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Distribution of marine ice beneath the Amery Ice Shelf
Author(s) -
Fricker Helen Amanda,
Popov Sergey,
Allison Ian,
Young Neal
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/2000gl012461
Subject(s) - geology , ice shelf , sea ice , sea ice thickness , iceberg , oceanography , depth sounding , ice stream , ice divide , echo sounding , antarctic sea ice , cryosphere , arctic ice pack
We present a map of the marine ice accreted to the base of the Amery Ice Shelf (AIS), East Antarctica. This map is obtained by converting a Digital Elevation Model (DEM) of the AIS generated from satellite radar altimeter data to an ice thickness map, assuming hydrostatic equilibrium, and subtracting from that a second ice thickness map, derived from airborne radio‐echo sounding (RES) measurements. The RES signal does not penetrate the marine ice, so the measurement is only to the meteoric‐marine ice boundary, and therefore the difference between the two maps is the marine ice thickness. The marine ice is up to 190 m thick and accounts for about 9% of the shelf volume. It is concentrated in the northwest of the shelf, a result of the clockwise ocean circulation in the cavity below.