Articles | Volume 16, issue 5
The Cryosphere, 16, 1979–1996, 2022
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-16-1979-2022
The Cryosphere, 16, 1979–1996, 2022
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-16-1979-2022
Research article
24 May 2022
Research article | 24 May 2022

Stabilizing effect of mélange buttressing on the marine ice-cliff instability of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet

Tanja Schlemm et al.

Data sets

PISM for MICI: PISM version as used in Schlemm et al. The Cryosphere publication Tanja Schlemm and PISM authors https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6325006

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Short summary
Marine cliff instability, if it exists, could dominate Antarctica's contribution to future sea-level rise. It is likely to speed up with ice thickness and thus would accelerate in most parts of Antarctica. Here, we investigate a possible mechanism that might stop cliff instability through cloaking by ice mélange. It is only a first step, but it shows that embayment geometry is, in principle, able to stop marine cliff instability in most parts of West Antarctica.