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Basal channels are distributed into three main categories by how and where they are formed relative to an ice shelf's grounding line: ocean-sourced channels, subglacially-sourced channels, and grounding-line sourced channels. [1] The grounding line is the point where an ice sheet or glacier meets the ocean and begins floating, forming an ice shelf.
The floating ice shelf is in the left foreground, and the grounding line is visible as an abrupt change in surface slope due to flexure caused by the buoyancy force where the ice reaches flotation. An ice shelf is a large platform of glacial ice floating on the ocean, fed by one or multiple tributary glaciers.
The discrepancies are due to the question of whether the "coast" is measured to the grounding line or the edges of ice shelves, the difficulty of determining the location of the "solid" coastline, the movement of ice sheets and improvements in the accuracy of survey data over the years, as well as possible topographical errors.
Other labels refer to the ice tongue's grounding line, and northern and southern shear zones where it's in direct contact with the ice shelf. [ 29 ] The Thwaites Glacier Tongue, or Western Glacier Tongue ( 75°0′S 106°50′W / 75.000°S 106.833°W / -75.000; -106.833 ) was a narrow, floating part of the glacier, located about 30 ...
As the ice shelf becomes thinner, it exerts less of a buttressing effect on the ice sheet, the so-called back stress increases and the grounding line is pushed backwards. [18] The ice sheet is likely to start losing more ice from the new location of the grounding line and so become lighter and less capable of displacing seawater.
This re-freezing and growth of an ice shelf is not uncommon but the Ross Ice Shelf situation appeared to be very variable as there was no evidence of long-term freezing. [20] A recent study attribute this variability in-part to tidal mixing. [21] A second New Zealand expedition in 2019 traveled to the grounding line region of the Kamb Ice Stream.
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Radioglaciology is the study of glaciers, ice sheets, ice caps and icy moons using ice penetrating radar.It employs a geophysical method similar to ground-penetrating radar and typically operates at frequencies in the MF, HF, VHF and UHF portions of the radio spectrum.