Ice–shelf Grounding: Ice and Bedrock Temperature Changes

Abstract

AbstractIce rises form where an ice shelf runs aground on the sea bed. After grounding occurs, basal ice temperatures cool from the sea-water temperature towards an equilibrium temperature appropriate to grounded ice. This cooling can take many thousands of years, and much of the delay is due to the thermal inertia of the bedrock. Here, we calculate transient temperature profiles for an ice rise with a final summit thickness of 520 m that formed by grounding of ice shelf 420 m thick. Seventy-five per cent cooling of the basal ice takes between 7 000 and 11 500 years, depending on the “thermal memory” of the bedrock. This compares with an equivalent time of only 1400 years if we neglect the thermal inertia of the bedrock.Because the surface slopes of the ice rise are related to the flow properties of the underlying ice, the summit thickness will tend to thicken as the basal ice cools. In principle, it should be possible to estimate the age of a recently-formed ice rise by examining its temperature/depth profile.