Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.

Science 6 November 1970:
Vol. 170. no. 3958, pp. 630 - 633
DOI: 10.1126/science.170.3958.630
Prev | Table of Contents | Next

Articles

Convection in the Antarctic Ice Sheet Leading to a Surge of the Ice Sheet and Possibly to a New Ice Age

T. Hughes 1

1 Institute of Polar Studies and Department of Civil Engineering, Ohio State University, Columbus 43210

The Antarctic surge theory of Pleistocene glaciation is reexamined in the context of thermal convection theory applied to the Antarctic ice sheet. The ice sheet surges when a water layer at the base of the ice sheet reaches the edge of the ice sheet over broad fronts and has a thickness sufficient to drown the projections from the bed that most strongly hinder basal ice flow. Frictional heat from convection flow promotes basal melting, and, as the ice sheet grows to the continental shelf of Antarctica, a surge of the ice sheet appears likely.


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
State of Equilibrium of the West Antarctic Inland Ice Sheet.
I. M. Whillans and I. M. Whillans (1973)
Science 182, 476-479
   Abstract »    PDF »
Radio Echo Records Cannot Be Used as Evidence for Convection in the Antarctic Ice Sheet.
C. H. Harrison, C. H. Harrison, and T. Hughes (1971)
Science 173, 166-167
   PDF »


To Advertise     Find Products

Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)