What lies beneath: A detailed bathymetry of the sea-floor below Ekström Ice Shelf, East Antarctica


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emma.smith [ at ] awi.de

Abstract

An extensive grid of seismic reflection data collected on Ekstro¨m Ice Shelf, East Antarctica, between 2010–2018, using an on-ice vibroseis source and snowstreamer, are used to make a detailed bathymetry map of the sea floor and ice-shelf cavity. The maps shows a deep sea-floor trough, likely a paleao-ice stream, under the western side of the ice shelf. The trough contains a number of points of higher topography, indicating probable former grounding line positions. At the shelf front a sill running across the width of the shelf has implications for ocean circulation and thus ice-ocean interaction and ice shelf melt. This new bathymetry is markedly different from previous models, which show a generally flat and shallow sea floor in the region. This is presumably the case for many of the smaller ice-shelves in Dronning Maud Land, which highlights the need for better bathymetry measurements in these key threshold regions



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Conference (Talk)
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Primary Division
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Published
Event Details
European Geosceince Union (EGU) General Assembly, 08 Apr 2019 - 12 Apr 2019, Vienna, Austria.
Eprint ID
49605
Cite as
Smith, E. C. , Drews, R. , Ehlers, T. , Franke, D. , Gaedicke, C. , Hofstede, C. , Kuhn, G. , Lambrecht, A. , Mayer, C. , Tiedemann, R. and Eisen, O. (2019): What lies beneath: A detailed bathymetry of the sea-floor below Ekström Ice Shelf, East Antarctica , European Geosceince Union (EGU) General Assembly, Vienna, Austria, 8 April 2019 - 12 April 2019 .


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