Collaborative Research: Totten Glacier System and the Marine Record of Cryosphere - Ocean Dynamics

合作研究：托滕冰川系统和冰冻圈海洋记录 - 海洋动力学

• 批准号: 1143837
• 负责人: Eugene Domack
• 金额: $ 16.63万
• 依托单位: Hamilton College
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2012
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2012-09-01 至 2014-05-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1143837&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Totten; Glacier; System

This project will investigate the marine component of the Totten Glacier and Moscow University Ice Shelf, East Antarctica. This system is of critical importance because it drains one-eighth of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet and contains a volume equivalent to nearly 7 meters of potential sea level rise, greater than the entire West Antarctic Ice Sheet. This nearly completely unexplored region is the single largest and least understood marine glacial system that is potentially unstable. Despite intense scrutiny of marine based systems in the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, little is known about the Totten Glacier system. This study will add substantially to the meager oceanographic and marine geology and geophysics data available in this region, and will significantly advance understanding of this poorly understood glacial system and its potentially sensitive response to environmental change.Independent, space-based platforms indicate accelerating mass loss of the Totten system. Recent aerogeophysical surveys of the Aurora Subglacial Basin, which contains the deepest ice in Antarctica and drains into the Totten system, have provided the subglacial context for measured surface changes and show that the Totten Glacier has been the most significant drainage pathway for at least two previous ice flow regimes. However, the offshore context is far less understood. Limited physical oceanographic data from the nearby shelf/slope break indicate the presence of Modified Circumpolar Deep Water within a thick bottom layer at the mouth of a trough with apparent access to Totten Glacier, suggesting the possibility of sub-glacial bottom inflow of relatively warm water, a process considered to be responsible for West Antarctic Ice Sheet grounding line retreat. This project will conduct a ship-based marine geologic and geophysical survey of the region, combined with a physical oceanographic study, in order to evaluate both the recent and longer-term behavior of the glacial system and its relationship to the adjacent oceanographic system. This endeavor will complement studies of other Antarctic ice shelves, oceanographic studies near the Antarctic Peninsula, and ongoing development of ice sheet and other ocean models.

该项目将调查南极洲东部冰川和莫斯科大学冰架的海洋组成部分。该系统至关重要，因为它排出了南极冰盖的八分之一，并且含有相当于近7米的潜在海平面上升的体积，大于整个南极冰盖。这个几乎完全未开发的区域是潜在不稳定的最大，最不知情的海洋冰川系统。尽管对南极西部冰盖的海洋系统进行了严格的审查，但对热冰川系统知之甚少。这项研究将大大增加该地区可用的海洋学和海洋地质和地球物理学数据，并会大大提高人们对这种熟悉的冰川系统及其对环境变化的潜在敏感响应的理解。独立的，基于空间的平台表明，加速了尘埃系统的质量损失。最近对南极洲中最深的冰和排水系统的极光亚冰盆地的航空地球物理调查为测量的表面变化提供了亚冰分的环境，并表明玻璃冰更冰川是至少两个先前两个冰流动的最重要的排水途径。但是，离岸环境的理解远远不够。来自附近架子/坡度断裂的物理海洋数据有限表明在槽的厚底层内有修改的圆极深水，显然可以进入玻璃冰川，这表明相对温水的底部底部流入可能性，这一过程被认为是造成西部反冰层接地的造成的过程。该项目将对该地区进行基于船舶的海洋地质和地球物理调查，并结合一项物理海洋学研究，以评估冰川系统的最新和长期行为及其与相邻海洋学系统的关系。 这项工作将补充对南极冰架，南极半岛附近的海洋研究以及冰盖和其他海洋模型的持续发展的研究。