Jones, GA;
Ferreira, AMG;
Kulessa, B;
Schimmel, M;
Berbellini, A;
Morelli, A;
(2021)
Uppermost crustal structure regulates the flow of the Greenland Ice Sheet.
Nature Communications
, 12
, Article 7307. 10.1038/s41467-021-27537-5.
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Abstract
The flow of the Greenland Ice Sheet is controlled by subglacial processes and conditions that depend on the geological provenance and temperature of the crust beneath it, neither of which are adequately known. Here we present a seismic velocity model of the uppermost 5 km of the Greenlandic crust. We show that slow velocities in the upper crust tend to be associated with major outlet glaciers along the ice-sheet margin, and elevated geothermal heat flux along the Iceland hotspot track inland. Outlet glaciers particularly susceptible to basal slip over deformable subglacial sediments include Jakobshavn, Helheim and Kangerdlussuaq, while geothermal warming and softening of basal ice may affect the onset of faster ice flow at Petermann Glacier and the Northeast Greenland Ice Stream. Interactions with the solid earth therefore control the past, present and future dynamics of the Greenland Ice Sheet and must be adequately explored and implemented in ice sheet models.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Uppermost crustal structure regulates the flow of the Greenland Ice Sheet |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1038/s41467-021-27537-5 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-27537-5 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/ licenses/by/4.0/. |
| Keywords: | Science & Technology, Multidisciplinary Sciences, Science & Technology - Other Topics, RAYLEIGH-WAVE ELLIPTICITY, PINE ISLAND GLACIER, HEAT-FLUX, SUBGLACIAL GEOLOGY, BED CONDITIONS, THERMAL STATE, BENEATH, STREAM, LITHOSPHERE, MANTLE |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences > Dept of Earth Sciences |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10141475 |
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