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Ice Sheets (What? (Extend all the way to ocean (Modern ice sheets do -…
Ice Sheets
What?
= Ice body > 50,000 km2
Thickness
~ km-scale (or hundreds m)
Not topographically constrained
Extend all the
way to ocean
Modern ice sheets do - palaeo didn't always
Not topographically constrained
Exist over large, relatively flat expanses
Form their own topography - drown land topog
Contrasts glacier flow which is determined by terrain
ice surface & terrain slope = decoupled
Estimating Potential SLR
Translating Ice Volume to SLR
Volume (m3) / Area (m2) --> Height Δ (m)
= Approximation
Water volume / Area --> Height Δ (m)
*Water volume from given ice volume melting
Glacier
no formal size limit
probs max 100s metres
Defining feat: topographically constrained
∴ flow driven
Extant (modern) ice sheets
Antarctic
~ 500 km long
~58.3 m sea level rise potential
27 million km2
Greenland
~ 3 million km2
7.36 m sea level rise potential
250 km long
How much ice?
Not a simple question
Altimetry can measure ice sheet surface elevation
But doesn't tell us ice thickness. ..
Complications
Bedrock elevation / topog unknown
Bed can be below sealeve
Bathtub
view SLR
Visualise effects of SLR simply by considering:
Given amount sea level rise
Coastal / continent elevations @ present
Too idealised - must account for
spatial heterogeneities & isostatic effects etc
Potential
SLR
Would be unevenly distributed
Most susceptible areas Europe:
Nederlands / SE England / Alexandria / Iraq / Russia
Largest & slowest moving component cryosphere