REWRITING ICE DYNAMICS: IT'S ALL ABOUT THE WATER

2006 Philadelphia Annual Meeting (22–25 October 2006)
Paper No. 17-1

Presentation Time: 8:05 AM-8:25 AM

REWRITING ICE DYNAMICS: IT'S ALL ABOUT THE WATER
BINDSCHADLER, Robert, Hydrospheric and Biospheric Sciences Laboratory, NASA, Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771, Robert.A.Bindschadler@nasa.gov Recent ice sheet behavior is surprising everybody—most especially the supposed experts. Accelerating and thinning outlet glaciers and disintegrating ice shelves illustrate an underappreciation of major forcing factors and interactions now dictating the ice sheet's response to warming climate. Water is an integral player in most of the new thinking. Whether delivered through surface meltwater, or through circulating ocean waters, water accelerates ice both by providing lubrication and by delivering heat to melt and soften the ice. And if that were not enough, water movement beneath ice sheets is now becoming recognized as a far more dynamic system than previously held. Accurate predictions of future ice sheet behavior are urgently needed, but there are some radical revisions of ice sheet models that must be made first to include water's multi-faceted influences.
2006 Philadelphia Annual Meeting (22–25 October 2006) General Information for this Meeting

Session No. 17 Atmosphere–Ice Sheet–Ocean Interactions: Modern Observations and Historical Interpretations Pennsylvania Convention Center: 108 B 8:00 AM-12:00 PM, Sunday, 22 October 2006 Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs, Vol. 38, No. 7, p. 49
© Copyright 2006 The Geological Society of America (GSA), all rights reserved. Permission is hereby granted to the author(s) of this abstract to reproduce and distribute it freely, for noncommercial purposes. Permission is hereby granted to any individual scientist to download a single copy of this electronic file and reproduce up to 20 paper copies for noncommercial purposes advancing science and education, including classroom use, providing all reproductions include the complete content shown here, including the author information. All other forms of reproduction and/or transmittal are prohibited without written permission from GSA Copyright Permissions.