Articles | Volume 18, issue 9
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-18-4165-2024
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-18-4165-2024
Research article
 | 
16 Sep 2024
Research article |  | 16 Sep 2024

The effect of ice shelf rheology on shelf edge bending

W. Roger Buck

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Temporal evolution of the Petermann Ice Shelf estuary constrained by remote sensing observations
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This preprint is open for discussion and under review for The Cryosphere (TC).
Short summary

Cited articles

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Becker, M. K., Howard, S. L., Fricker, H. A., Padman, L., Mosbeux, C., and Siegfried, M. R.: Buoyancy-Driven Flexure at the Front of Ross Ice Shelf, Antarctica, Observed with ICESat-2 Laser Altimetry, Geophys. Res. Lett., 48, e2020GL091207, https://doi.org/10.1029/2020GL091207, 2021. 
Behn, M. D., Goldsby, D. L., and Hirth, G.: The role of grain size evolution in the rheology of ice: implications for reconciling laboratory creep data and the Glen flow law, The Cryosphere, 15, 4589–4605, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-15-4589-2021, 2021. 
Bons, P. D., Kleiner, T., Llorens, M.-G., Prior, D. J., Sachau, T., Weikusat, I., and Jansen, D.: Greenland ice sheet: Higher nonlinearity of ice flow significantly reduces estimated basal motion, Geophys. Res. Lett., 45, 6542–6548, https://doi.org/10.1029/2018GL078356, 2018. 
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Short summary
Standard theory predicts that the edge of an ice shelf should bend downward. Satellite observations show that the edges of many ice shelves bend upward. A new theory for ice shelf bending is developed that, for the first time, includes the kind of vertical variations in ice flow properties expected for ice shelves. Upward bending of shelf edges is predicted as long as the ice surface is very cold and the ice flow properties depend strongly on temperature.
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