Recent rift formation and impact on the structural integrity of the Brunt Ice Shelf, East Antarctica

De Rydt, Jan; Gudmundsson, G. Hilmar; Nagler, Thomas; Wuite, Jan; King, Edward C.

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-12-505-2018

Articles | Volume 12, issue 2

The Cryosphere, 12, 505–520, 2018

https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-12-505-2018

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

The Cryosphere, 12, 505–520, 2018

https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-12-505-2018

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

Articles | Volume 12, issue 2

Research article 09 Feb 2018

Research article | 09 Feb 2018

Recent rift formation and impact on the structural integrity of the Brunt Ice Shelf, East Antarctica

Jan De Rydt et al.

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Final revised paper (published on 09 Feb 2018)
Preprint (discussion started on 12 Sep 2017)

Interactive discussion

Status: closed

AC: Author comment | RC: Referee comment | SC: Short comment | EC: Editor comment

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RC1: 'Review of “Recent rift formation and impact on the structural integrity of the Brunt Ice Shelf, East Antarctica” by De Rydt et al.', Anonymous Referee #1, 17 Oct 2017
- AC1: 'Reply to Review 1', Jan De Rydt, 06 Dec 2017
RC2: 'Review', Anonymous Referee #2, 06 Nov 2017
- AC2: 'Reply to review 2', Jan De Rydt, 06 Dec 2017

Peer-review completion

AR: Author's response | RR: Referee report | ED: Editor decision

AR by Jan De Rydt on behalf of the Authors (06 Dec 2017) Author's response Manuscript

ED: Publish subject to technical corrections (22 Dec 2017) by Andreas Vieli

Dear authors,
This manuscript received two very positive reviews that highlighted the impressive and very interesting dataset and analysis combined with a fracture algorithm that allow the reproduction and predictions of the rift development. Both reviewers only suggested only minor revisions with the more substantial points being (i) making figures (show strain rosettes, background flow) more effective, (ii) rephrase/clarify the fracture algorithm (rather than criterion) and (iii) interpretation of mode I or II crack.
These comments of the reviewers and the very minor points have been very carefully and effectively addressed, and I only spotted very few minor technical details that may need correcting and are listed below.

Thus, after these technical corrections, the paper is ready to be accepted for final publication and I congratulate the authors for their very interesting paper and also would like to thank them for their excellent handling of the revision process.

Best regards
Andreas Vieli, the editor, 22th dec 2017

Minor points:
p. 6 line 10: something wrong here with plural/singular, I guess it should be in plural: ‘…by vertical black stripes.’ (delete ‘a’)

p. 14, line 10: something wron at sentence beginning with ‘Average values…’, delete ‘Severa’???

p. 20 line 21: to be consistent with changes in abstract and methods in response to the editor comment, it should here say ‘algorithm’ rather than ‘criterion’.

Just checking a general point: as a response to review the term ‘chasm’ has been replaced by ‘rift’ throughout except when you refer to ‘Chasm 1’. I assume you deliberately did not change this to ‘Rift 1’ as this is the common name of the feature.

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AR by Jan De Rydt on behalf of the Authors (22 Dec 2017) Author's response Manuscript

Short summary

We provide an unprecedented view into the dynamics of two active rifts in the Brunt Ice Shelf through a unique set of field observations, novel satellite data products, and a state-of-the-art ice flow model. We describe the evolution of fracture width and length in great detail, pushing the boundaries of both spatial and temporal coverage, and provide a deeper insight into the process of iceberg formation, which exerts an important control over the mass balance of the Antarctic Ice Sheet.