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SUMMARY:Ice-shelf buttressing\, the marine-ice sheet instability\, and the
  sensitivity of Pine Island Glacier\, West Antarctica\, to ocean condition
 s - Hilmar Gudmundsson (British Antarctic Survey)
DTSTART:20151012T120000Z
DTEND:20151012T130000Z
UID:TALK61534@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Doris Allen
DESCRIPTION:Pine Island Glacier\, West Antarctica\, is currently experienc
 ing dramatic ice loss. The general consensus today is that this ice loss i
 s most likely driven by ocean-induced ice melt within the subglacial cavit
 y underneath the ice shelf. However\, the possibility that the ongoing ret
 reat is a manifestation of a marine ice sheet instability cannot be ruled 
 out. In the talk I will present some recent theoretical and numerical work
  relating to the marine-ice sheet instability hypothesis. Considerable pro
 gress had been made in this area over the last five years or so\, and I wi
 ll give a short overview of recent work. The response of marine ice sheets
  to changes in ocean conditions depends on a number of processes. Increase
 d melt thins the ice shelf\, and this thinning can\, depending on geometry
 \, potentially reduce buttressing at the grounding line. Reduction in butt
 ressing will in turn affect flow upstream from the grounding line. Determi
 ning the sensitivity of marine ice sheets to changes in ocean forcing is\,
  hence\, far from trivial and this problem has\, and continues\, to occupy
  the minds of glaciologist and applied mathematicians.  In the talk I will
  present some recent numerical work on Pine Island Glacier illustrating th
 e effects of ice-shelf buttressing on ice flow. I will also present some o
 ngoing work on ocean induced-ice shelf melting using a universal plume mod
 el.\n\n
LOCATION:MR5\, Centre for Mathematical Sciences
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