Pine Island Glacier is one of five glaciers in West Antarctica that are currently contributing sea-level rise at a significant and accelerating rate. This glacier flows into a vast floating ice shelf in the Amundsen Sea. This ice shelf is getting thinner and, as a consequence, the glacier is flowing faster into the sea. This thinning effect is now being seen ‘upstream’ on Pine Island Glacier’s trunk and tributaries, but this thinning is not the same everywhere.
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We need to understand the processes that are responsible for transmitting the effect of thinning of the floating ice shelf upstream. We need this knowledge to be able to predict the future magnitudes of ice-thinning rates for the glacier.
10 February, 2014
First leg of Antarctic iSTAR mission accomplished A team of British scientists has returned from a gruelling 1500km journey across the ice of West Antarctica after successfully completing the first …
