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Glaciology Commons

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Ice sheets

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Full-Text Articles in Glaciology

Sustained High Basal Motion Of The Greenland Ice Sheet Revealed By Borehole Deformation, Claudia Ryser, Martin P. Lüthi, Lauren C. Andrews, Matthew J. Hoffman, Ginny A. Catania, Robert L. Hawley Apr 2014

Sustained High Basal Motion Of The Greenland Ice Sheet Revealed By Borehole Deformation, Claudia Ryser, Martin P. Lüthi, Lauren C. Andrews, Matthew J. Hoffman, Ginny A. Catania, Robert L. Hawley

Dartmouth Scholarship

Ice deformation and basal motion characterize the dynamical behavior of the Greenland ice sheet (GrIS). We evaluate the contribution of basal motion from ice deformation measurements in boreholes drilled to the bed at two sites in the western marginal zone of the GrIS. We find a sustained high amount of basal motion contribution to surface velocity of 44–73% in winter, and up to 90% in summer. Measured ice deformation rates show an unexpected variation with depth that can be explained with the help of an ice-flow model as a consequence of stress transfer from slippery to sticky areas. This effect …


Microstructural Evolution Of Fine-Grained Layers Through The Firn Column At Summit, Greenland, R. Lomonaco, M. Albert, I. Baker Jan 2011

Microstructural Evolution Of Fine-Grained Layers Through The Firn Column At Summit, Greenland, R. Lomonaco, M. Albert, I. Baker

Dartmouth Scholarship

We present a microstructural characterization of fine-grained layers from the top 90 m of firn from Summit, Greenland, performed using a combination of scanning electron microscopy techniques including secondary electron imaging, energy-dispersive spectroscopy and electron backscattered patterns, and X-ray microcomputed tomography. The impurities in the firn, both soluble impurities and dust particles, were found largely in the grain interiors. Both c- and a-axis pole figures do not show strong evidence of a preferred orientation of the grains even at the bottom of the firn column. The firn structure became increasingly anisotropic with vertical alignment in the top 3 m, probably …


A New Technique For Firn Grain-Size Measurement Using Sem Image Analysis, N.E. Spaulding, D.A. Meese, I. Baker, P.A. Mayewski Jan 2010

A New Technique For Firn Grain-Size Measurement Using Sem Image Analysis, N.E. Spaulding, D.A. Meese, I. Baker, P.A. Mayewski

Dartmouth Scholarship

Firn microstructure is accurately characterized using images obtained from scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Visibly etched grain boundaries within images are used to create a skeleton outline of the microstructure. A pixel-counting utility is applied to the outline to determine grain area. Firn grain sizes calculated using the technique described here are compared to those calculated using the techniques of Gow (1969) and Gay and Weiss (1999) on samples of the same material, and are found to be substantially smaller. The differences in grain size between the techniques are attributed to sampling deficiencies (e.g. the inclusion of pore filler in the …


Using Electron Backscatter Diffraction Patterns To Examine Recrystallization In Polar Ice Sheets, Rachel Obbard, Ian Baker, Katherine Sieg Jan 2006

Using Electron Backscatter Diffraction Patterns To Examine Recrystallization In Polar Ice Sheets, Rachel Obbard, Ian Baker, Katherine Sieg

Dartmouth Scholarship

The fabric of polycrystalline ice is typically described using the c-axis orientation alone, but this is insufficient for a full description of grain orientations in this hexagonal material. Electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) provides full c- and a-axis orientation of individual grains, and is used here to study Greenland Ice Sheet Project 2 (GISP2) ice specimens from depths of 1551, 1642 and 1745 m. Complete orientation data are used to compare nearest-neighbor relationships to overall fabric and to differentiate between recrystallization mechanisms. Changes in orientation between grains and subgrains in GISP2 specimens were correlated with the appearance of grain boundaries on …