Marine ice sheet instability and ice shelf buttressing of the Minch Ice Stream, northwest Scotland

Gandy, Niall; Gregoire, Lauren J.; Ely, Jeremy C.; Clark, Christopher D.; Hodgson, David M.; Lee, Victoria; Bradwell, Tom; Ivanovic, Ruza F.

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-12-3635-2018

Articles | Volume 12, issue 11

https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-12-3635-2018

© Author(s) 2018. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-12-3635-2018

© Author(s) 2018. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 12, issue 11

Research article

|

23 Nov 2018

Research article |

| 23 Nov 2018

Marine ice sheet instability and ice shelf buttressing of the Minch Ice Stream, northwest Scotland

Niall Gandy, Lauren J. Gregoire, Jeremy C. Ely, Christopher D. Clark, David M. Hodgson, Victoria Lee, Tom Bradwell, and Ruza F. Ivanovic

Supplement

https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-12-3635-2018-supplement

Data sets

Simulated retreat of the Minch Ice Stream, northwest Scotland, during the last glacial cycle N. Gandy, L. J. Gregoire, J. C. Ely, C. D. Clark, D. M. Hodgson, V. Lee, T. Bradwell, and R. F. Ivanovic https://doi.org/10.5285/5f5bad08-c968-4840-8bb0-1388ce70d42e

Model code and software

BISICLES Ice Sheet Model Branch V. Lee, S. L. Cornford, D. F., Martin and others https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcp.2012.08.037

PyPDD J. Seguinot https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1476364

Short summary

We use the deglaciation of the last British–Irish Ice Sheet as a valuable case to examine the processes of contemporary ice sheet change, using an ice sheet model to simulate the Minch Ice Stream. We find that ice shelves were a control on retreat and that the Minch Ice Stream was vulnerable to the same marine mechanisms which threaten the future of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet. This demonstrates the importance of marine processes when projecting the future of our contemporary ice sheets.