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Science 18 February 2000:
Vol. 287. no. 5456, pp. 1248 - 1250
DOI: 10.1126/science.287.5456.1248
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Reports

Widespread Complex Flow in the Interior of the Antarctic Ice Sheet

Jonathan L. Bamber, 1* David G. Vaughan, 2 Ian Joughin 3

It has been suggested that as much as 90% of the discharge from the Antarctic Ice Sheet is drained through a small number of fast-moving ice streams and outlet glaciers fed by relatively stable and inactive catchment areas. Here, evidence obtained from balance velocity estimates suggests that each major drainage basin is fed by complex systems of tributaries that penetrate up to 1000 kilometers from the grounding line into the interior of the ice sheet. This finding has important consequences for the modeled or estimated dynamic response time of past and present ice sheets to climate forcing.

1 Bristol Glaciology Centre, School of Geographical Sciences, University of Bristol, University Road, Bristol, BS8 1SS, UK.
2 British Antarctic Survey High Cross, Madingley Road, Cambridge, CB3 OET, UK.
3 Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Mail Stop 300-235, 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, CA 91109, USA
*   To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: j.l.bamber{at}bristol.ac.uk

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