IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/nature/v419y2002i6906d10.1038_nature01081.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Switch of flow direction in an Antarctic ice stream

Author

Listed:
  • H. Conway

    (University of Washington)

  • G. Catania

    (University of Washington)

  • C. F. Raymond

    (University of Washington)

  • A. M. Gades

    (University of Washington)

  • T. A. Scambos

    (University of Colorado)

  • H. Engelhardt

    (California Institute of Technology)

Abstract

Fast-flowing ice streams transport ice from the interior of West Antarctica to the ocean, and fluctuations in their activity control the mass balance of the ice sheet. The mass balance of the Ross Sea sector of the West Antarctic ice sheet is now positive—that is, it is growing—mainly because one of the ice streams (ice stream C) slowed down about 150 years ago1. Here we present evidence from both surface measurements and remote sensing that demonstrates the highly dynamic nature of the Ross drainage system. We show that the flow in an area that once discharged into ice stream C has changed direction, now draining into the Whillans ice stream (formerly ice stream B). This switch in flow direction is a result of continuing thinning of the Whillans ice stream and recent thickening of ice stream C. Further abrupt reorganization of the activity and configuration of the ice streams over short timescales is to be expected in the future as the surface topography of the ice sheet responds to the combined effects of internal dynamics and long-term climate change. We suggest that caution is needed when using observations of short-term mass changes to draw conclusions about the large-scale mass balance of the ice sheet.

Suggested Citation

  • H. Conway & G. Catania & C. F. Raymond & A. M. Gades & T. A. Scambos & H. Engelhardt, 2002. "Switch of flow direction in an Antarctic ice stream," Nature, Nature, vol. 419(6906), pages 465-467, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:419:y:2002:i:6906:d:10.1038_nature01081
    DOI: 10.1038/nature01081
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/nature01081
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/nature01081?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Jeremy C. Ely & Chris D. Clark, 2016. "Flow-stripes and foliations of the Antarctic ice sheet," Journal of Maps, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 12(2), pages 249-259, March.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:419:y:2002:i:6906:d:10.1038_nature01081. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.