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SUMMARY:Surface meltwater ponding and drainage causes ice-shelf flexure - 
 Alison Banwell (University of Cambridge)
DTSTART:20180212T130000Z
DTEND:20180212T140000Z
UID:TALK99679@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Prof. John R. Taylor
DESCRIPTION:Global sea-level rise is\, in part\, caused by more rapid ice 
 discharge from Antarctica to the ocean\, following the removal of the rest
 raining forces of floating ice shelves after their break-up. A trigger of 
 ice-shelf disintegration is thought to be surface-stress variations associ
 ated with surface meltwater ponding and draining\, causing weakness and fr
 acture. For example\, the explosive disintegration of the Larsen B ice she
 lf in 2002 is thought to have been caused by the widespread drainage of >2
 500 surface lakes observed in the days prior to break up event. This talk 
 will first describe the results of a modelling study that demonstrated tha
 t the collapse of the Larsen B ice shelf may have been triggered by a chai
 n-reaction style lake drainage process. Second\, field data from the austr
 al summer of 2016/2017 will be presented to show that the filling and drai
 ning of surface lakes on the McMurdo ice shelf in Antarctica does indeed c
 ause significant (and simultaneous) ice-shelf flexure. Until now\, no stud
 y has provided field-based data to either demonstrate this process\, or to
  improve and constrain the physical representation of ice shelves in curre
 nt ice-sheet models.
LOCATION:MR5\, Centre for Mathematical Sciences
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