Stratigraphic analysis of firn cores from an antarctic ice shelf firn aquifer

In recent decades, several large ice shelves in the Antarctic Peninsula region have experienced significant ice loss, likely driven by a combination of oceanic, atmospheric and hydrological processes. All three areas need further research, however, in the case of the role of liquid water the first concern is to address the paucity of field measurements. Despite this shortage of field observations, several authors have proposed the existence of firn aquifers on Antarctic ice shelves, however little is known about their distribution, formation, extension and role in ice shelf mechanics. In this study we present the discovery of saturated firn at three drill sites on the Müller Ice Shelf (67°14' S; 66°52' W), which leads us to conclude that either a large contiguous or several disconnected smaller firn aquifers exist on this ice shelf. From the stratigraphic analysis of three short firn cores extracted during February 2019 we describe a new classification system to identify the structures and morphological signatures of refrozen meltwater, identify evidence of superficial meltwater percolation, and use this information to propose a conceptual model of firn aquifer development on the Müller Ice Shelf. The detailed stratigraphic analysis of the sampled cores will provide an invaluable baseline for modelling studies. © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.

Notas

Indexación Scopus

Palabras clave

Ice Shelf, Grounding Line, Cryosat, Glacier hydrology, Firn aquifer, Stratigraphy

Citación

Water (Switzerland), Volume 13, Issue 5, 1 March 2021, Article number 731

DOI

10.3390/w13050731

URI

http://repositorio.unab.cl/xmlui/handle/ria/18968

Colecciones

Fac.CV - Artículos de Revista

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