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Transoceanic wave propagation links iceberg calving margins of Antarctica with storms in tropics and Northern Hemisphere
Author(s) -
MacAyeal Douglas R.,
Okal Emile A.,
Aster Richard C.,
Bassis Jeremy N.,
Brunt Kelly M.,
Cathles L. Mac.,
Drucker Robert,
Fricker Helen A.,
Kim YoungJin,
Martin Seelye,
Okal Marianne H.,
Sergienko Olga V.,
Sponsler Mark P.,
Thom Jonathan E.
Publication year - 2006
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 - 10.1029/2006gl027235
Subject(s) - iceberg , geology , oceanography , ice calving , ice shelf , sea ice , climatology , storm , southern hemisphere , ice sheet , antarctic sea ice , swell , arctic ice pack , cryosphere , pregnancy , lactation , biology , genetics
We deployed seismometers on the Ross Ice Shelf and on various icebergs adrift in the Ross Sea (including B15A, a large 100 km by 30 km fragment of B15, which calved from the Ross Ice Shelf in March, 2000). The data reveal that the dominant energy of these floating ice masses is in the 0.01 to 0.1 Hz band, and is associated with sea swell generated in the tropical and extra‐tropical Pacific Ocean. In one example, a strong storm in the Gulf of Alaska on 21 October 2005, approximately 13,500 km from the Ross Sea, generated swell that arrived at B15A immediately prior to, and during, its break‐up off Cape Adare on 27 October 2005. If sea swell influences iceberg calving and break‐up, a teleconnection exists between the Antarctic ice sheet mass balance and weather systems worldwide.