Investigation of Bottom Mass-Balance Rates by Electrical Resistivity Soundings on the Ross Ice Shelf, Antarctica

Abstract

AbstractElectrical resistivity sounding, using the four-electrode Schlumberger array, has been carried out at 11 locations on the Ross Ice Shelf. The apparent resistivity curves generally show four characteristic zones. The first, at distances from 1 to 10 m, reflects the near-surface zone of seasonal temperature changes and inhomogeneities. The second zone, from 10 m to 100 m, reflects primarily the increasing density with depth in the upper 50 m of the ice shelf, modified, in some locations, by temperature variations. The third zone, from 100 m to a distance roughly equal to the ice thickness, is affected principally by the temperature gradient in the solid ice. In the fourth zone, at distances greater than approximately twice the ice thickness, the apparent resistivity usually decreases rapidly with distance, owing to the highly conductive sea-water beneath the ice shelf. At some stations associated with ice streams and outlet glaciers, however, an increase at large spacings indicates much more resistive basal ice.Using data from seven locations on the grid eastern half of the shelf that do not show obvious evidence of a basal resistive zone, including temperatures to 100 m at two of the sites, the mass-balance rate at the bottom of the ice is estimated to be within a few tenths of a meter per year of zero at distances between 90 and 530 km from the ice front, assuming steady-state condition over most of the ice shelf. However, the assumption of steady-state is questionable at locations close to outlet glaciers, and must be treated with great caution. The temperature measurements at the two sites, along with previously observed temperatures at the RISP drill site, make it possible to estimate the activation energy in the solid ice. The models fitted to the observed values suggest an “apparent” activation energy in the solid ice closer to 0.15 eV (14 kJ mol−1) than to 0.25 eV (24 kJ mol−1). This difference is believed to be due to a decrease in the ionic impurity content with increasing depth in the ice by a factor of two or more.