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Qualitative Dynamics of Marine Ice Sheets

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Ice in the Climate System

Part of the book series: NATO ASI Series ((ASII,volume 12))

Abstract

This article examines the dynamical classification of the equilibria of marine ice sheets. It argues that the fundamental equilibrium is neutral, and that this will be the case for marine ice sheets with very narrow transitions between grounded ice and shelf. For cases where there is a smooth transition from grounded sheet to stream to shelf, the equilibrium depends upon the physical processes which cause the traction to decline along the stream from the sheet to the shelf. Neutral equilibrium is still a possibility, but in any case, since by far the greater part of grounding zones are not ice streams, these ice streams may not be very important in determining the overall stability of marine ice sheets and indeed may stabilise them. The conclusions regarding ice streams rest upon a new vertically integrated mechanical model of the sheet-stream-shelf transition.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Natural Environment Research Council, British Antarctic Survey, High Cross, Madingley Rd, Cambridge, UK

    Richard C. A. Hindmarsh

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  1. Richard C. A. Hindmarsh
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics, University of Toronto, 60 St. George Street, M5S 1A7, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

    W. Richard Peltier

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© 1993 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Hindmarsh, R.C.A. (1993). Qualitative Dynamics of Marine Ice Sheets. In: Peltier, W.R. (eds) Ice in the Climate System. NATO ASI Series, vol 12. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-85016-5_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-85016-5_5

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-85018-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-85016-5

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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