Abstract

Remote sensing observations since the 1990s have exposed Pine Island Glacier as one of the most rapidly thinning and accelerating ice streams in Antarctica, and therefore the world. Flowing into the Amundsen Sea embayment, thought to be an area of potential ocean warming, and grounded well below isostatically rebounded sea levels, there is concern that the astonishing changes witnessed across the region from space reflect the onset of a major response of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet to global warming. Attempts to model the behaviour of the ice sheet in this region have been hindered by a dearth of subsurface information, with fieldwork hampered by the extreme remoteness of the catchment. This talk will report on the first in situ glacial geophysical investigations ever conducted on Pine Island Glacier. Punctuated with photographic material from the speaker’s first visit to the continent, the talk will outline the range of geophysical methods used to investigate change across this extremely remote, yet highly dynamic region; and will focus on the use of over snow radar to image the internal and basal conditions beneath the surface of Pine Island Glacier.