Ocean-induced weakening of George VI Ice Shelf, West Antarctica

Zinck, Ann-Sofie P.; Wouters, Bert; Jesse, Franka; Lhermitte, Stef

doi:10.5194/tc-19-5509-2025

Articles | Volume 19, issue 11

https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-19-5509-2025

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

https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-19-5509-2025

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

Articles | Volume 19, issue 11

Research article

|

10 Nov 2025

Research article |

| 10 Nov 2025

Ocean-induced weakening of George VI Ice Shelf, West Antarctica

Ann-Sofie P. Zinck, Bert Wouters, Franka Jesse, and Stef Lhermitte

Data sets

Dataset belonging to the article: Ocean-Induced Weakening of George VI Ice Shelf A. P. Zinck et al. https://doi.org/10.4121/dbf9ade9-9f85-49f4-89ba-3d8d8310c9e4.v1

MEaSUREs ITS_LIVE Regional Glacier and Ice Sheet Surface Velocities, Version 1 A. Gardner et al. https://doi.org/10.5067/6II6VW8LLWJ7

MEaSUREs BedMachine Antarctica, Version 3 M. Morlighem https://doi.org/10.5067/FPSU0V1MWUB6

Model code and software

aszinck/BURGEE: BURGEE v2 (Version V2) A.-S. P Zinck https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17432532

erwinlambert/laddie: v1.1.1 (v1.1.1) E. Lambert and F. Jesse https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.13683419

Video supplement

Video accompanying the article: Ocean-Induced Weakening of George VI Ice Shelf Ann-Sofie P. Zinck https://doi.org/10.5446/71551

Short summary

Ocean-driven basal melting of ice shelves can carve channels into the ice shelf base. These channels represent potential weak areas of the ice shelf. On George VI Ice shelf we discover a new channel which onset coincides with the 2015 El-Nino Southern Oscillation event. Since the channel has developed rapidly and is located within a highly channelized area close to the ice shelf front it poses a potential thread of ice shelf retreat.