Vibrations of Mertz glacier ice tongue, East Antarctica
| Type | Article | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Date | 2012 | ||||||||
| Language | English | ||||||||
| Author(s) | Lescarmontier L.1, 2, Legresy B., Coleman R.2, 3, Perosanz F.4, Mayet C.1, Testut L.1 | ||||||||
| Affiliation(s) | 1 : Lab Etud Geophys & Oceanog Spatiale, Toulouse, France. 2 : Univ Tasmania, Inst Marine & Antarctic Studies, Hobart, Tas, Australia. 3 : Antarctic Climate & Ecosyst CRC, Hobart, Tas, Australia. 4 : Ctr Natl Etud Spatiales, F-31055 Toulouse, France. |
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| Source | Journal Of Glaciology (0022-1430) (Int Glaciol Soc), 2012 , Vol. 58 , N. 210 , P. 665-676 | ||||||||
| DOI | 10.3189/2012JoG11J089 | ||||||||
| WOS© Times Cited | 20 | ||||||||
| Abstract | At the time of its calving in February 2010, Mertz Glacier, East Antarctica, was characterized by a 145km long, 35km wide floating tongue. In this paper, we use GPS data from the Collaborative Research into Antarctic Calving and Iceberg Evolution (CRAC-ICE) 2007/08 and 2009/10 field seasons to investigate the dynamics of Mertz Glacier. Twomonths of data were collected at the end of the 2007/08 field season from two kinematic GPS stations situated on each side of the main rift of the glacier tongue and from rock stations located around the ice tongue during 2008/09. Using Precise Point Positioning with integer ambiguity fixing, we observe that the two GPS stations recorded vibrations of the ice tongue with several dominant periods. We compare these results with a simple elastic model of the ice tongue and find that the natural vibration frequencies are similar to those observed. This information provides a better understanding of their possible effects on rift propagation and hence on the glacier calving processes. | ||||||||
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