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Oceanic heat transport onto the Amundsen Sea shelf through a submarine glacial trough
Author(s) -
Walker Dziga P.,
Brandon Mark A.,
Jenkins Adrian,
Allen John T.,
Dowdeswell Julian A.,
Evans Jeff
Publication year - 2007
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 - 10.1029/2006gl028154
Subject(s) - geology , glacier , trough (economics) , oceanography , submarine , ice shelf , antarctic ice sheet , glacial period , continental shelf , ice stream , circumpolar deep water , ice sheet , climatology , sea ice , cryosphere , geomorphology , north atlantic deep water , thermohaline circulation , economics , macroeconomics
Glaciers which drain the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) into the Amundsen Sea are accelerating and thinning rapidly. These observations have been attributed to the regional oceanography whereby heat contained within Circumpolar Deep Water (CDW) drives the basal melting of floating glaciers. On the basis of new data we calculate that 2.8 terra‐Watts (10 12 ) of oceanic heat flow onto the continental shelf and toward the glaciers via a submarine glacial trough. This is enough to account for most of the basal melting in the entire region suggesting the ocean is supplying an excess of heat toward the Antarctic continent.