Crevasse Deformation and Examples from Ice Stream B, Antarctica

Abstract

AbstractCrevasses, once formed, are subject to rotation and bending according to the velocity field through which they travel. Because of this, crevasse shapes can be used to infer something about the velocity field of a glacier. This is done using a model in which each crevasse opens perpendicularly to the principal extensional strain-rate, when that strain-rate exceeds some specified critical value, and is then deformed according to the same velocity gradients that formed the crevasse. This model describes how crevasses are formed, translated, rotated, bent, and lengthened.Velocity fields are sought for which calculations produce crevasses approximating those found in three example areas on Ice Stream B, Antarctica. The first example is the hook-shaped crevasses that occur just outside the chaotic shear zone at the ice-stream margin. They are used to infer a rate of lateral shearing, and side drag. The second example, a pattern of splaying crevasses, is satisfactorily simulated by a model with side-drag stress varying linearly across the ice stream. This confirms that this region is restrained almost entirely by side drag. The third example is transverse crevasses and their change in orientation, but many different velocity fields can produce the observed pattern. Of these three examples, the shapes of hook-shaped marginal crevasses and splaying crevasses can provide useful information whereas transverse crevasses are less helpful.