Document Type
Article
Abstract
Potential energy released from the capsize of ice-shelf fragments (icebergs) is the immediate driver of the brief explosive phase of ice-shelf disintegration along the Antarctic Peninsula (e.g. the Larsen A, Larsen B and Wilkins ice shelves). The majority of this energy powers the rapidly expanding plume of ice-shelf fragments that expands outward into the open ocean; a smaller fraction of this energy goes into surface gravity waves and other dynamic interactions between ice and water that can sustain the continued fragmentation and break-up of the original ice shelf. As an initial approach to the investigation of ice-shelf fragment capsize in ice-shelf collapse, we develop a simple conceptual model involving ideal rectangular icebergs, initially in unstable or metastable orientations, which are assembled into a tightly packed mass that subsequently disassembles via massed capsize. Computations based on this conceptual model display phenomenological similarity to aspects of real ice-shelf collapse. A promising result of the conceptual model presented here is a description of how iceberg aspect ratio and its statistical variance, the two parameters related to ice-shelf fracture patterns, influence the enabling conditions to be satisfied by slow-acting processes (e.g. environmentally driven melting) that facilitate ice-shelf disintegration.
Publication Date
4-13-2011
Recommended Citation
Amundson, Jason M.; Guttenberg, Nicolas; Abbott, Dorian S.; Burton, Justin C.; Cathles, L. M.; Macayeal, Douglas R.; and Zhang, Wendy W., "A computational investigation of iceberg capsize as a driver of explosive ice-shelf disintegration." (2011). Faculty, Staff, and Students. 61.
https://ualaska.researchcommons.org/uas_sas_facpubs/61
Handle
http://hdl.handle.net/11122/11310