Ice shelf calving due to shear stresses: observing the response of Brunt Ice Shelf and Halloween Crack to iceberg calving using ICESat-2 laser altimetry, satellite imagery, and ice flow models

Morris, Ashley; Lipovsky, Bradley P.; Walker, Catherine C.; Marsh, Oliver J.

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-19-4303-2025

Articles | Volume 19, issue 10

https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-19-4303-2025

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

https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-19-4303-2025

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

Articles | Volume 19, issue 10

Research article

|

06 Oct 2025

Research article |

| 06 Oct 2025

Ice shelf calving due to shear stresses: observing the response of Brunt Ice Shelf and Halloween Crack to iceberg calving using ICESat-2 laser altimetry, satellite imagery, and ice flow models

Ashley Morris, Bradley P. Lipovsky, Catherine C. Walker, and Oliver J. Marsh

Supplement

https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-19-4303-2025-supplement

Data sets

Antarctic Rift Catalog: Rift measurement algorithm and associated scripts/notebooks Morris et al. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7839138

GPS data relating to the growth of Halloween Crack, Brunt Ice Shelf from 2016 to 2023 (Version 1.0) Marsh and De Rydt https://doi.org/10.5285/6244cca4-8eaa-41a0-a9c1-d89167b02b85

Model code and software

"icepack" model runs Morris and Lipovsky https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15336311

Short summary

Floating ice shelves hold back Antarctic ice flow, but they are thinning and retreating. To help predict future mass loss we need a better understanding of the behavior of the rifts from which icebergs detach. We automate rift width measurement using ICESat-2 laser altimetry over the "Halloween Crack" on Brunt Ice Shelf. We find that rift opening stagnated following calving from an adjacent rift, which we investigate using an ice flow model.