Ice viscosity is more sensitive to stress than commonly assumed
Name
s43247-022-00385-x.pdf
Description
Published version
Size
1.46 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
b96f4ce81c3dafc6f69b46d32a94ff64
Author(s)
Millstein, Joanna D
Minchew, Brent M
Pegler, Samuel S
Date Issued
2022
Journal
Communications Earth & Environment
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Citation
Millstein, Joanna D, Minchew, Brent M and Pegler, Samuel S. 2022. "Ice viscosity is more sensitive to stress than commonly assumed." Communications Earth & Environment, 3 (1).
Version
Final published version
Abstract
AbstractAccurate representation of the viscous flow of ice is fundamental to understanding glacier dynamics and projecting sea-level rise. Ice viscosity is often described by a simple but largely untested and uncalibrated constitutive relation, Glen’s Flow Law, wherein the rate of deformation is proportional to stress raised to the power n. The value n = 3 is commonly prescribed in ice-flow models, though observations and experiments support a range of values across stresses and temperatures found on Earth. Here, we leverage recent remotely-sensed observations of Antarctic ice shelves to show that Glen’s Flow Law approximates the viscous flow of ice with n = 4.1 ± 0.4 in fast-flowing areas. The viscosity and flow rate of ice are therefore more sensitive to changes in stress than most ice-flow models allow. By calibrating the governing equation of ice deformation, our result is a pathway towards improving projections of future glacier change.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences
Terms of Use
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license
Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1038/S43247-022-00385-X
