Nature Communications (Aug 2020)

Strong ice-ocean interaction beneath Shirase Glacier Tongue in East Antarctica

  • Daisuke Hirano,
  • Takeshi Tamura,
  • Kazuya Kusahara,
  • Kay I. Ohshima,
  • Keith W. Nicholls,
  • Shuki Ushio,
  • Daisuke Simizu,
  • Kazuya Ono,
  • Masakazu Fujii,
  • Yoshifumi Nogi,
  • Shigeru Aoki

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-17527-4
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 11, no. 1
pp. 1 – 12

Abstract

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East Antarctic ice shelves typically have cold ice cavities with low basal melt rates. Here the authors direct observational evidence of high basal melt rates beneath Shirase Glacier Tongue in East Antarctica, driven by inflowing warm water guided by a deep continuous trough extending to the continental slope.