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Ross Ice Shelf response to climate driven by the tectonic imprint on seafloor bathymetry

Nature Geoscience volume 12, pages 441–449 (2019)Cite this article

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Abstract

Ocean melting has thinned Antarctica’s ice shelves at an increasing rate over the past two decades, leading to loss of grounded ice. The Ross Ice Shelf is currently close to steady state but geological records indicate that it can disintegrate rapidly, which would accelerate grounded ice loss from catchments equivalent to 11.6 m of global sea level rise. Here, we use data from the ROSETTA-Ice airborne survey and ocean simulations to identify the principal threats to Ross Ice Shelf stability. We locate the tectonic boundary between East and West Antarctica from magnetic anomalies and use gravity data to generate a new high-resolution map of sub-ice-shelf bathymetry. The tectonic imprint on the bathymetry constrains sub-ice-shelf ocean circulation, protecting the ice shelf grounding line from moderate changes in global ocean heat content. In contrast, local, seasonal production of warm upper-ocean water near the ice front drives rapid ice shelf melting east of Ross Island, where thinning would lead to faster grounded ice loss from both the East and West Antarctic ice sheets. We confirm high modelled melt rates in this region using ROSETTA-Ice radar data. Our findings highlight the significance of both the tectonic framework and local ocean–atmosphere exchange processes near the ice front in determining the future of the Antarctic Ice Sheet.

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Fig. 1: The Ross Ice Shelf within the Ross Embayment.
Fig. 2: Ross Ice Shelf tectonic setting.
Fig. 3: ROSETTA-Ice survey potential field results.
Fig. 4: Ross Ice Shelf bathymetry, ocean temperatures and basal melt.
Fig. 5: A schematic of processes controlling the Ross Ice Shelf.
Fig. 6: A schematic comparing wintertime interactions between Ross Ice Shelf katabatic winds, local (HSSW) and global (CDW) major water masses during modern and glacial times.

Data availability

The ROSETTA-Ice airborne survey data are available from http://www.ldeo.columbia.edu/polar-geophysics-group/data.

Code availability

The code used to generate ocean simulations can be accessed at https://www.myroms.org/svn/src/. Modifications to the standard code used and ancillary input data are available on request from springer@esr.org.

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Acknowledgements

We gratefully acknowledge the support of the 109th Airlift Wing of the New York Air National Guard. We thank the United States Antarctic Program and staff of McMurdo Station seasons 2014–2018 and J. DeTemple during the development of the IcePod. This work was supported by the National Science Foundation 0958658, 1443534, 1443498, 1443677, 1443497 and 1341688, NASA NNX16AJ65G, the Moore Foundation, the Old York Foundation, the New Zealand Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment contract C05X1001, and New Zealand Antarctic Research Institute (NZARI no. 2014-11) funded Aotearoa New Zealand Ross Ice Shelf Programme (F.C.T. and G.O’B.). Any use of trade, firm, or product names is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply endorsement by the United States Government.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University, Palisades, NY, USA

    K. J. Tinto, I. Das, D. F. Porter, N. P. Frearson, C. Bertinato, A. Boghosian, S. I. Cordero, T. Dhakal, L. Dong, C. D. Gustafson, C. Locke, J. J. Spergel, S. E. Starke, M. G. Wearing & R. E. Bell

  2. Earth & Space Research, Corvallis, OR, USA

    L. Padman

  3. Colorado College, Colorado Springs, CO, USA

    C. S. Siddoway, S. Keeshin, A. Lockett & M. Tankersley

  4. Earth & Space Research, Seattle, WA, USA

    S. R. Springer & S. L. Howard

  5. Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA

    H. A. Fricker, C. Mosbeux & M. K. Becker

  6. GNS Science, Lower Hutt, New Zealand

    F. Caratori Tontini & G. O’Brien

  7. Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO, USA

    M. R. Siegfried

  8. Dynamic Gravity Systems, Broomfield, CO, USA

    N. Brady

  9. U. S. Geological Survey, Denver, CO, USA

    B. L. Burton

  10. Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA

    W. Chu

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Contributions

K.J.T., R.E.B., L.P., C.S.S., S.R.S., H.A.F., I.D. and F.C.T. conceived the experiment and analysed the data; D.F.P. contributed to oceanography; M.R.S. and C.M. contributed to glaciology; S.L.H. contributed to developing and running the ocean model simulations; N.P.F., C.B., T.D., W.C. and L.D. developed the IcePod instrument suite and acquired the data; S.K. analysed radar data; M.T. contributed to the bathymetry model; M.K.B., A.B., N.B., B.L.B., S.I.C., C.D.G., C.L., A.L., G.O’B., J.J.S., S.E.S. and M.G.W. acquired and processed data in the field.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to K. J. Tinto.

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Competing interests

N.B. is director of operations of Dynamic Gravity Systems, provider of one of the gravity instruments used in the ROSETTA-Ice surveys. The remaining authors declare no competing interests.

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Supplementary information

Supplementary Information

Supplementary Figs. 1–6.

Supplementary Video 1

Temporal evolution of High-Salinity Shelf Water.

Supplementary Video 2

Temporal evolution of modified Circumpolar Deep Water.

Supplementary Video 3

Temporal evolution of Antarctic Surface Water.

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Tinto, K.J., Padman, L., Siddoway, C.S. et al. Ross Ice Shelf response to climate driven by the tectonic imprint on seafloor bathymetry. Nat. Geosci. 12, 441–449 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-019-0370-2

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