IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/nature/v558y2018i7710d10.1038_s41586-018-0212-1.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Antarctic ice shelf disintegration triggered by sea ice loss and ocean swell

Author

Listed:
  • Robert A. Massom

    (Australian Antarctic Division
    Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems CRC)

  • Theodore A. Scambos

    (University of Colorado)

  • Luke G. Bennetts

    (University of Adelaide)

  • Phillip Reid

    (Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems CRC
    Australian Bureau of Meteorology)

  • Vernon A. Squire

    (University of Otago)

  • Sharon E. Stammerjohn

    (University of Colorado)

Abstract

Understanding the causes of recent catastrophic ice shelf disintegrations is a crucial step towards improving coupled models of the Antarctic Ice Sheet and predicting its future state and contribution to sea-level rise. An overlooked climate-related causal factor is regional sea ice loss. Here we show that for the disintegration events observed (the collapse of the Larsen A and B and Wilkins ice shelves), the increased seasonal absence of a protective sea ice buffer enabled increased flexure of vulnerable outer ice shelf margins by ocean swells that probably weakened them to the point of calving. This outer-margin calving triggered wider-scale disintegration of ice shelves compromised by multiple factors in preceding years, with key prerequisites being extensive flooding and outer-margin fracturing. Wave-induced flexure is particularly effective in outermost ice shelf regions thinned by bottom crevassing. Our analysis of satellite and ocean-wave data and modelling of combined ice shelf, sea ice and wave properties highlights the need for ice sheet models to account for sea ice and ocean waves.

Suggested Citation

  • Robert A. Massom & Theodore A. Scambos & Luke G. Bennetts & Phillip Reid & Vernon A. Squire & Sharon E. Stammerjohn, 2018. "Antarctic ice shelf disintegration triggered by sea ice loss and ocean swell," Nature, Nature, vol. 558(7710), pages 383-389, June.
  • Handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:558:y:2018:i:7710:d:10.1038_s41586-018-0212-1
    DOI: 10.1038/s41586-018-0212-1
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-018-0212-1
    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/s41586-018-0212-1?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. P. A. Reid & R. A. Massom, 2022. "Change and variability in Antarctic coastal exposure, 1979–2020," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-11, December.
    2. Henning Åkesson & Mathieu Morlighem & Johan Nilsson & Christian Stranne & Martin Jakobsson, 2022. "Petermann ice shelf may not recover after a future breakup," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-9, December.
    3. Gonçalo J. Piedade & Max E. Schön & Cédric Lood & Mikhail V. Fofanov & Ella M. Wesdorp & Tristan E. G. Biggs & Lingyi Wu & Henk Bolhuis & Matthias G. Fischer & Natalya Yutin & Bas E. Dutilh & Corina P, 2024. "Seasonal dynamics and diversity of Antarctic marine viruses reveal a novel viral seascape," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-16, December.
    4. Shivangini Singh & Shashi Kumar & Navneet Kumar, 2023. "Evolution of Iceberg A68 since Its Inception from the Collapse of Antarctica’s Larsen C Ice Shelf Using Sentinel-1 SAR Data," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(4), pages 1-28, February.
    5. Nicholas R. Golledge, 2020. "Long‐term projections of sea‐level rise from ice sheets," Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 11(2), 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:558:y:2018:i:7710:d:10.1038_s41586-018-0212-1. 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.