frazil ice formation in an ice shelf water plume 1 we present a model for the growth of frazil ice crystals and their accumulation as marine ice at the base of antarctic ice shelves the model describes the flow of buoyant water upward along the ice shelf base and includes the differential growth of a range of crystal sizes frazil ice formation starts when the rising plume becomes supercooled initially the majority of crystals have a radius of similar to0 3 mm and concentrations are below 0 1 g l depending on the ice shelf slope which controls the plume speed frazil crystals increase in size and number typically crystals up to 1 0 mm in radius are kept in suspension and concentrations reach a maximum of 0 4 g l the frazil ice in suspension decreases the plume density and thus increases the plume speed larger crystals precipitate upward onto the ice shelf base first with smaller crystals following as the plume slows down in this way marine ice is formed at rates of up to 4 m yr in some places consistent with areas of observed basal accumulation on filchner ronne ice shelf the plume continues below the ice shelf as long as it is buoyant if the plume reaches the ice front its rapid rise produces high supercooling and the ice crystals attain a radius of several millimeters before reaching the surface similar ice crystals have been trawled at depth north of antarctic ice shelves but otherwise no observations exist to verify these first predictions of ice crystal sizes and volumes

frazil dynamics and precipitation in a water column with depth dependent supercooling when seawater becomes supercooled collections of small ice crystals known as frazil ice form and grow a model of frazil ice dynamics is presented that deals explicitly with the buoyant settling of frazil crystals onto an overlying surface this yields further insight into transport associated with the ice pump mechanism whereby ice is melted at depth and transferred to a shallower location as a result of the pressure variation of seawater s freezing temperature the model is applied to a vertical cross section through an ice shelf water plume beneath filchner ronne ice shelf antarctica and helps to elucidate the depth variation in its properties for the first time as well as predicting the precipitation rate of frazil crystals the model predicts that frazil ice should be preferentially located in a narrow layer near the ice shelf base as a result of the maximum supercooling there and an influx of crystals rising under their own buoyancy the deposition of these crystals onto the ice shelf is governed by the balance between crystal rising and turbulent transfer of frazil away from the shelf which is investigated in some detail

a model of marine ice formation within antarctic ice shelf rifts large rifts that open in antarctic ice shelves are known to be filled by snow accumulations ice shelf fragments and sea ice this work demonstrates how these rifts may also be filled from below through their interaction with ocean water by marine ice the model presented here quantifies both the rate of marine ice accumulation at the top of the rift which results from melt driven convection at its sides and the impact of this process on waters occupying the confined environment of the rift the results show that such a system could fill the rift with tens of meters of marine ice in the process the temperature and salinity of the ambient water in the rift evolve through two distinct phases the first is characterized by rapid change that takes the properties of the ambient water to near equilibrium values followed by a second phase of much slower change the melting rate at the lower part of the walls of the rift emerges as the principal factor influencing many aspects of model behavior testing the model against field observations from an antarctic rift showed it to be robust and successful in reproducing the main observed features including the presence of a thick layer of supercooled ocean water inside the rift

on meltwater under ice shelves the basic features of the flow of meltwater under ice shelves can be described by a set of simple relations and length scales the flow may be divided into two regions with different basic processes dominating in each in the first region melting of the underside of the ice shelf is important and the temperature and salinity of the current tend toward equilibrium values such that the changes due to melting of the ice shelf are balanced by changes due to entrainment of ambient seawater the equilibrium values change with depth owing to the effect of the change in pressure on the freezing point as the current increases in thickness it is no longer able to adjust sufficiently rapidly to the changing equilibrium values arid the flow moves into the second region the extent of the first region is governed by the location of the ambient freezing point in the second region melting is less important and the current behaves as an entraining drag limited gravity current in a stratified ambient fluid leaving the shelf once the current has the same density as the ambient seawater the heights of the two regions depend mainly on the ambient conditions and only indirectly on parameters such as slope angle entrainment constant drag coefficient and turbulent transfer coefficients

contrasting patterns of hydrological changes in europe in response to holocene climate cooling phases the quantitative reconstruction of climatic parameters from pollen and lake level data obtained at saint jorioz lake annecy eastern france gives evidence for cooler and wetter conditions during the 8 2 ka cold event a comparison of these regional data with other hydrological records reconstructed in europe for the same period suggests as a working hypothesis that mid latitudes between ca 50 and 43 underwent wetter conditions in response to the cooling whereas northern and southern europe were marked by drier climate in the latter case leading to an interruption of the sapropel 1 formation in the mediterranean a similar hydrological tri partition of europe can be observed during other holocene cooling phases associated with north atlantic ird events data indicate that the middle zone characterised by wetter climate conditions could have had a more extended latitudinal amplitude during phases of climate cooling weaker than the 8 2 ka event the differences in expansion of the wet mid european zone depending on holocene climate cooling phases could reflect variations in the strength of the atlantic westerly jet in relation with the thermal gradient between high and low latitudes

an analytical derivation of ice shelf basal melt based on the dynamics of meltwater plumes the interaction between ice shelves and the ocean is an important process for the development of marine ice sheets however it is difficult to model in full detail due to the high computational cost of coupled ice ocean simulations so that simplified basal melt parameterizations are required in this work a new analytical expression for basal melt is derived from the theory of buoyant meltwater plumes moving upward under the ice shelf and driving the overturning circulation within the ice shelf cavity the governing equations are nondimensionalized in the case of an ice shelf with constant basal slope and uniform ambient ocean conditions an asymptotic analysis of these equations in terms of small slopes and small thermal driving assumed typical for antarctic ice shelves leads to an equation that can be solved analytically for the dimensionless melt rate this analytical expression describes a universal melt rate curve onto which the scaled results of the original plume model collapse its key features are a positive melt peak close to the grounding line and a transition to refreezing further away comparing the analytical expression with numerical solutions of the plume model generally shows a close agreement between the two even for more general cases than the idealized geometry considered in the derivation the results show how the melt rates adapt naturally to changes in the geometry and ambient ocean temperature the new expression can readily be used for improving ice sheet models that currently still lack a sufficiently realistic description of basal melt

surface exposure dating of moraines in the kromer valley silvretta mountains austria evidence for glacial response to the 8 2 ka event in the eastern alps 10 be dating of a pronounced glacier advance kromer stadial in the western part of the silvretta mountains western austria yielded ages ranging from 8010 360 to 8690 410 years with a mean age for moraine stabilization of 8410 690 years hence the kromer stadial which was previously considered as early preboreal may represent the glacier response to the early phase of the 8 2 ka event as it is recorded in the greenland ice cores the glacier advanced to a position beyond its little ice age lia limit the end moraines are situated 750 1000 m downvalley from the glacier ends in 1850 the corresponding drop of the equilibrium line altitude relative to the lia datum was 75 m the glacier advance was followed by a period of glacier recession and rock glacier development in total the climatic fluctuation may have lasted for about 500 200 years the age and duration of the climatic fluctuation is in good accordance with the misox cold phase and ce 3 climatic fluctuation as recorded in switzerland climate during the kromer stadial was characterized by more humid conditions than today along the northern fringe of the alps and slightly negative to moderately positive changes in precipitation in the central part of the austrian alps summer temperatures changes were most likely in the order of i to 0k mean annual temperature was 1 5k to 2k lower than today at least during the second phase of the climatic fluctuation

cold event at 8200 yr b p recorded in annually laminated lake sediments in eastern europe a quantitative annual mean temperature reconstruction from an annually laminated lake sediment sequence in estonia eastern europe shows a distinct cold period at 8400 8080 yr b p before a d 2000 the timing is consistent with that seen in the greenland ice core data and various high resolution records from western europe during maximal cooling at 8250 8150 yr b p the annual mean temperature in estonia was 2 0 c colder than prior to and 3 0 c colder than after the cooling the pollen stratigraphic and sedimentological data suggest especially cold and snowy winter conditions the duration and amplitude of the cold event agree with the modeled impact of a sudden freshening of the north atlantic surface water and subsequent perturbation of the thermohaline circulation provided that the cold event was caused by a pulse of freshwater from the melting laurentide ice sheet to the north atlantic the results indicate a strong teleconnection between the north atlantic oceanic forcing and the east european climate at least up to long 26 e mediated probably by the changing intensity of the zonal atmospheric circulation

on the pressure gradient force over steep topography in sigma coordinate ocean models abstract the error in computing the pressure gradient force near steep topography using terms following coordinates is investigated in an ocean model using the family of vertical differencing schemes proposed by arakawa and suarez the truncation error is estimated by substituting known buoyancy profiles into the finite difference hydrostatic and pressure gradient terms the error due to hydrostatic inconsistency which is not simply a space truncation error is also documented the results show that the pressure gradient error is spread throughout the water column and it is sensitive to the vertical resolution and to the placement of the grid points relative to the vertical structure of the buoyancy field being modeled removing a reference state as suggested for the atmosphere by gary reduces the truncation error associated with the two lowest vertical modes by a factor of 2 to 3 as an example the error in computing the pressure gradient using a standard 10 level primitive equation model appl

a regional model of the semidiurnal internal tide on the australian north west shelf a fully three dimensional nonlinear primitive equation model is applied to a study of the semidiurnal internal tide on the australian north west shelf a region of strong barotropic and baroclinic tide the model shows a significant internal tide over most of the continental slope region predominantly between 100 and 1000 m depths energy flux is highly variable with regions of onshore flux and regions of offshore flux corresponding to regions of subcritical and supercritical seabed slopes a comparison between the model and detailed observations from one region shows reasonable agreement in vertical displacement currents and depth integrated energy flux the comparison also highlights the difficulty in obtaining appropriate observations to provide a rigorous verification of internal tide models the m2 and s2 internal tides show similar patterns of flow with energy in the s2 internal tide about 25 of that in the m2 constituent estimates of the total baroclinic m2 energy are about 2 2 gw for the north west shelf nearly an order of magnitude larger than suggested by earlier studies this represents about 5 of the dissipation of the m2 barotropic tide in the model domain the seasonal variability in the baroclinic energy flux is about 20 from the mean the baroclinic energy extracted from the tide is expected to make a significant contribution to mixing in the region

were abrupt lateglacial and early holocene climatic changes in northwest europe linked to freshwater outbursts to the north atlantic and arctic oceans during the lateglacial and early holocene abrupt millennial scale climatic variations are recorded in a wide range of high resolution proxy records from marine and terrestrial archives in nw europe our review of the evidence for these rapid climate events do not show an apparent link to possible forcing factors such as long term orbitally induced variations in solar radiation short term variations in solar activity as inferred from 14 c atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration or volcanic sulphate as recorded in the gisp2 ice core record there is however a remarkable degree of similarity with the number duration and timing of episodes of increased e ux of fresh water to the north atlantic and arctic oceans from the laurentide ice sheet and from the baltic ice lake in sw sweden these freshwater outburst events occurred when continental runoff from the laurentide ice sheet was rerouted from the mississippi river to the hudson river st lawrence river hudson strait and along the mackenzie river to the atlantic and arctic oceans and when the baltic ice lake in sw sweden drained to skagerrak periods of increased freshwater e ow to the north atlantic and arctic oceans may thus provide a mechanism to explain the abrupt and signie cant lateglacial and early holocene climate events in nw europe the idea that freshwater outbursts might drive abrupt climate events is not new but previous work may have underestimated the extent of support from proxy data and overestimated the ine uence of the laurentide ice sheet

holocene climatic instability a prominent widespread event 8200 yr ago the most prominent holocene climatic event in greenland ice core proxies with approximately half the amplitude of the younger dryas occurred 8000 to 8400 yr ago this holocene event affected regions well beyond the north atlantic basin as shown by synchronous increases in windblown chemical indicators together with a significant decrease in methane widespread proxy records from the tropics to the north polar regions show a short lived cool dry or windy event of similar age the spatial pattern of terrestrial and marine changes is similar to that of the younger dryas event suggesting a role for north atlantic thermohaline circulation possible forcings identified thus far for this holocene event are small consistent with recent model results indicating high sensitivity and strong linkages in the climatic system

hydrological changes in the european midlatitudes associated with freshwater outbursts from lake agassiz during the younger dryas event and the early holocene abstract recent studies of lake level fluctuations during the last deglaciation in eastern france jura mountains and pre alps and on the swiss plateau show distinct phases of higher water level developing at the beginning and during the latter part of greenland stade 1 i e younger dryas event and punctuating the early holocene period at 11 250 11 050 10 300 10 000 9550 9150 8300 8050 and 7550 7250 cal yr b p the phases at 11 250 11 050 and 8300 8050 cal yr b p appear to be related to the cool preboreal oscillation and the 8200 yr event assumed to be associated with deglaciation events a comparison of this mid european lake level record with the outbursts from proglacial lake agassiz in north america suggests that between 13 000 and 8000 cal yr b p phases of positive water balance were the response in west central europe to climate cooling episodes which were induced by perturbation of the thermohaline circulation due to sudden freshwater releases to oceans this probably was in response to a southward migration of the atlantic westerly jet and its associated cyclonic track moreover it is hypothesized that during the early holocene varying solar activity could have been a crucial factor by amplifying or reducing the possible effects of lake agassiz outbursts on the climate

investigation of the generation and propagation of low frequency internal waves a case study for the east coast of india sar synthetic aperture radar images in the northwest bay of bengal indicate the existence of internal waves and their occurrence and intensity is topography dependent as indicated by in situ data and satellite information to complement and comprehend the observations a three dimensional princeton ocean model is applied to study the generation and propagation of internal waves the model domain is configured with a variable curvilinear grid and the input fields comprise bathymetry initial temperature and salinity wind stress air sea heat flux and tidal information the numerical investigation indicated a predominant activity of internal waves in the north and the rationale is three fold the first one could be the stable stratification due to fresh water discharge from head bay major river system secondly the significant magnitude range of the tides and finally the bathymetry in the coastal waters off paradip is about 12 shallower compared to that of visakhapatnam and further south the cumulative effect of these causes the predominance of internal waves in the north the core of the energy is essentially in the low frequency range and the model is able to simulate semi diurnal and diurnal components reasonably well up to 6 h frequency 0 162 cph

eddy formation by dense flows on slopes in a rotating fluid properties of the flow generated by a continuous source of dense fluid on a slope in a rotating system are investigated with a variety of laboratory experiments the dense fluid may initially flow down the slope but it turns under the influence of rotation to flow along the slope and initial geostrophic adjustment gives it an anticyclonic velocity profile some of the dense fluid drains downslope in a viscous ekman layer which may become unstable to growing waves provided that the viscous draining is not too strong cyclonic vortices form periodically in the upper layer and the dense flow breaks up into a series of domes three processes may contribute to the formation of these eddies first initial downslope flow of the dense current may stretch columns of ambient fluid by the taylor column process which we term capture secondly the initial geostrophic adjustment implies lower layer collapse which may stretch the fluid column and thirdly viscous drainage will progressively stretch and spin up a captured water column overall this last process may be the most significant but viscous drainage has contradictory effects in that it progressively removes dense lower layer fluid which terminates the process when the layer thickness approaches that of the ekman layer the eddies produced propagate along the slope owing to the combined effects of buoyancy coriolis balance and beta gyres this removes fluid from the vicinity of the source and causes the cycle to repeat the vorticity of the upper layer cyclones increases linearly with l d where l is the rossby deformation radius the bottom slope and d the total depth reaching approximately 2 f in the experiments presented here the frequency at which the eddy dome structures are produced also increases with while the speed at which the structures propagate along the slope is reduced by viscous effects the flow of dense fluid on slopes is a very important part of the global ocean circulation system and the implications of the laboratory experiments for oceanographic flows are discussed

oxygen isotope and palaeotemperature records from six greenland ice core stations camp century dye 3 grip gisp2 renland and northgrip oxygen isotope variations spanning the last glacial cycle and the holocene derived from ice core records for six sites in greenland camp century dye 3 grip gisp2 renland and northgrip show strong similarities this suggests that the dominant influence on oxygen isotope variations reflected in the ice sheet records was regional climatic change differences in detail between the records probably reflect the effects of basal deformation in the ice as well as geographical gradients in atmospheric isotope ratios palaeotemperature estimates have been obtained from the records using three approaches i inferences based on the measured relationship between mean annual 18o of snow and of mean annual surface temperature over greenland ii modelled inversion of the borehole temperature profile constrained either by the dated isotopic profile or iii by using monte carlo simulation techniques the third of these approaches was adopted to reconstruct holocene temperature variations for the dye 3 and grip temperature profiles which yields remarkably compatible results a new record of holocene isotope variations obtained from the northgrip ice core matches the grip short term isotope record and also shows similar long term trends to the dye 3 and grip inverted temperature data the northgrip isotope record reflects i a generally stronger isotopic signal than is found in the grip record ii several short lived temperature fluctuations during the first 1500 yr of the holocene iii a marked cold event at ca 8 2 ka the 8 2 ka event iv optimum temperatures for the holocene between ca 8 6 and 4 3 ka a signal that is 0 6 stronger than for the grip profile v a clear signal for the little ice age and vi a clear signal of climate warming during the last century these data suggest that the northgrip stable isotope record responded in a sensitive manner to temperature fluctuations during the holocene copyright 2001 john wiley sons ltd

temperature and salinity beneath ronne ice shelf antarctica salinity and temperature measurements have been made beneath ronne ice shelf antarctica access to the seawater was gained by hot water drilling through 562 m of ice at a site 300 km from the ice front the ice column is composed of 516 m of meteoric origin ice underlain by 31 m of consolidated saline ice with a further 15 m of unconsolidated slush at the base the 360 m deep water column beneath the ice shelf consists broadly of a 210 m layer of ice shelf water isw at a potential temperature of 2 30 c and salinity 34 53 overlying a 100 m thick layer of modified western shelf water 2 03 c 34 64 the layers are separated by a weak 50 m thick pycnocline isotopic analyses of water samples support this interpretation of the water types comparison of the data with published oceanographic observations from the shore lead indicate that the source of the water is either the western berkner shelf or north of the ice front in the ronne depression the measurements from the drill site broadly match predictions from a simple plume model of the sub ice shelf water circulation in that model the basal slope of the ice shelf plays a central role in determining the properties of the isw plume with the exception of the upper few tens of meters the temperature and salinity of the entire water column vary by about 0 04 c and 0 03 on tidal timescales and there is evidence for a longer term drift presumably connected with shifts in the larger scale circulation there is also much variability from internal wave activity the salinity and deuterium budgets indicate that the meltwater fraction in the isw observed at the drill site was between 5 3 and 6 5 in reasonable agreement with values previously found for isw in the open ocean

investigation of land ice ocean interaction with a fully coupled ice ocean model 1 model description and behavior 1 antarctic ice shelves interact closely with the ocean cavities beneath them with ice shelf geometry influencing ocean cavity circulation and heat from the ocean driving changes in the ice shelves as well as the grounded ice streams that feed them we present a new coupled model of an ice stream ice shelf ocean system that is used to study this interaction the model is capable of representing a moving grounding line and dynamically responding ocean circulation within the ice shelf cavity idealized experiments designed to investigate the response of the coupled system to instantaneous increases in ocean temperature show ice ocean system responses on multiple timescales melt rates and ice shelf basal slopes near the grounding line adjust in 1 2 years and downstream advection of the resulting ice shelf thinning takes place on decadal timescales retreat of the grounding line and adjustment of grounded ice takes place on a much longer timescale and the system takes several centuries to reach a new steady state during this slow retreat and in the absence of either an upward or downward sloping bed or long term trends in ocean heat content the ice shelf and melt rates maintain a characteristic pattern relative to the grounding line

turbulent plumes from a glacier terminus melting in a stratified ocean the melting of submerged faces of marine terminating glaciers is a key contributor to the glacial mass budget via direct thermodynamic ablation and the impact of ablation on calving this study considers the behavior of turbulent plumes of buoyant meltwater in a stratified ocean generated by melting of either near vertical calving faces or sloping ice shelves we build insight by applying a turbulent plume model to describe melting of a locally planar region of ice face in a linearly stratified ocean in a regime where subglacial discharge is insignificant the plumes rise until becoming neutrally buoyant before intruding into the ocean background for strong stratifications we obtain leading order scaling laws for the flow including the height reached by the plume before intrusion and the melt rate expressed in terms of the background ocean temperature and salinity stratifications these scaling laws provide a new perspective for parameterizing glacial melting in response to a piecewise linear discretization of the ocean stratification

freshwater outbursts to the oceans from glacial lake agassiz and their role in climate change during the last deglaciation abstract lake agassiz was the largest lake in north america during the last deglaciation as the laurentide ice sheet lis retreated large volumes of water stored in this proglacial lake were episodically released into the oceans these waters were variably routed to the gulf of mexico arctic ocean north atlantic ocean and hudson bay during this period the three largest cooling events in the northern hemisphere closely followed 4 of the 5 largest outbursts from lake agassiz 1 the younger dryas which was preceded by a release of 9500 km 3 2 the preboreal oscillation preceded by releases of 9300 km 3 and 5900 km 3 and 3 the 8 2 ka cold event preceded by a 163 000 km 3 outburst these are respectively fluxes of 0 30 sv 0 29 sv 0 19 sv and 5 2 sv if released in 1 year because the influx of freshwater reaching the north atlantic ocean can inhibit thermohaline circulation partly depending on whether the ocean was in a glacial interglacial or transitional mode of circulation we believe that at least these large outbursts from lake agassiz may have provided the triggers for changes in ocean circulation and in turn for widespread climate change

interannual variations in meltwater input to the southern ocean from antarctic ice shelves ocean driven basal melting of antarctica s floating ice shelves accounts for about half of their mass loss in steady state where gains in ice shelf mass are balanced by losses ice shelf thickness changes driven by varying basal melt rates modulate mass loss from the grounded ice sheet and its contribution to sea level and the changing meltwater fluxes influence climate processes in the southern ocean existing continent wide melt rate datasets have no temporal variability introducing uncertainties in sea level and climate projections here we combine surface height data from satellite radar altimeters with satellite derived ice velocities and a new model of firn layer evolution to generate a high resolution map of time averaged 2010 2018 basal melt rates and time series 1994 2018 of meltwater fluxes for most ice shelves total basal meltwater flux in 1994 1090 150 gt yr was not significantly different from the steady state value 1100 60 gt yr but increased to 1570 140 gt yr in 2009 followed by a decline to 1160 150 gt yr in 2018 for the four largest cold water ice shelves we partition meltwater fluxes into deep and shallow sources to reveal distinct signatures of temporal variability providing insights into climate forcing of basal melting and the impact of this melting on the southern ocean

how ice shelf morphology controls basal melting 1 the response of ice shelf basal melting to climate is a function of ocean temperature circulation and mixing in the open ocean and the coupling of this external forcing to the sub ice shelf circulation because slope strongly influences the properties of buoyancy driven flow near the ice shelf base ice shelf morphology plays a critical role in linking external subsurface heat sources to the ice in this paper the slope driven dynamic control of local and area integrated melting rates is examined under a wide range of ocean temperatures and ice shelf shapes with an emphasis on smaller steeper ice shelves a 3 d numerical ocean model is used to simulate the circulation underneath five idealized ice shelves forced with subsurface ocean temperatures ranging from 2 0 c to 1 5 c in the sub ice shelf mixed layer three spatially distinct dynamic regimes are present entrainment of heat occurs predominately under deeper sections of the ice shelf local and area integrated melting rates are most sensitive to changes in slope in this initiation region some entrained heat is advected upslope and used to melt ice in the maintenance region however flow convergence in the outflow region limits heat loss in flatter portions of the ice shelf heat flux to the ice exhibits 1 a spatially nonuniform superlinear dependence on slope and 2 a shape and temperature dependent internally controlled efficiency because the efficiency of heat flux through the mixed layer decreases with increasing ocean temperature numerical simulations diverge from a simple quadratic scaling law

paleohydraulics of the last outburst flood from glacial lake agassiz and the 8200 bp cold event abstract during the last deglaciation of north america huge proglacial lakes formed along the southern margin of the laurentide ice sheet the largest of these was glacial lake agassiz which formed about 11 7 14 c kyr and drained into hudson bay about 7 7 14 c kyr 8 45 cal kyr overflow from these lakes was variably directed to the mississippi st lawrence and mackenzie drainage systems and it is thought that switches in routing were accompanied by a response in ocean circulation that produced abrupt climate events when the ice dam across hudson bay finally was breached a massive flood drained lake agassiz which was routed through hudson strait to the labrador sea in terms of stored water volume the largest reservoir was associated with the kinojevis level of lake agassiz for this maximum filling the impounded water volume available to produce floods is estimated as 40 000 151 000 km 3 depending on the location of the ice margin and route used the timing of this rapid release of stored freshwater just precedes the early holocene cooling event at 8 2 cal kyr bp we use the spring hutter theory to simulate flood hydrographs for floods that originate in subglacial drainage conduits and find that flood magnitude and duration are 5 sv and 0 5 yr multiple fillings and floods are possible as are single floods having a complex multipulse structure modelling results suggest that the outburst flood from lake agassiz may have terminated before the lake surface elevation dropped to sea level and that the flood ended when a stable drainage channel was established connecting lake agassiz to the tyrrell sea

a one dimensional model of ice shelf ocean interaction large scale oceanic circulation beneath antarctic ice shelves is driven by the thenmohaline differences which result from mass and energy exchange at the ice ocean interface dense saline waters are drawn underneath the ice shelves and emerge cooled and diluted as plumes of ice shelf water a simple one dimensional model of this process has been developed in which the ice shelf water plume is treated as a turbulent gravity current initiated at the inland margin by a flow of fresh meltwater emerging from beneath the grounded ice subsequent evolution of the plume as it ascends along an ice shelf base of specified geometry can be simulated the model has been applied to a flow line on ronne ice shelf antarctica to explain the observed distribution and rate of basal melting and freezing calculations indicate that the present mean melt rate of 0 6 m yr 1 would increase to 2 6 m yr 1 if the underlying water were to warm by 0 6 c this would not only lead to significant thinning of the ice shelf but could also cause a profound change in ocean circulation on the open continental shelf

melting and refreezing beneath roi baudouin ice shelf east antarctica inferred from radar gps and ice core data indicate that this reflector pattern is best fit by including basal melting of at least 15 cm a 1 this rate of melting is low compared with rates observed on larger ice shelves in both west and east antarctica ice cores extracted from a rift system close to the ice rise promontory show several meters of marine ice accreted beneath the shelf these observations of low rates of basal melting and limited distribution of accreted marine ice suggest that either antarctic surface water may reach the ice shelf base or that circulation beneath the shelf is likely dominated by the production of high salinity shelf water rather than the incursion of circumpolar deep water implying a weak sub shelf circulation system here many of the ice shelves located along the coast of dronning maud land are like roi baudouin ice shelf characterized by frequent ice rises and promontories therefore it is highly likely that these are also of shallow bathymetry and are subject to similarly weak side shelf basal melting and refreezing

a regional 8200 cal yr bp cooling event in northwest europe induced by final stages of the laurentide ice sheet deglaciation the most notable change in 18o in greenland ice cores during the holocene occurs at 8200 cal yr bp here we present a new high resolution marine record from the northern north sea along with tree ring data from germany which contain evidence of a pronounced temperature drop 2 c contemporaneous with that of the greenland ice core records the synchronous timing of the cooling event in the greenland ice cores marine record and tree ring data from northwest europe reflects a regional influence on the north atlantic ocean atmospheric system suggesting a prominent role of the north atlantic thermohaline circulation the operation of the north atlantic ocean circulation is sensitive to variation in the freshwater budget implying that any change in freshwater flux is capable of altering the north atlantic circulation system we hypothesise minor but long term freshwater fluxes in the final stages of the deglaciation of the laurentide ice sheet as a forcing mechanism 1998 john wiley sons ltd

correction of in situ cosmogenic nuclide production rates for geomagnetic field intensity variations during the past 800 000 years we present integrated relative production rates for cosmogenic nuclides in rock surfaces which take into account reported variations of the geomagnetic field intensity during the past 800 000 yr the calculations are based on the model simulating cosmic ray particle interactions with the earth s atmosphere given by masarik and beer simulation of particle fluxes and cosmogenic nuclide production in the earth s atmosphere j geophys res 104 d10 12099 12111 1999 corrections are nearly independent on altitude between sea level and at least 5000 m the correction factors are essentially identical for all stable and radioactive cosmogenic nuclides with half lives longer than a few hundred thousand years at the equator integrated production rates for exposure ages between 40 000 to 800 000 yr are 10 to 12 higher than the present day values whereas at latitudes 40 geomagnetic field intensity variations have hardly influenced in situ cosmogenic nuclide production correction factors for in situ 14c production rates differ from those of longer lived nuclides they are always smaller than 2 because the magnetic field intensity remained rather constant during the past 10 kyr when the major fraction of the 14c extant today was produced

a new approach to calculating holocene winter precipitation by combining glacier equilibrium line altitudes and pine tree limits a case stud from hardangerjokulen central southern norway at hardangerjokulen central southern norway detailed knowledge of the number age and magnitude of holocene glacier fluctuations is used to reconstruct variations in equilibrium line altitude ela for the last 10 000 years present and past elas are based on an accumulation area ratio aar of 0 7 and are adjusted for land uplift a synchronous relationship between advanced glacier positions and the highest pine tree limits pinus sylvestris l is demonstrated for the early to mid holocene in southern scandinavia which indicates that warm summers were compensated for by high winter precipitation based on pine tree limit fluctuations as a measure of mean ablation season temperature holocene variations in winter precipitation at hardangerjokulen have been calculated by substitution in the close exponential relationship between mean ablation season temperature and winter precipitation at the ela of norwegian glaciers setting the winter precipitation during the period ad 1961 1990 at 100 mean values

ice ocean interaction on ronne ice shelf antarctica detailed glaciological studies have been completed at 28 sites lying on an approximate flow line extending 760 km across ronne ice shelf parameters measured at each location include ice velocity thickness principal strain rates surface elevation temperature and accumulation rate the data have been used in a steady state model to derive the basal mass flux and the temperature profile with depth at each site from the principles of mass and energy conservation these calculations indicate basal melting in excess of 1 m yr 1 over the first 100 km of the flow line downstream of the grounding line where the ice shelf is between 1200 m and 1600 m thick the maximum melt rates in this region occur near the inland margin and exceed 4 m yr 1 melting continues at a lesser rate over the next 200 km before freezing commences freezing then dominates up to the final 100 km before the ice front resulting in the accumulation of a layer of basal sea ice up to 50 m thick this is rapidly removed as melt rates increase to over 6 m yr 1 at the ice front the cumulative effect of this pattern of basal accumulation and ablation is the wastage by melting of 85 of the mass discharged across the grounding line before it reaches the ice front supporting evidence for a layer of saline ice underlying the ice shelf is provided by the strength of basal radar reflections observed during radio echo sounding of ice thickness in the region where mass balance calculations suggest an accretion of basal sea ice reflection coefficients are consistently low ranging from 6 db to 38 db most of these weak reflections are believed to originate from the true base of the ice shelf the additional energy loss being the result of increased attenuation of the radar signal within the saline layer the derived pattern of basal melting and freezing is consistent with a simple model of sub ice shelf oceanic circulation involving a deep thermohaline convection cell dense saline water which is formed over the continental shelf during winter when the sea surface freezes drains into the deepest parts of the sub ice shelf cavity at the inland margin where this water mass comes into contact with the ice shelf its temperature is 1 c above the local pressure freezing point melting of ice results producing a buoyant outflow of cold relatively fresh water along the ice shelf base basal freezing occurs towards the ice front where the ascending water becomes supercooled this circulation has important implications for the production of antarctic bottom water and for the response of the ice shelf to driving stresses through the temperature dependent viscosity of ice

observations of the internal tide and associated mixing across the malin shelf 1 an energetic internal tide was observed at two contrasting shelf continental sites to the west of scotland the first site was 5 km shoreward of the continental shelf break and the second was 45 km directly to the east of the first site each site was instrumented with a seabed mounted acoustic doppler current profiler and thermistor chain for a 2 week period in july 1996 when thermal stratification was well developed in addition to the measurements of the evolution of the water column structure and flow field two series of measurements of the rate of dissipation of turbulent kinetic energy were made at each of the sites the barotropic tide was found to contain an unusually strong diurnal component thought to be due to a coastally trapped wave as a result there is a significant diurnal component to the baroclinic energy spectra significant peaks are also present in the baroclinic energy spectra at interaction frequencies between the main semidiurnal m2 and diurnal k1 tidal constituents at both sites observations of profiles of the rate of dissipation of turbulent kinetic energy show a significant proportion of the measured rate of dissipation took place within the thermocline close to the shelf edge detailed observations of a hydraulic jump and nonlinear internal waves are analyzed to show significantly stronger mixing at this site characterized by diffusion coefficients of 1 6 and 6 1 10 4 m2 s 1 than at the site farther onshore where the diffusion coefficient is estimated to be 0 7 10 4 m2 s 1

climate at the equilibrium line of glaciers the relationships between temperature precipitation and radiation on glacier equilibrium lines are investigated using 70 glaciers for which the mass balance and meteorological observations have been carried out for sufficiently long periods it is found that the characteristic climate at glacier equilibrium lines can be described using the summer 3 months temperature in a free atmosphere annual total precipitation and the sum of global and long wave net radiation all of these are measured at or very near the equilibrium line altitudes then it is shown how the shift of the equilibriumline will occur as a result of a climatic change finally the effect of the shift of the equilibrium line on the annualmean specific mass balance is analytically derived and compared with observations the present results make it possible to identify the altitudes in climate models where glacierization should begin and to evaluate the mass balance changes as a result of possible future changes in the climate

centennial scale climate cooling with a sudden cold event around 8 200 years ago the extent of climate variability during the current interglacial period the holocene is still debated temperature records derived from central greenland ice cores show one significant temperature anomaly between 8 200 and 8 100 years ago which is often attributed to a meltwater outflow into the north atlantic ocean and a slowdown of north atlantic deep water formation this anomaly provides an opportunity to study such processes with relevance to present day freshening of the north atlantic anomalies in climate proxy records from locations around the globe are often correlated with this sharp event in greenland but the anomalies in many of these records span 400 to 600 years start from about 8 600 years ago and form part of a repeating pattern within the holocene more sudden climate changes around 8 200 years ago appear superimposed on this longer term cooling the compounded nature of the signals implies that far field climate anomalies around 8 200 years ago cannot be used in a straightforward manner to assess the impact of a slowdown of north atlantic deep water formation and the geographical extent of the rapid cooling event 8 200 years ago remains to be determined

energetics and spatio temporal variability of semidiurnal internal tides in the bay of bengal and andaman sea abstract energetics of semidiurnal barotropic and internal tides in the bay of bengal bob and andaman sea as are studied using the simulations from a high resolution ocean general circulation model barotropic m 2 tide which is the largest tidal constituent in this region loses about 65 5 gw of energy in the bob and as most of this barotropic energy 46 5 gw is dissipated by means of bottom friction in the shallow regions such as the head of the bay and the gulf of martaban due to the interaction of barotropic tides with bottom topography about one third of the barotropic m 2 energy 19 1 gw gets converted into internal tides and most of this conversion 84 occurs over the andaman nicobar an ridge on the contrary to the estimates in earlier studies our results show that a large part 59 of this internal tide energy in the bob and as gets dissipated far away from the generation sites compared to the bob energy dissipation rates are found to be large over the entire as and it could result in enhanced vertical mixing in this region further analysis of the temporal variability of conversion within the model domain shows that energy conversion in the semidiurnal band varies between 11 to 27 gw over a spring neap cycle seasonal variability in the stratification due to river runoff significantly changes the conversion of tidal energy at the generation sites in the northern bob and as our study revealed that westward radiating internal tides from an ridge undergo path alteration refraction due to the time varying mesoscale circulation and such path alterations cause large intraseasonal variability in internal tide activity and redistribution of internal tide energy available for mixing in the remote areas such as the continental margins of the western bob

synchronous holocene climatic oscillations recorded on the swiss plateau and at timberline in the alps eight synchronous pre roman cold phases were found at 9600 9200 8600 8150 7550 6900 6600 6200 5350 4900 4600 4400 3500 3200 and 2600 2350 radiocarbon years bp by reconstructing past climate at two sites on the swiss plateau and at timberline in the alps the cooling events during the early and mid holocene represent temperature values similar to today and apparently the onset of cooling events represents a deviation from today s mean annual temperature of about 1 c and is triggered at a 1000 year periodicity at wallisellen langachermoos 440 m a former oligotrophic lake near zurich the correlation between sum mertime lake levels and the seed production of the amphi atlantic aquatic plantnajas flexilis was used to reconstruct lake levels over a 3000 year period during the first part of the holocene at lake seedorf on the western swiss plateau 609 m the sedimentological palynological and macrofossil record revealed fluctuations of lake levels for the complete holocene from lago basso in the

posteruption glacier development within the crater of mount st helens washington usa the cataclysmic eruption of mount st helens on may 18 1980 resulted in a large north facing amphitheater with a steep headwall rising 700 m above the crater floor in this deeply shaded niche a glacier here named the amphitheater glacier has formed tongues of ice containing crevasses extend from the main ice mass around both the east and the west sides of the lava dome that occupies the center of the crater floor aerial photographs taken in september 1996 reveal a small glacier in the southwest portion of the amphitheater containing several crevasses and a bergschrund like feature at its head the extent of the glacier at this time is probably about 0 1 km2 by september 2001 the debris laden glacier had grown to about 1 km2 in area with a maximum thickness of about 200 m and contained an estimated 120 000 000 m3 of ice and rock debris approximately one third of the volume of the glacier is thought to be rock debris derived mainly from rock avalanches from the surrounding amphitheater walls the newly formed amphitheater glacier is not only the largest glacier on mount st helens but its aerial extent exceeds that of all other remaining glaciers combined

the lacustrine sedimentary sequence in sygneskardvatnet western norway a continuous high resolution record of the jostedalsbreen ice cap during the holocene abstract two lacustrine sediment cores from sygneskardvatnet sunndalen confirm that at least the northern part of the jostedalsbreen ice cap melted away during the atlantic chronozone between 6475 and 5300 14 c yr bp 7340 and 6150 cal bp possibly interrupted for short intervals of glacier activity around 6000 and 5800 14 c yr bp 6900 and 6700 cal bp prior to this periods of glacier expansion culminated at ca 8500 8400 8200 7750 7600 and 7400 cal bp the 8400 8200 cal bp advances are correlated with the widespread 8200 event finse event recorded in greenland ice cores lacustrine and proglacial sites and marine sediments during the early part of the holocene periods of glacier contraction culminated at ca 8450 8300 7900 7500 and 6250 cal bp of which the last represents climatic optimum conditions lowest supply of minerogenic sediments and or highest organic production the sedimentary record also shows that the ice cap has existed continuously since 5300 14 c yr bp 6150 cal bp neoglaciation involved three main phases 1 6150 4500 cal bp 2 4500 2700 cal bp 3 2700 cal bp to the present and a series of low amplitude glacier advances which occurred at 6000 5800 5700 5600 5500 5200 5100 4900 4800 4700 4550 4450 4300 4200 4150 4050 4000 3900 3800 3550 3300 2550 2450 2350 2250 2150 2000 1800 1700 1600 1400 1300 1150 1050 and the 1000 cal bp including the little ice age loss on ignition analyses indicate however that episodes of less glacier activity occurred during the mid and late holocene at around 5900 5800 5550 5450 5300 5050 4850 4750 4500 4400 4100 3950 3700 3450 3100 2650 2500 2400 2300 2200 1850 1700 1550 1350 1250 1050 1000 cal bp and during the twentieth century altogether the lacustrine record from sygneskardvatnet indicates that the holocene has been interrupted by 41 periods of increased glacier activity mean return period of ca 150 years and by 36 events of glacier contraction mean return period of 210 years spectral analysis of the loi data show peaks at periods of about 50 85 110 250 285 500 and 2000 calendar years the mean time resolution in core sygneskardvatnet 2 is ca 20 yr cm 1 while the mean sedimentation rate is 0 5 mm yr 1

holocene glacier variations in central jotunheimen southern norway based on distal glaciolacustrine sediment cores abstract sediment cores from two glacier fed lakes are used to reconstruct a continuous record of glacier variations since about 10 000 cal bp in the smorstabbtinden massif of central jotunheimen southern norway particular attention is paid to the century to millennial scale pre little ice age glacial signal based on an estimated temporal resolution of 55 and 25 yr cm 1 for bovertunsvatnet and dalsvatnet respectively visible lithostratigraphic variations organic content loss on ignition calcium carbonate content magnetic susceptibility and grain size fractions especially the fine silt are used as proxy indicators of glacier presence and extent in the lake catchments following deglaciation the early holocene was characterized by generally small glaciers until a major advance the finse event peaking at approximately 8200 cal bp from 7900 to at least 5300 cal bp glaciers appear to have been absent from central jotunheimen there is evidence of glacier expansion between about 2400 and 1600 cal bp the bovertun i event and between about 1400 and 800 cal bp the bovertun ii event before reduced glacier extent during the mediaeval warm period finally the most extensive neoglacial maximum occurred during the little ice age after 500 cal bp in addition to providing a record of the broad pattern of climatically forced holocene glacier variations periodicities at 110 140 200 285 and about 500 yr have been identified uncertainties remain concerning the precise timing of events glacierization and deglacierization detection thresholds a possible mid to late holocene 5300 2500 cal bp neoglacial build up of small glaciers and shorter term decadal to century scale variations in glacier size for which more proximal sites are required

a high resolution study of holocene paleoclimatic and paleoceanographic changes in the nordic seas 1 high resolution records from images core md95 2011 in the eastern norwegian sea provide evidence for relatively large and small scale high latitude climate variability throughout the holocene during the early and mid holocene a situation possibly driven by consistent stronger westerlies increased the eastward influence of arctic intermediate and near surface waters for the late holocene a relaxation of the atmospheric forcing resulted in increased influence of atlantic water the main changes in holocene climate show no obvious connection to changing solar irradiance and spectral analysis reveals no consistent signature for any periodic behavior of holocene climate at millennial or centennial timescales there are however indications of consistent multidecadal variability

internal tide generation by seamounts ridges and islands a numerical investigation is made into the generation of semidiurnal internal tides by tidal flow over steep topographic features in the deep ocean a fully three dimensional free surface nonlinear hydrostatic model the princeton ocean model is used with real stratification representative tidal forcing and gaussian shaped seamounts ridges and islands for the topography the efficiencies of the different topographies in extracting energy from the barotropic tide and in generating an internal tide are considered each topography produces an internal tide characterized by signals propagating away from the feature as beams that follow internal wave characteristic paths the strength of the signals however varies markedly for different topographies this is largely attributed to the way in which the barotropic tide interacts with the three dimensional topography internal wave generation requires a significant vertical displacement of stratified water by the barotropic tide as it flows over topography it is found that for symmetric seamounts and islands the barotropic flow tends to go around the feature producing only a weak internal tide when elongated into a ridge barotropic flow is forced across isobaths generating an energetic internal tide changing the horizontal aspect ratio of the topography from 1 1 a seamount to 3 1 a ridge increases the resulting baroclinic energy flux by nearly an order of magnitude the slope of the topography relative to that of the internal wave characteristics is also shown to be important with strongest generation occurring at regions of critical or supercritical topographic slope

notes on southern ocean hydrography sea ice and bottom water formation abstract the southern ocean circulation and sea ice distribution is briefly described the formation of extremely cold bottom water in the weddell sea and its relation to the floating ronne filchner ice shelves is discussed it is shown that a concentrated swift eroding bottom current with anomalous low 18 o ratio transports the cold and dense ice shelf water from the shelf towards large depths comments are made on possible implications of this process for the large scale deep water circulation and for the interpretation of sediment cores

time scale for adjustment of glaciers to changes in mass balance the length of time tm over which a glacier responds to a prior change in climate is investigated with reference to the linearized theory of kinematic waves and to results from numerical models we show the following tm may in general be estimated by a volume time scale describing the time required for a step change in mass balance to supply the volume difference between the initial and final steady states the factor f in the classical estimate of m l u where i is glacier length and u is terminus velocity has a simple geometrical interpretation ft is the ratio of thickness change averaged over the full length i to the change at the terminus although both u and f relate to dynamic processes local to the terminus zone the ratio f u and therefore tm are insensitive to details of the terminus dynamics in contrast to conclusions derived from some simplified kinematic wave models a more robust estimate of tm independent of terminus dynamics is given by tm h b where h is a thickness scale for the glacier and b is the mass balance rate negative at the terminus we suggest that tm for mountain glaciers can be substantially less than the 1o2 103 years commonly considered to be theoretically expected

oxygen 18 and helium as tracers of ice shelf water and water ice interaction in the weddell sea oxygen 18 and helium isotope data from stations located in the filchner depression on the continental slope of the southern weddell sea and in the central weddell sea are presented and discussed the 18o and 4he signals imprinted on the water circulating under the filchner ronne ice shelf ice shelf water or isw due to melting of glacial ice at the base of the ice shelf are traced across the sill separating the filchner depression from the weddell sea low 18o values are correlated with high 4he concentrations in the isw found in the filchner depression minimum 18o values 0 8 maximum 4he concentrations about 4 7 10 8 cm3 stp g 1 the fraction of glacial meltwater contained in the isw found in the filchner depression is estimated to about 6 to 7 the 18o and helium isotope data from the overflowing shelf water component observed on the continental slope confirm the hypothesis that isw contributes significantly to the weddell sea bottom water wsbw on the basis of a inultiparameter water mass analysis it is discussed which fraction of the wsbw originates from isw and which other shelf waters potentially could contribute to wsbw

early holocene glacier advance southern coast mountains british columbia canada abstract terrestrial and lake sediment records from several sites in the southern coast mountains british columbia provide evidence for an advance of alpine glaciers during the early holocene silty intervals within organic sediments recovered from two proglacial lakes are bracketed by ams 14 c dated terrestrial macrofossils and mazama tephra to 8780 6730 and 7940 6730 14 c yr bp 10 150 7510 and 8990 7510 cal yr bp radiocarbon ages ranging from 7720 to 7380 14 c yr bp 8630 8020 cal yr bp were obtained from detrital wood in recently deglaciated forefields of sphinx and sentinel glaciers these data together with previously published data from proglacial lakes in the canadian rockies imply that glaciers in western canada advanced during the early holocene the advance coincides with the well documented 8200 yr cold event identified in climate proxy data sets in the north atlantic region and elsewhere

the alps with little ice evidence for eight holocene phases of reduced glacier extent in the central swiss alps glacially deformed pieces of wood organic lake sediments and clasts of reworked peat have been collected in front of alpine glaciers since ad 1990 the palaeoglaciological interpretation of these organic materials is related to earlier phases of glacier recession surpassing that of today s shrunken glaciers and to tree growth and peat accumulation in the valleys now occupied by the glaciers glacial transport of the material is indicated by wood anatomy incorporated silt sand and gravel particles missing bark and deformed treerings a total of 65 samples have been radiocarbon dated so far and clusters of dates provide evidence of eight phases of glacier recession 9910 9550 9010 7980 7250 6500 6170 5950 5290 3870 3640 3360 2740 2620 and 1530 1170 calibrated years bp allowing for the timelag between climatic fluctuations glacier response and vegetation colonization these recession phases may lag behind climatic changes by 100 200 years

observations of mixed layer deepening during an antarctic gale 1 observations of mixed layer deepening made during a gale in february 2005 near an ice shelf fimbulisen antarctica are reported the observations were made from the rrs james clark ross in the lee of the ice shelf using repeated downcasts yo yo of a conductivity temperature depth package together with shipboard meteorological and other measurements the mixed layer deepened from less than 40 m to over 120 m over the course of 27 h with a very rapid deepening from 80 m to 120 m over a period of under 11 h the mixed layer became both colder and fresher with the change in salinity and heat content likely to be caused by melting ice oxygen isotope results suggest the source of the fresh water was melting sea ice rather than precipitation or ice shelf melt the input of melt water at the surface stabilizes the mixed layer so extra energy is required to deepen the mixed layer the observations suggest that approximately 1 8 of the available wind work energy was used to mix the upper water column while the stabilizing surface buoyancy flux inhibits the turbulence in the mixed layer limiting the mixing length to 1 6 m the eventual depth of the mixed layer is in line with estimates based on the planetary length scale u f the rate of mixed layer deepening is given by ue u 0 035 the apparent peak ice melting rate was approximately 60 mm hr 1 although this is likely to be exaggerated by convergence and downwelling

holocene glacier variations of blaisen hardangerjokulen central southern norway abstract a 1 m deep gully section 460 m beyond the maximum little ice age marginal moraines of blaisen hardangerjokulen central southern norway revealed alternations of minerogenic and organic sediments the geographical geological settings of the dated section provides a unique on off signal of holocene glacier fluctuations of blaisen lithostratigraphy sediment characteristics and radiocarbon dates from the study section indicate one period of glacier re advance between the late preboreal deglaciation of the inland ice sheet and 8660 100 yr b p a grey sand layer 56 57 cm below the surface is interpreted to be of fluvial colluvial origin and is radiocarbon dated to about 7700 yr b p at 48 cm below the surface a bluish grey sand silt layer is radiocarbon dated to 7590 12 yr b p 6560 6240 b c and interpreted to be glaciofluvial origin a minor glacier oscillation postdates 1130 70 yr b p 810 990 a d the medieval little ice age glacier advance of blaisen beyond its modern extent occurred after 1040 60 yr b p 960 1030 a d calculations of the modern and little ice age equilibrium line altitudes elas on hardangerjokulen suggest an ela depression of ca 130 m during the little ice age maximum