Understanding controls on ice sheet flow through adhesion experiments and ice flow modeling

Ice loss from the Antarctic Ice Sheet (AIS) occurs through fast-flowing glaciers known as ice streams, which initiate fast flow by transitioning from ice that is frozen to bedrock to ice that slips along its bed. This flow-to-sliding transition thus controls the onset and geometry of ice streams. However, the mechanics of the transition are poorly understood. This project aims to explore these processes from the nanoscale to the glacier-scale by leveraging insight across disciplines, including physical chemistry, materials science, and geophysics. The researchers will conduct an experimental examination of ice adhesion and pre-melting, two processes which are largely responsible for this transition. These results will be integrated into an ice sheet model to quantify future changes to the onset of ice streams in the AIS. This will illuminate multiscalar ice interactions, shed insight into a mechanism governing ice loss, and inform the physics underlying ice sheet intervention.

“This new award seeks to understand drivers of ice loss from the Antarctic Ice Sheet using a novel multi-scale approach spanning physical chemistry, materials science, and geophysics disciplines. This experimental and theoretical modelling study seeks to investigate the mechanics of the flow-to-sliding transition that governs the onset of fast ice flow in Antarctica. Laboratory-based measurements on ice adhesion, breakoff, and interfacial melting will inform ice sheet modelling needed to quantify future changes to the onset of rapid ice flow in the Antarctic.”

Carl William Eisendrath Distinguished Service Professor, Department of Chemistry, University of Chicago