Project Title

Collaborative Research: Ice Shelf Rumpling and Its Influence on Ice Shelf Buttressing Processes

Summary

Event Number:
I-169-M
NSF / OPP Award 2332479

Program Director:
Dr. David Porter

ASC POC/Implementer:
Allison Barden / Randolph Jones

Principal Investigator(s)

Dr. Douglas R MacAyeal
drm7@uchicago.edu
University of Chicago
Department of Geophysicial Sciences
Stevensville, Michigan

Location

Supporting Stations: McMurdo Station
Research Locations: McMurdo Ice Shelf

Description

This project will investigate the complex interplay between factors that promote and factors that inhibit ice shelf damage at compressive margins. The overall goal is to determine how rumples affect ice shelf stability and hence ice shelf buttressing power, with a focus on the rumples at the compressive margin of the McMurdo Ice Shelf and Hut Point Peninsula, adjacent to NZ’s Scott Base. The team will acquire a comprehensive set of geophysical and glaciological observations though field-based surveys, deployed surface sensor networks, and remote sensing, with reference to the large body of available historical observations. All observations will be used to develop and validate an existing process-scale numerical model, which combines ice shelf flow with flexure and fracture in a framework that embodies the thin plate approximation.

Field Season Overview

To allow sufficient time for rumple amplitude changes and geometry to be locally observed, two seasons of ground-based field surveying will be conducted ~12-14 months apart, thereby increasing the likelihood of change detection. Four participants will deploy from early December to mid-January, and field activity will consist of survey and sensor network deployment. Surveys will entail conducting measurements at positions along two transects that traverse the rumpled field area. These measurements will utilize portable geophysical equipment towed by snowmobile and potentially roped travel on skis or foot within the study zone, including ground-penetrating radar (GPR), lidar, spot kinematic global navigation satellite system (GNSS) measurements, a terrestrial radar interferometer (TRI), and optical leveling/survey. Sensor network deployment will require setting up sensors to record data for extended periods. These sensors include up to six seismometers (one or two deployed through winter), permanent GNSS receivers, autonomous phase-sensitive radar (ApRES) sensors, up to four automated weather stations (AWSs), and time-lapse camera systems.

Deploying Team Members