer Richard E. Byrd, who explored the region in the early 20th century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Antarctic ice sheet</span> Earths southern polar ice cap

The Antarctic ice sheet is a continental glacier covering 98% of the Antarctic continent, with an area of 14 million square kilometres and an average thickness of over 2 kilometres (1.2 mi). It is the largest of Earth's two current ice sheets, containing 26.5 million cubic kilometres of ice, which is equivalent to 61% of all fresh water on Earth. Its surface is nearly continuous, and the only ice-free areas on the continent are the dry valleys, nunataks of the Antarctic mountain ranges, and sparse coastal bedrock. However, it is often subdivided into East Antarctic ice sheet (EAIS), West Antarctic ice sheet (WAIS), and Antarctic Peninsula (AP), due to the large differences in topography, ice flow, and glacier mass balance between the three regions.

Smith Glacier (75°05′S112°00′W is a low-gradient Antarctic glacier, over 160 km long, draining from Toney Mountain in an ENE direction to Amundsen Sea. A northern distributary, Kohler Glacier, drains to Dotson Ice Shelf but the main flow passes to the sea between Bear Peninsula and Mount Murphy, terminating at Crosson Ice Shelf.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Denman Glacier</span> Glacier in Queen Mary Land, Antarctica

Denman Glacier is a glacier 11 to 16 km wide, descending north some 110 km (70 mi), which debouches into the Shackleton Ice Shelf east of David Island, Queen Mary Land. It was discovered in November 1912 by the Western Base party of the Australasian Antarctic Expedition under Sir Douglas Mawson. Mawson named the glacier for Lord Denman, Governor-General of Australia in 1911, a patron of the expedition.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thwaites Glacier</span> Antarctic glacier

Thwaites Glacier is an unusually broad and vast Antarctic glacier located east of Mount Murphy, on the Walgreen Coast of Marie Byrd Land. It was initially sighted by polar researchers in 1940, mapped in 1959–1966 and officially named in 1967, after the late American glaciologist Fredrik T. Thwaites. The glacier flows into Pine Island Bay, part of the Amundsen Sea, at surface speeds which exceed 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) per year near its grounding line. Its fastest-flowing grounded ice is centered between 50 and 100 kilometres east of Mount Murphy. Like many other parts of the cryosphere, it has been adversely affected by climate change, and provides one of the more notable examples of the retreat of glaciers since 1850.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ice stream</span> A region of fast-moving ice within an ice sheet

An ice stream is a region of fast-moving ice within an ice sheet. It is a type of glacier, a body of ice that moves under its own weight. They can move upwards of 1,000 metres (3,300 ft) a year, and can be up to 50 kilometres (31 mi) in width, and hundreds of kilometers in length. They tend to be about 2 km (1.2 mi) deep at the thickest, and constitute the majority of the ice that leaves the sheet. In Antarctica, the ice streams account for approximately 90% of the sheet's mass loss per year, and approximately 50% of the mass loss in Greenland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Retreat of glaciers since 1850</span> Recent shrinking of glaciers due to global warming

The retreat of glaciers since 1850 is well documented and is one of the effects of climate change. The retreat of mountain glaciers provide evidence for the rise in global temperatures since the late 19th century. Examples include mountain glaciers in western North America, Asia, the Alps in central Europe and tropical and subtropical regions of South America and Africa. Since glacial mass is affected by long-term climatic changes, e.g., precipitation, mean temperature, and cloud cover, glacial mass changes are one of the most sensitive indicators of climate change. Retreat of glaciers is also a major reason for sea level rise. Excluding peripheral glaciers of ice sheets, the total cumulated global glacial losses over the 26-year period from 1993 to 2018 were likely 5500 gigatons, or 210 gigatons per yr.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Totten Glacier</span> Glacier in Antarctica

Totten Glacier is a large glacier draining a major portion of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet, through the Budd Coast of Wilkes Land in the Australian Antarctic Territory. The catchment drained by the glacier is estimated at 538,000 km2 (208,000 sq mi), extending approximately 1,100 km (680 mi) into the interior and holds the potential to raise sea level by at least 3.5 m (11 ft). Totten drains northeastward from the continental ice but turns northwestward at the coast where it terminates in a prominent tongue close east of Cape Waldron. It was first delineated from aerial photographs taken by USN Operation Highjump (1946–47), and named by Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names (US-ACAN) for George M. Totten, midshipman on USS Vincennes of the United States Exploring Expedition (1838–42), who assisted Lieutenant Charles Wilkes with correction of the survey data obtained by the expedition.

Radioglaciology is the study of glaciers, ice sheets, ice caps and icy moons using ice penetrating radar. It employs a geophysical method similar to ground-penetrating radar and typically operates at frequencies in the MF, HF, VHF and UHF portions of the radio spectrum. This technique is also commonly referred to as "Ice Penetrating Radar (IPR)" or "Radio Echo Sounding (RES)".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eric Rignot</span> American scientist

Eric J. Rignot is the Donald Bren, Distinguished and Chancellor Professor of Earth system science at the University of California, Irvine, and a Senior Research Scientist for the Radar Science and Engineering Section at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. He studies the interaction of the polar ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica with global climate using a combination of satellite remote sensing, airborne remote sensing, understanding of physical processes controlling glacier flow and ice melt in the ocean, field methods, and climate modeling. He was elected at the National Academy of Sciences in 2018.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Crane Glacier</span> Glacier in the Aristotle Mountains of the Antarctic Peninsula

Crane Glacier is a narrow glacier which flows 30 miles (50 km) in an east-northeasterly direction along the northwest side of Aristotle Mountains to enter Spillane Fjord south of Devetaki Peak, on the east coast of the Antarctic Peninsula. Sir Hubert Wilkins photographed this feature from the air in 1928 and gave it the name "Crane Channel", after C.K. Crane of Los Angeles, reporting that it appeared to be a channel cutting in an east-west direction across the peninsula. The name was altered to "Crane Inlet" following explorations along the west coast of the peninsula in 1936 by the British Graham Land Expedition, which proved that no through channel from the east coast existed as indicated by Wilkins. Comparison of Wilkins' photograph of this feature with those taken in 1947 by the Falklands Islands Dependencies Survey shows that Wilkins' "Crane Channel" is this glacier, although it lies about 75 miles (120 km) northeast of the position originally reported by Wilkins.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ross Embayment</span> Region of Antarctica

The Ross Embayment is a large region of Antarctica, comprising the Ross Ice Shelf and the Ross Sea, that lies between East and West Antarctica.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thwaites Ice Shelf</span> Antarctic ice shelf in the Amundsen Sea

Thwaites Ice Shelf, is an Antarctic ice shelf in the Amundsen Sea. It was named by ACAN after Fredrik T. Thwaites, a glacial geologist and geomorphologist. The Thwaites Ice Shelf is one of the biggest ice shelves in West Antarctica, though it is highly unstable and disintegrating rapidly. Since the 1980s, the Thwaites Glacier, nicknamed the "Doomsday glacier", has had a net loss of over 600 billion tons of ice, though pinning of the Thwaites Ice Shelf has served to slow the process. The Thwaites Ice Shelf has acted like a dam for the eastern portion of glacier, bracing it and allowing for a slow melt rate, in contrast to the undefended western portion.

Kirsteen Jane Tinto is a glaciologist known for her research on the behavior and subglacial geology of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets.

References

  1. 1 2 "Pine Island Glacier". Geographic Names Information System . United States Geological Survey . Retrieved 21 May 2009.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Vaughan, D. G.; Corr, H. F. J.; Ferraccioli, F.; Frearson, N.; O'Hare, A.; Mach, D.; Holt, J. W.; Blankenship, D. D.; Morse, D. L.; Young, D.A. (2006). "New boundary conditions for the West Antarctic ice sheet: Subglacial topography beneath Pine Island Glacier" (PDF). Geophysical Research Letters . 33 (9): L09501. Bibcode:2006GeoRL..3309501V. doi:10.1029/2005GL025588. S2CID   128406976.
  3. ↑ "History Repeating Itself at Antarctica's Fastest-Melting Glacier". LiveScience. 2014.
  4. 1 2 Payne, A. J.; Vieli, A.; Shepherd, A. P.; Wingham, D. J.; Rignot, E. (2004). "Recent dramatic thinning of largest West Antarctic ice stream triggered by oceans". Geophysical Research Letters . 31 (23): L23401. Bibcode:2004GeoRL..3123401P. CiteSeerX   10.1.1.1001.6901 . doi:10.1029/2004GL021284. S2CID   4891690.
  5. 1 2 3 4 Shepherd A.; Wingham D.J.; Mansley J.A.D.; Corr H.F.J. (2001). "Inland thinning of Pine Island Glacier, West Antarctica". Science . 291 (5505): 862–864. Bibcode:2001Sci...291..862S. doi:10.1126/science.291.5505.862. PMID   11157163.
  6. ↑ Rignot, E.; Bamber, J. L.; Van Den Broeke, M. R.; Davis, C.; Li, Y.; Van De Berg, W. J.; Van Meijgaard, E. (2008). "Recent Antarctic ice mass loss from radar interferometry and regional climate modelling". Nature Geoscience . 1 (2): 106–110. Bibcode:2008NatGe...1..106R. doi:10.1038/ngeo102. S2CID   784105.
  7. 1 2 3 Rignot, E. (2008). "Changes in West Antarctic ice stream dynamics observed with ALOS PALSAR data". Geophysical Research Letters . 35 (12): L12505. Bibcode:2008GeoRL..3512505R. doi: 10.1029/2008GL033365 .
  8. ↑ Freedman, Andrew (10 February 2020). "Iceberg that's twice the size of Washington cleaves off Pine Island Glacier in Antarctica, in a sign of warming". Washington Post. ISSN   0190-8286 . Retrieved 11 February 2020.
  9. 1 2 "Measuring one of the world's largest glaciers". British Antarctic Survey. Retrieved 30 January 2009.
  10. ↑ "Peaceful use of Antarctica". Secretariat of the Antarctic Treaty. Archived from the original on 19 August 2018. Retrieved 3 February 2009.
  11. 1 2 Lemke, P.; J. Ren; R.B. Alley; I. Allison; J. Carrasco; G. Flato; Y. Fujii; G. Kaser; P. Mote; R.H. Thomas; T. Zhang (2007). "Observations: Changes in snow, ice and frozen ground" (PDF). In S. Soloman; D. Qin; M. Manning; Z. Chen; M. Marquis; K.B. Averyt; M. Tignor; H.L. Miller (eds.). Climate Change 2007: The physical science basis. Fourth assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Cambridge University Press. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2015-09-24. Retrieved 2009-08-19.
  12. ↑ Pearce, Fred (2007). With Speed and Violence: Why scientists fear tipping points in climate change . Becon Press Books. ISBN   978-0-8070-8576-9.
  13. 1 2 Hughes, T. (1981). "The weak underbelly of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet". Journal of Glaciology . 27 (97): 518–525. Bibcode:1981JGlac..27..518H. doi: 10.1017/S002214300001159X .
  14. ↑ Amos, Jonathan (23 November 2016). "Huge glacier retreat triggered in 1940s". BBC. Retrieved 9 January 2018.
  15. ↑ Dutrieux, P.; De Rydt, J.; Holland, P. R.; Ha, H. K.; Lee, S. H.; Steig, E. J.; Ding, Q.; Abrahamsen, E. P.; Schoder, M. (2014). "Strong Sensitivity of Pine Island Ice-Shelf Melting to Climatic Variability". Science. 343 (6167): 174–178. Bibcode:2014Sci...343..174D. doi:10.1126/science.1244341. PMID   24385606. S2CID   8014155.
  16. ↑ Mouginot, J.; Rignot, E.; Scheuchl, B. (2014). "Sustained increase in ice discharge from the Amundsen Sea Embayment, West Antarctica, from 1973 to 2013". Geophysical Research Letters. 41 (5): 1576–1584. Bibcode:2014GeoRL..41.1576M. doi: 10.1002/2013GL059069 .
  17. ↑ Shepherd, A.; Wingham, D. (2007). "Recent Sea-Level Contributions of the Antarctic and Greenland Ice Sheets". Science . 315 (5818): 1529–1532. Bibcode:2007Sci...315.1529S. doi:10.1126/science.1136776. PMID   17363663. S2CID   8735672.
  18. 1 2 3 Scott J.B.T.; Gudmundsson G.H.; Smith A.M.; Bingham R.G.; Pritchard H.D.; Vaughan D.G. (2009). "Increased rate of acceleration on Pine Island Glacier strongly coupled to changes in gravitational driving stress". The Cryosphere . 3 (1): 125–131. Bibcode:2009TCry....3..125S. doi: 10.5194/tc-3-125-2009 . hdl: 2164/2402 .
  19. ↑ Thoma, M.; Jenkins, A.; Holland, D.; Jacobs, S. (2008). "Modelling Circumpolar Deep Water intrusions on the Amundsen Sea continental shelf, Antarctica" (PDF). Geophysical Research Letters . 35 (18): L18602. Bibcode:2008GeoRL..3518602T. doi:10.1029/2008GL034939. S2CID   55937812.
  20. ↑ Johnson, J. S.; Bentley, M. J.; Smith, J. A.; Finkel, R. C.; Rood, D. H.; Gohl, K.; Balco, G.; Larter, R. D.; Schaefer, J. M. (2014). "Rapid Thinning of Pine Island Glacier in the Early Holocene" (PDF). Science. 343 (6174): 999–1001. Bibcode:2014Sci...343..999J. doi:10.1126/science.1247385. PMID   24557837. S2CID   38682696.
  21. 1 2 Wingham D.J.; Wallis D.W.; Shepherd A. (2009). "The spatial and temporal evolution of Pine Island Glacier thinning, 1995 – 2006". Geophysical Research Letters . 36 (17): L17501. Bibcode:2009GeoRL..3617501W. doi: 10.1029/2009GL039126 .
  22. ↑ Karin Kirk (October 6, 2020). "Bleak views of melting Antarctic ice, from above and below".
  23. ↑ Black, Richard (20 January 2008). "Ancient Antarctic eruption noted". BBC News . London: BBC . Retrieved 22 October 2011.
  24. 1 2 Corr, H. F. J.; Vaughan, D. G. (2008). "A recent volcanic eruption beneath the West Antarctic ice sheet". Nature Geoscience . 1 (2): 122–125. Bibcode:2008NatGe...1..122C. doi:10.1038/ngeo106.
  25. ↑ Mosher, Dave (20 January 2008). "Buried Volcano Discovered in Antarctica". LiveScience.com. Imaginova Corp. Retrieved 11 April 2009.
  26. ↑ Brice Loose; et al. (2018). "Evidence of an active volcanic heat source beneath the Pine Island Glacier". Nature Communications . 9 (1): 2431. Bibcode:2018NatCo...9.2431L. doi: 10.1038/s41467-018-04421-3 . PMC   6014989 . PMID   29934507.
  27. ↑ "Bedrock in West Antarctica rising at surprisingly rapid rate". Phys.org. 2018.
  28. ↑ Wolovick, Michael J.; Moore, John C. (20 September 2018). "Stopping the flood: could we use targeted geoengineering to mitigate sea level rise?". The Cryosphere. 12 (9): 2955–2967. doi: 10.5194/tc-12-2955-2018 .
  29. ↑ Wolovick, Michael J.; Moore, John C. (20 September 2018). "Stopping the flood: could we use targeted geoengineering to mitigate sea level rise?". The Cryosphere. 12 (9): 2955–2967. Bibcode:2018TCry...12.2955W. doi: 10.5194/tc-12-2955-2018 . S2CID   52969664.
  30. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Wolovick, Michael; Moore, John; Keefer, Bowie (27 March 2023). "Feasibility of ice sheet conservation using seabed anchored curtains". PNAS Nexus. 2 (3): pgad053. doi:10.1093/pnasnexus/pgad053. PMC   10062297 . PMID   37007716.
  31. 1 2 3 4 5 Wolovick, Michael; Moore, John; Keefer, Bowie (27 March 2023). "The potential for stabilizing Amundsen Sea glaciers via underwater curtains". PNAS Nexus. 2 (4): pgad103. doi:10.1093/pnasnexus/pgad103. PMC   10118300 . PMID   37091546.
  32. 1 2 Temple, James (14 January 2022). "The radical intervention that might save the "doomsday" glacier". MIT Technology Review. Retrieved 19 July 2023.
  33. ↑ "Practically Home". The Antarctic Sun . Retrieved 30 January 2009.
  34. ↑ Behrendt, John (2005). The Ninth Circle: A memoir of life and death in Antarctica, 1960 – 1962. University of New Mexico Press. ISBN   978-0-8263-3425-1.
  35. ↑ "History of Fieldwork on PIG" . Retrieved 30 January 2009.
  36. ↑ "Pine Island Glacier". The Antarctic Sun. 10 July 2009. Retrieved 19 August 2009.
  37. ↑ destination-uncertain.blogspot.com
  38. ↑ pigiceshelf.nasa.gov
  39. ↑ NASA.gov
  40. ↑ Bryan, Jonathan R. (1992). "Sediment descriptions, Deep Freeze 1985" (PDF). Antarctic Marine Geology Research Facility, Florida State University. Archived from the original (PDF) on 17 June 2010. Retrieved 17 December 2010.{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  41. ↑ "Pine Island Cruise". The Antarctic Sun. 16 April 2009. Retrieved 21 May 2009.
  42. ↑ "Robot Submarine". British Antarctic Survey . Retrieved 29 April 2009.
  43. ↑ Dowdeswell J.A; Evans J.; Mugford R.; Griffiths G.; McPhail S.; Millard N.; Stevenson P.; Brandon M.A.; Banks C.; Heywood K.J.; Price M.R.; Dodd P.A.; Jenkins A.; Nicholls K.W.; Hayes D.; Abrahamsen E.P.; Tyler P.; Bett B.; Jones D.; Wadhams P.; Wilkinson J.P.; Stansfield K.; Ackley S. (2008). "Autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) and investigations of the ice-ocean interface in Antarctic and Arctic waters" (PDF). Journal of Glaciology . 54 (187): 661–672. Bibcode:2008JGlac..54..661D. doi: 10.3189/002214308786570773 .

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.