Sensitivity of 21st century sea level to ocean-induced thinning of Pine Island Glacier, Antarctica

Details Sensitivity of 21st century sea level to ocean-induced thinning of Pine Island Glacier, Antarctica Sensitivity of 21st century sea level to ocean-induced thinning of Pine Island Glacier, Antarctica

Oct 2010

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2010georl..3720502j&link_type=abstract

Geophysical Research Letters, Volume 37, Issue 20, CiteID L20502

Statistics

Computation

3

Cryosphere: Ice Sheets, Cryosphere: Ice Shelves, Cryosphere: Ice Streams, Geographic Location: Antarctica (4207), Cryosphere: Glaciology (1621, 1827, 1863)

Scientific paper

Pine Island Glacier (PIG), Antarctica, is rapidly losing mass, supporting arguments that it may play a major role in 21st century sea-level rise. Yet this glacier's quantitative contribution to sea level based on theoretical and computational models is poorly known. We have developed a basin-scale glaciological model to examine the sensitivity of PIG to a range of environmental forcings. While oceanic melt likely played the leading role in recent thinning and retreat, we find that the particular grounding-line geometry with an extended ice plain in the 1990s made it susceptible to such forcing. Our model further indicates that while the rate of grounding-line retreat should diminish soon, the glacier's mass loss may continue at rates similar to, or moderately elevated from, the present. While substantial, our model-derived maximum rate of 2.7 cm/century is considerably smaller than previous heuristically-derived bounds on the sea-level contribution.

Affiliated with

Also associated with

No associations

Rating

Sensitivity of 21st century sea level to ocean-induced thinning of Pine Island Glacier, Antarctica does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.

If you have personal experience with Sensitivity of 21st century sea level to ocean-induced thinning of Pine Island Glacier, Antarctica, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Sensitivity of 21st century sea level to ocean-induced thinning of Pine Island Glacier, Antarctica will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

Comments { 0 }

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-1231589