Past event
The role of ice shelves in Antarctic ice-sheet stability MASTS Webinar with Dan Goldberg (University of Edinburgh) - free
The Antarctic coastline is fringed by large floating ice shelves, often the size of cities or larger. They play a crucial role as a stopgap against acceleration of the ice sheet, and their thinning or loss can accelerate the Antarctic Ice Sheet's contribution to sea levels. Many of these ice shelves are exposed to relatively warm waters originating from farther the Antarctic Circumpolar Current, causing high rates of melting on their undersides. I will discuss my efforts over the last several years to understand this process at Smith Glacier, a fast-thinning outlet glacier in West Antarctica.