Dynamics of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet: Proceedings of a Workshop held in Utrecht, May 6–8, 1985

375 Pages·1987·11.64 MB·English

by  C. J. van der Veen (auth.)

DYNAMICS OF THE WEST ANTARCTIC ICE SHEET
GLACIOLOGY AND QUATERNARY GEOLOGY
A Series of Books
DYNAMICS OF
THE WEST ANTARCTIC
ICE SHEET
Proceedings ofa Workshop
held in Utrecht, May 6-8, 1985
Edited by
C. J. VAN DER VEEN
and
J. OERLEMANS
Institute of Meteorology and Oceanography,
State University of Utrecht, The Netherlands
D. REIDEL PUBLISHING COMPANY
A MEMBER OF THE KLUWER ACADEMIC PUBLISHERS GROUP
DORDRECHT/BOSTON/LANCASTER/TOKYO
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Dynamics of the West Antarctic ice sheet.
(g
(Glaciology and Quaternary geology)
Includes indexes.
1. Ice sheets~Antarctic regions~Congresses. 2. Oceanography~
Antarctic regions~Congresses. l. Veen, C. J. van der (Cornelis J.), 1956-
II. Oerlemans, J. (Johannes), 1950- III. Series.
GB2598.W47D96 1987 551.3'12'09989 86-27962
ISBN -13: 978-94-010-8171-9 e-ISBN -13: 978-94-009-3745-I
DOl: 10.1007/978-94-009-3745-1
Published by D. Reidel Publishing Company,
P.O. Box 17, 3300 AA Dordrecht, Holland.
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In all other countries, sold and distributed
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All Rights Reserved
© 1987 by D. Reidel Publishing Company, Dordrecht, Holland
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1987
No part of the material protected by this copyright notice may be reproduced or
utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Preface vii
List of participants ix
The West Antarctic Ice Sheet the need to understand its dynamics
C J VAN DER VEEN 1
Force budget of ice sheets
I M WHILLANS 17
On the oceanic circulation near a shelf-ice edge
G J F VAN HEIJST 37
Quantitative estimates of the mass flux and ice movement along the
ice edges 1n the eastern and southern Weddell Sea
M A LANGE 57
Some aspects of the flow of the Ronne Ice Shelf
C S M DOAKE 75
Unconfined ice-shelf flow
L W MORLAND 99
Plane and radial ice-shelf flow with prescribed temperature profile
L W MORLAND and R ZAINUDDIN 117
Ice-shelf backpressure : form drag versus dynamic drag
D R MACAYEAL 141
Ice stream-ice shelf interaction in West Antarctica
R A BINDSCHADLER, D R MACAYEAL and S N STEPHENSON 161
A few preliminary results from the glaciogeophysical survey of the
interior Ross Embayment (GSlRE)
C R BENTLEY, S SHABTAIE, D D BLANKENSHIP, R B ALLEY and S T ROONEY 181
On the flow within the transition zone between ice sheet and ice
shelf
K HERTERICH 185
vi TABLE OF CONTENTS
The finite-element method applied to a time-dependent flowband
model
J L FASTOOK 203
Longitudinal stresses and basal sliding a comparative study
C J VAN DER VEEN 223
A subglacial aquifer bed model and water pressure dependent basal
sliding relationship for a West Antarctic ice stream
C S LINGLE and T J BROWN 249
The heat budget of the Ross drainage basin
J OERLEMANS 287
Numerical modelling of the large-scale basal water flux under the
West Antarctic Ice Sheet
W F BUDD and D JENSSEN 293
Modelling the response of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet to a
climatic warming
W F BUDD, B J MCINNES, D JENSSEN and I N SMITH 321
Subject index 359
Geographic index 367
PREFACE
Few scientists doubt the prediction that the antropogenic release of
carbon dioxide in the atmosphere will lead to some warming of the
earth's climate. So there is good reason to investigate the possible
effects of such a warming, in dependence of geographical and social
economic setting. Many bodies, governmental or not, have organized
meetings and issued reports in which the carbon dioxide problem is
defined, reviewed, and possible threats assessed. The rate at which such
reports are produced still increases.
However, while more and more people are getting involved in the
'carbon dioxide business', the number of investigators working on the
basic problems grows, in our view, too slowly. Many fundamental
questions are still not answered in a satisfactory way, and the carbon
dioxide building rests on a few thin pillars.
One such fundamental question concerns the change in sea level
associated with a climatic warming of a few degrees. A number of
processes can be listed that could all lead to changes of the order of
tens of centimeters (e.g. thermal expansion, change in mass balance of
glaciers and ice sheets). But the picture of the carbon dioxide problem
has frequently be made more dramatic by suggesting that the West
Antarctic Ice Sheet is unstable, implying a certain probability of a 5 m
higher sea-level stand within a few centuries. The massive amount of
paper used to describe the possible consequences of such an event is in
large contrast with the few scientific publications in which this
potential instability of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet is discussed.
In view of this situation, we were very pleased that we could find
sponsors for a workshop on the dynamics of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet.
The Ministry of Education and Science, the Royal Netherlands
Meteorological Institute, and the Ministry of Housing, Development and
Physical Planning all gave financial support, enabling us to invite a
number of leading experts.
The meeting was held in May 1985, at the Institute of Meteorology
and Oceanography (University of Utrecht, The Netheriands). This book
forms the proceedings, and consists of papers that were all written
after the workshop, and certainly benefitted from the many discussions
we had. We thank the reviewers for their work and cooperation, and we
hope that the material in this volume will prove to be a valuable
contribution to our understanding of the dynamics of the West Antarctic
Ice Sheet.
Utrecht, August 1986
C J van der Veen
J Oerlemans
vii

LIST OF PARTICIPANTS
C R BENTLEY
Department of Geology and Geophysics / Geophysical and Polar Research
Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison
1215 W Dayton Street, Madison, Wisconsin 53706, USA
R A BINDSCHADLER
NASA / Goddard Space Flight Center
Code 671
Greenbelt, Maryland 20771, USA
W F BUDD
Meteorology Department, University of Melbourne
Parkville, Victoria 3052, Australia
H DECLEIR
Geografisch Instituut, Vrije Universiteit Brussel
Pleinlaan 2, B-1050 Brussel, Belgium
C S M DOAKE
British Antarctic Survey
Madingley Road, Cambridge CB3 OET, England
J L FASTOOK
Institute for Quaternary Studies, University of Maine at Orono
Boardman Hall, Orono, Maine 04469, USA
T FICHEFET
Institut d'astronomie et de geophysique, Universite Catholique de
Louvain
Chemin du Cyclotron 2, B-1348 Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium
W GREUELL
Instituut voor Meteorologie en Oceanografie, Rijksuniversiteit
Utrecht
Princetonplein 5, 3584 CC Utrecht, The Netherlands
K HERTERICH
Max-Planck-Institut fUr Meteorologie
Bundesstrasse 55, 2000 Hamburg, West Germany
G J F VAN HEIJST
Instituut voor Meteorologie en Oceanografie, Rijksuniversiteit
Utrecht
Princetonplein 5, 3584 CC Utrecht, The Netherlands
x LIST OF PARTICIPANTS
A KATTENBERG
Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute
Postbus 201, 3730 AE De Bi1t, The Netherlands
M A LANGE
A1fred-Wegener-Institut fUr Po1ar- und Meeresforschung
Postfach 120161, Columbusstrasse, D-2850 Bremerhaven, West Germany
C S LINGLE
CIRES / NOAA , University of Colorado
Campus Box 449, Boulder, Colorado 80309, USA
Now at Division of Polar Programs, National Science Foundation
Washington,DC 20550, USA
D R MACAYEAL
Department of Geophysical Sciences, University of Chicago
5734 S Ellis Avenue, Chicago, Illinois 60637, USA
L W MORLAND
School of Mathematics and Physics, University of East Anglia
Norwich NR4 7TJ, England
J OERLEMANS
Instituut voor Meteoro1ogie en Oceanografie, Rijksuniversiteit
Utrecht
Princetonplein 5, 35.84 CC Utrecht, The Netherlands
N REEH
Section for Glaciology, Geological Survey of Greenland
~ster Voldgade 10., DK-1350 Copenhagen N, Denmark
CRITZ
Laboratoire de Glaciologie et Geophysique de l'environmehc
B.P. 96, 38402 Saint Martin d'Heres, France
C J VAN DER VEEN
Instituut voor Meteoro1ogie en Oceanografie, Rijksuniversiteit
Utrecht
Princetonplein 5, 3584 CC Utrecht, The Netherlands
S VAN DER VEEN
Instituut voor Meteoro1ogie en Oceanografie, Rijksuniversiteit
Utrecht
Princetonplein 5, 3584 CC Utrecht, The Netherlands
I M WHILLANS
Institute of Polar Studies and Department of Geology, Ohio State
University
103 Mendenhall, 125 So.uth Oval Mall, Columbus, Ohio 43210, USA