Importance of ice elasticity in simulating tide-induced grounding line variations along prograde bed slopes

Ross, Natalya; Milillo, Pietro; Nakshatrala, Kalyana; Ballarini, Roberto; Stubblefield, Aaron; Dini, Luigi

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-19-1995-2025

Articles | Volume 19, issue 6

https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-19-1995-2025

© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-19-1995-2025

© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 19, issue 6

Research article

|

03 Jun 2025

Research article |

| 03 Jun 2025

Importance of ice elasticity in simulating tide-induced grounding line variations along prograde bed slopes

Natalya Ross, Pietro Milillo, Kalyana Nakshatrala, Roberto Ballarini, Aaron Stubblefield, and Luigi Dini

Supplement

https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-19-1995-2025-supplement

Data sets

Importance of ice elasticity in simulating tide-induced grounding line variations along prograde bed slopes Natalya Ross et al. https://zenodo.org/records/10853336?token=eyJhbGciOiJIUzUxMiJ9.eyJpZCI6Ijc2NmJkOWYyLWExMTMtNGQ1NS04MjNkLTRjOTY5ODE0MWFkNCIsImRhdGEiOnt9LCJyYW5kb20iOiI1OGU3NjYxNDljNzA1ZWY5OWEwYWQwYTE1Yjk1ZTM4ZSJ9.mswBAndQWao879WO3HeZVb9lzaJmA5rCtS9cwLI3qPD-Z66Qi51Dm46b7S82nvbFMSIzEYDvXs6I_ONt-Qjn3Q

MEaSUREs InSAR-Based Antarctica Ice Velocity Map E. Rignot et al. https://doi.org/10.5067/D7GK8F5J8M8R

MEaSUREs BedMachine Antarctica M. Morlighem https://doi.org/10.5067/E1QL9HFQ7A8M

Short summary

Analyzing remote sensing radar data over three Antarctic glaciers, we observe short-term grounding line migrations. We simulate this phenomenon using viscous and viscoelastic continuum mechanics models. We quantify the sensitivity of the grounding zone width to bedrock slope, glacier thickness, and ice flow speed. Comparisons of the models’ predictions with the observations highlight the necessity of including ice elasticity in non-Newtonian models of glacier ice.