the interrelation of glaciotectonic and glaciodepositional processes within the glacial environment abstract in recent years it has been recognised that ice sediment coupling occurred beneath the quaternary ice sheets that advanced over the soft sediments of lowland areas this paper looks in detail at the effects of this coupling on the sediments which results in glaciotectonic deformation and also discusses the interaction of deformation and deposition within the subglacial environment two types of glaciotectonic deformation are discussed that are produced by the active movement of ice 1 proglacial tectonics at the margin which include compressive fold styles such as listric thrusts and faults and open folding 2 subglacial tectonics formed beneath the glacier which include fold styles resulting from simple shear and represent a soft rock purely dynamic shear zone styles of deformation associated with stagnant ice are also investigated we argue that glaciotectonic deformation is a common phenomenon and an integral part of geological record from continental ice sheets it is suggested that zones of deformation within the sediment are related to similar zones of strain in the ice sheet and complex deformation sequences are produced by the superimposition of these differing styles upon one another as the ice sheet advances and retreats it is also argued that subglacial deposition and deformation are related and that on soft beds underformed till is rare whilst deformed till is very common

the internal sediment architecture of a drumlin port byron new york state usa abstract an exposure within the central portion of a large drumlin at port byron new york state usa part of the large new york drumlin field reveals a sequence of steeply dipping cemented sands and gravels of proglacial ice contact deltaic origin overlain by a thin till veneer the sands and gravels appear to have been deposited within the proximal proglacial environment during a late retreat phase of the laurentide ice sheet sometime prior to being overridden by subsequent ice and drumlinized during deposition of the ice contact delta escaping subglacial regelation meltwater permeated the proximal deltaic sediment pile and calcium carbonate was released in a series of pulses to form pore occluding calcite cement within the sand and gravel porespaces the calcium carbonate precipitated into the sands and gravels due to a reduction in hydrostatic pressure and co2 outgassing of the meltwater as it exited from beneath the ice sheet once cemented these deltaic sediments were considerably stronger and acted afterward as an obstacle around which the future ice advance streamed and in turn produced the characteristic drumlin shape in overriding the ice contact deltaic sediments the ice sheet emplaced a thin layer of till which exhibits syndepositional deformation features indicative of being emplaced as a deforming bed layer beneath the advancing ice sheet micromorphological analysis of the overlying till shows that no interstitial or intraclastic calcite occurs within the till

distributed shear of subglacial till due to coulomb slip in most models of the flow of glaciers on till beds it has been assumed that till behaves as a viscoplastic fluid despite contradictory evidence from laboratory studies in accord with this assumption displacement profiles measured in subglacial till have been fitted with viscoplastic models by estimating the stress distribution here we present a model that illustrates how observed displacement profiles can result from till deformation resisted solely by coulomb friction motion in the till bed is assumed to be driven by brief departures from static equilibrium caused by fluctuations in effective normal stress these fluctuations result from chains of particles that support intergranular forces that are higher than average and that form and fail at various depths in the bed during shearing newton s second law is used to calculate displacements along slip planes and the depth to which deformation extends in the bed consequent displacement profiles are convex upward similar to those measured by boulton and colleagues at breidamerkur jokull iceland the model results when considered together with the long term and widespread empirical support for coulomb models in soils engineering indicate that efforts to fit viscoplastic flow models to till displacement profiles may be misguided

drumlins carved by deforming till streams below the laurentide ice sheet the peterborough drumlin field 5000 km 2 is the largest in central canada and was formed during readvance of the laurentide ice sheet shortly after 13 000 b p morphometric analysis of 998 drumlins combined with study of 6921 borehole logs and downhole geophysical data has established the distribution of drumlin types and their stratigraphy along a 70 km flow line through the drumlin field in the north drumlins are spindle shaped composed of till resting directly on bedrock and were formed by deformation of till into low pressure zones in the lee of bedrock scarps eskers record subglacial drainage by channeled meltwaters flowing on bedrock to the south drift thickness increases and eskers are absent drumlins are larger and more ovoid and are composed of overridden proglacial and glaciolacustrine sediments overlain erosively by deformation till till is thin over drumlin crests and thick in interdrumlin swales and records subglacial cannibalization and mixing of overridden sediments the drumlin form is the product of erosion by streams of deforming till flowing in swales separating cores composed of older sediments systematic down field changes in drumlin shape and size can be related to decreased duration of subglacial deformation toward the limit of the readvance and increased thickness of preexisting sediments available for dissection by subglacial till streams absence of eskers in the central and southern parts of the drumlin field suggests that the ice base was drained by mass flow of the deforming substrate the substantial subsurface data available from the peterborough area indicate that drumlins are predominantly erosional in origin and are the geomorphological expression of a deforming subglacial bed below the margin of the laurentide ice sheet

precrags and drumlin fields in finland abstract the paper deals with radially oriented moraine ridges precrags and other drumlins in finland their distribution and location in relation to ice lobes local topography and bedrock structure emphasis is given to precrag ridges whose occurrence in southwestern finland was only recently established as a result of more detailed quaternary geological mapping 1 20 000 and 1 100 000 the short review of drumlins is based both on recent drumlin studies and on those undertaken during past decades the size and shape of all these streamlined moraine ridges were studied morphologically the internal structure and material of moraines were determined by drilling and sampling in addition to seismic refraction sounding or ground probing radar surveys variations in the size shape and structure of precrags and drumlins are attributed to the dimensions of the moving continental ice mass and glacial activity in different parts of the country the orientation of the precrag ridges and the drumlin fields reflects local ice flow patterns during the late weichselian glaciation the precrag field and southwestern finland is evidently older than the other drumlin fields in finland and does not contain any other streamlined moraine ridges than precrags on the basis of the ice marginal formations and the glacial flow patterns the authors have inferred that the oldest precrag ridges originally developed in a cold based subglacial thermal zone at the time when the margin of the continental ice was probably still in estonia i e almost 200 km to the south the drumlin fields formed again under the warm based part of the ice sheet in a zone that extended for about 20 100 km inwards from the ice margin and situated in the middle of active ice lobes

the morphological characteristics of ribbed moraine abstract ribbed rogen moraines are large subglacially formed transverse ridges that cover extensive areas of the former laurentide scandinavian and irish ice sheets given their ubiquitous and conspicuous nature it is surprising that their characteristics are poorly understood to date most ribbed moraine studies have been spatially restricted and rely on small sample sizes thus published accounts of their characteristics are most likely unrepresentative of ribbed moraines generally this study addresses this deficit by producing the first representative data set on ribbed moraine size shape pattern and distribution and we describe their spatial characteristics various remote sensing and gis techniques were used to map ribbed moraines over a combined area of 81 000 km 2 in canada ireland and sweden producing a database of just over 33 000 individual landforms in all 25 082 ridges were mapped in two areas in central and northern quebec the lac naococane and river kaniapiskau regions 5637 in the lake rogen area of central sweden and 2500 in north central ireland in comparison against the published accounts of ribbed moraine we demonstrate that some widely held assertions are inaccurate or untrue and we show that ribbed moraine morphological characteristics are more complex than has been hitherto reported our data reveals they exist over a larger scale range than was previously stated this study concludes by presenting a list of ribbed moraine characteristics and argues that formational hypotheses must account for these if they are to remain valid explanations of ribbed moraine genesis

uncertainties in antarctic sea ice thickness retrieval from icesat a sensitivity study was carried out for the lowest level elevation method to retrieve total sea ice snow freeboard from ice cloud and land elevation satellite icesat elevation measurements in the weddell sea antarctica varying the percentage p of elevations used to approximate the instantaneous sea surface height can cause widespread changes of a few to 10 cm in the total freeboard obtained other input parameters have a smaller influence on the overall mean total freeboard but can cause large regional differences these results together with published icesat elevation precision and accuracy suggest that three times the mean per gridcell single laser shot error budget can be used as an estimate for freeboard uncertainty theoretical relative ice thickness uncertainty ranges between 20 and 80 for typical freeboard and snow properties ice thickness is computed from total freeboard using advanced microwave scanning radiometer for earth observing system amsr e snow depth data average ice thickness for the weddell sea is 1 73 0 38 m for icesat measurements from 2004 to 2006 in agreement with previous work the mean uncertainty is 0 72 0 09 m our comparison with data of an alternative approach which assumes that sea ice freeboard is zero and that total freeboard equals snow depth reveals an average sea ice thickness difference of 0 77 m

bed ribbing instability explanation testing a numerical model of ribbed moraine formation arising from coupled flow of ice and subglacial sediment 1 ribbed moraines are large up to 16 km long ridges of sediment produced transverse to ice flow direction that formed widely beneath palaeo ice sheets since ice sheet stability is sensitive to conditions operating at the bed an understanding of ribbed moraine genesis will provide critical information on ice sheet dynamics currently there is no consensus on ribbed moraine formation and various competing hypotheses have been presented to account for their genesis only one of these theories has been developed into a physically based numerical model that quantitatively describes ribbed moraine formation this theory known as the bed ribbing instability explanation brie argues that ribbed moraines are produced by a naturally arising instability in the coupled flow of ice and till brie demonstrates that transverse subglacial ridges i e ribbed moraine spontaneously grow under certain parameter combinations and it predicts their wavelength spacing between ridges the model represents a significant advance because it is the first time a theory of subglacial bedform generation has been developed to make quantitative predictions which can be formally tested this paper discusses the types of tests that are currently possible and reports the results from the first testing of brie this analysis centers on the ability of brie to predict the primary characteristics of ribbed moraine which are patterning and wavelength results show that brie successfully predicts the correct ribbed moraine pattern and appropriate wavelengths the tests fail to falsify the model and it is concluded that brie remains a viable explanation of ribbed moraine formation

autumn sea ice thickness ridging and heat flux variability in and adjacent to terra nova bay ross sea antarctica the variability of sea ice thickness and snow depth observed from the r v nathaniel b palmer in late may 1998 in and adjacent to terra nova bay tnb ross sea antarctica is described conductive heat fluxes are estimated on the basis of the observed snow and ice thicknesses there was only 6 areal coverage of open water in tnb and 87 of the areal coverage of unridged ice was 0 3 m thick between the western and eastern margins of tnb there were increases in the area weighted unridged ice thickness 0 05 0 25 m and the areal extent of ridging 2 5 18 5 ridged ice accounted for 44 66 of the total ice mass in tnb and was as vital to thickening the ice cover as it was outside the bay where 30 60 of the total ice mass was contained within the 5 35 of ice that was ridged satellite passive microwave special sensor microwave imager ssm i data show that the extensive ice cover in tnb was normal for this time of year probably because of the blocking effect of thick ridged 100 concentration pack ice outside the bay despite the extensive ice cover in tnb there was an order of magnitude difference in area weighted mean heat flux between the bay and the pack ice for example depending on the choice of bulk snow thermal conductivity value ks 0 14 or 0 31 w m 1 k 1 the heat flux values for unridged ice were 199 or 216 w m 2 in tnb versus 35 or 49 w m 2 on the inbound pack ice leg and 20 or 39 w m 2 on the outbound pack ice leg factoring in the contribution of ridges to the ice thickness distribution decreased the heat flux in the bay and the pack ice by 25 or 36 depending on ks the greatest proportion of the heat flux in tnb occurred through the ice no more than 30 of the heat loss was from open water since the ice conditions observed in tnb were apparently normal for the time of year the heat fluxes also must have been quite normal

thickness distribution of antarctic sea ice 1 ship based observations are used to describe regional and seasonal changes in the thickness distribution and characteristics of sea ice and snow cover thickness around antarctica the data set comprises 23 373 observations collected over more than 2 decades of activity and has been compiled as part of the scientific committee on antarctic research scar antarctic sea ice processes and climate aspect program the results show the seasonal progression of the ice thickness distribution for six regions around the continent together with statistics on the mean thickness surface ridging snow cover and local variability for each region and season a simple ridge model is used to calculate the total ice thickness from the observations of level ice and surface topography to provide a best estimate of the total ice mass including the ridged component the long term mean and standard deviation of total sea ice thickness including ridges is reported as 0 87 0 91 m which is 40 greater than the mean level ice thickness of 0 62 m analysis of the structure function along north south and east west transects revealed lag distances over which sea ice thickness decorrelates to be of the order of 100 300 km which we use as a basis for presenting near continuous maps of sea ice and snow cover thickness plotted on a 2 5 5 0 grid

ross sea ice motion area flux and deformation abstract the sea ice motion area export and deformation of the ross sea ice cover are examined with satellite passive microwave and radarsat observations the record of high resolution synthetic aperture radar sar data from 1998 and 2000 allows the estimation of the variability of ice deformation at the small scale 10 km and to assess the quality of the longer record of passive microwave ice motion daily and subdaily deformation fields and radarsat imagery highlight the variability of motion and deformation in the ross sea with the passive microwave ice motion the area export at a flux gate positioned between cape adare and land bay is estimated between 1992 and 2003 a positive trend can be seen in the winter march november ice area flux that has a mean of 990 103 km2 and ranges from a low of 600 103 km2 in 1992 to a peak of 1600 103 km2 in 2001 in the mean the southern ross sea produces almost twice its own area of sea ice during the winter cross gate sea level pressure slp gra

coastal southern ocean a strong anthropogenic co2 sink 1 large scale estimates of the southern ocean co2 sink do not adequately resolve the fluxes associated with antarctic continental shelves using a mechanistic three dimensional biogeochemical model of the ross sea we show that antarctic shelf waters are a strong sink for co2 due to high biological productivity intense winds high ventilation rates and extensive winter sea ice cover net primary production npp in these waters is 0 055 pg c yr 1 some of this carbon sinks to depth driving an influx of co2 of 20 50 g c m 2 yr 1 although currently unaccounted for the total atmospheric co2 sink on the ross sea continental shelf of 0 013 pg c yr 1 is equivalent to 27 of the most recent estimate of the co2 sink for the entire southern ocean given these results these and other highly productive waters around the antarctic continent need to be included in future budgets of anthropogenic co2

coupled ice till dynamics and the seeding of drumlins and bedrock forms the geomorphological effects of ice sliding over till internal deformation of till and till sliding over bedrock are considered two questions are examined 1 is the till sheet flow unstable i e is a layer of uniform thickness maintained or not and 2 does the slip of till over bedrock cause amplification of relief of the bedrock such instabilities seem to be necessary to explain such features as drumlins and whaleback forms it is found that the answer to 1 and 2 depends on the position of the system in a parameter space defined by the till rheology and applied shear stress the effective pressure at the ice till interface the thickness of ice and till and the wavelength of the instability two configurations are considered one where the wavelength of the perturbation is much less than the the ice thickness which is related to the classical nye kamb solution for flow over bumps and one where the wavelength is much greater than the ice thickness where the mechanics are described by the shallow ice approximation in both cases substantial areas of parameter space where till sheet and bedrock modes are unstable are found the conceptually related smalley unwin bifurcation is re examined the physical mechanisms by which ice and till flows couple are examined at very short wavelengths 10 m the ice is so rigid that it forces till waves to move at the ice velocity while at long wavelengths 1000 m the flows become essentially uncoupled and till waves move at the kinematic velocity at intermediate wavelengths 100 m high growth rates occur this is postulated to be the scale of drumlin seeding

constraining ventilation during deepwater formation using deep ocean measurements of the dissolved gas ratios 40ar 36ar n2 ar and kr ar equilibrium saturation and for d 40 ar a value of 1 188 0 055 relative to air these data are used to constrain high latitude ventilation processes in the framework of three box and seven box ocean models for the three box model tracer data we constrain the appropriate surface area of the high latitude region in both models to be 3 6 2 5 1 7 of ocean surface area and the bubble air injection rate to be 22 7 8 8 7 3 mol air m 2 yr 1 results for the seven box model were similar with a high latitude area of 3 3 2 2 1 3 our results provide geochemical support for suggestions that the effective area of high latitude ventilation is much smaller than the region of elevated preformed nutrients and demonstrate that noble gases strongly constrain the ocean solubility pump reducinghigh latitude surfaceareaweakens theco2solubility pumpintheboxmodels and limits communication between the atmosphere and deep ocean these tracers should be usefulconstraintsonhigh latitudeventilationandthestrengthofthesolubilitypumpinmore complex ocean general circulation models

large multidecadal salinity trends near the pacific antarctic continental margin abstract ocean temperature and salinity measurements on and near the antarctic continental shelf in the southwest pacific sector are evaluated for evidence of temporal change shelf water in the southwest ross sea has declined in salinity by 0 03 decade 1 from 1958 to 2008 while its temperatures have increased in proportion to the influence of salinity on the sea surface freezing point modified deep water intrusions that reach the central ross ice shelf have freshened at a similar rate and cooled by 0 5 c since the late 1970s salinity has decreased by 0 08 decade 1 in the westward coastal and slope front currents consistent with increased melting of continental ice upstream in the amundsen sea overturning of those near surface waters during winter sea ice formation and mixing across the slope front is sufficient to account for the 5 decade shelf water salinity change a strong correlation between the freshening and change in the southern annular mode index suggests a link with the large scale atmosp

roughness variability of sea ice and snow cover thickness profiles in the ross amundsen and bellingshausen seas investigation of top and bottom surface roughness was carried out on snow and ice thickness profiles sampled on 57 floes in the ross amundsen and bellingshausen seas between may and september 1995 an objective classification scheme was used to group the studied sea ice floes according to the degree of deformation they had undergone different roughness criteria and methods were applied to the classified floes roughness variances and other properties such as fractal dimensions derived from fourier spectra depend critically on the deformational history of the floes under consideration the wavelet transform is presented as a new two dimensional method to find dominant structure lengths and at the same time localize them in the studied profiles finally air water and ice surface drag coefficients are calculated from the surface roughness characteristics air drag coefficients ranged between 1 1 and 1 7 103 and increased with increasingly deformed ice

a recount of ross sea waters abstract oceanographic observations within the ross sea have grown dramatically in recent years both in number and quality this has prompted a parallel recount of the circulation and structure of all water masses in the southwestern continental margins of the pacific ocean a high resolution set of horizontal property distributions was combined into a new climatology which in turn is the basis of a fine volumetric s census of all ross sea water masses inshore of the shelf break 700 m isobath the ross sea volume 25 10 4 km 3 partitioning into layers of neutral density n is 25 in the top layer n 3 of antarctic surface water aasw 22 in the middle layer 28 00 kg m 3 n 3 of oceanic thermocline water 12 and modified circumpolar deep water mcdw 10 and 53 in the bottom layer n 28 27 kg m 3 of shelf water sw 1 85 c 22 precursor of the antarctic bottom water aabw offshore aasw flows westward along the outer shelf and southward along the eastern coast past cape colbeck oceanic thermocline waters 28 00 kg m 3 n 3 cross the shelf break west of 170 w and follow southward paths along banks shoaling progressively to near the sea surface of the central and western inner shelves winter buoyancy loss converts aasw and oceanic thermocline water into denser types of mcdw and sw which move cyclonically toward the sills of major troughs the census shows a continuous mode of relatively dense mcdw 28 10 kg m 3 n 3 directly linked to the circumpolar deep water cdw offshore effectively ventilating and freshening the deep ocean at levels below the salinity maximum and above aabw mcdw outflows from the ross sea shelf are traced to the antarctic circumpolar current near 155 e into the australian antarctic basin along the northern flank of the southwest pacific ridge and to near 135 w past the eastern end of the ross gyre two sources of salty sw are inferred near the coastal polynyas in the terra nova bay and western ross ice shelf areas the latter contributes to a major outflow of ice sw that reaches the shelf break along 180 vertical mixing of mcdw and sw produce msw over the shelf continuing over the sills as new aabw export of low salinity aabw s

slope of the geoid spectrum and constraints on mantle viscosity stratification spectral analysis of a recently obtained high resolution tomographic model describing the top 1200 km of the mantle shows a power law dependence on the degree for degrees greater than around 10 the spectrum of recent geoid models is also found to decay in a linear fashion with degree on a log log plot we have employed the logarithmic slope of the geoid between degrees 10 and 25 as a constraint on the viscosity structure of the top 1200 km of the mantle the constraint of fitting the geoid slope represents a new and independent approach to the determination of the upper mantle viscosity structure from conducting over one million runs in a monte carlo inversion we have found that there are basically three families of viscosity which can fit the geoid slope they are 1 with a viscosity hill between 660 and 1000 km 2 with a weak viscosity increase at 660 km and 3 with a significant viscosity increase at depths between 820 and 1000 km below 1000 km the viscosity of the lower mantle for all 3 families is larger than that in the upper mantle these results corroborate the complexity of the mantle viscosity profile between 660 and 1200 km which would have important ramifications on flows between the upper and lower mantle

sliding of till over bedrock scratching polishing comminution and kinematic wave theory the observed ratio of removal of material by i scratches gouged by large clasts and ii polishing by debris suggests that the latter is the dominant form of bedrock erosion we examine this with a multi stage breakdown model of glacial debris which includes active erosion by fines these models suggest that a mother clast can through the action of its daughter debris erode several times its own volume of bedrock till sliding over bedrock is likely to be a potent source of scouring by proposing a till bedrock sliding law we investigate the kinematics of sliding till bodies ice flow naturally tends to thin and extend till cover even in the absence of longitudinal gradients in the applied stress thicker till cover has an increased effective pressure at its base a lower sliding velocity and for larger thicknesses a decrease in sediment flux with thickness this implies backward moving kinematic waves and shocks it is suggested that this is related to the blunt upstream faces of drumlins and that drumlinization can be a consequence of debris sliding over bedrock

on the rheology of till the deformation of subglacial till is instrumental in causing certain glacier surges the motion of rapid ice streams in ice sheets and ice sheet surges which are associated with heinrich events and consequent rapid climatic shifts during the last ice age it may also be the means whereby drumlins are formed and these in turn may act as a brake on large scale ice flow it is therefore important in building models to understand the rate at which till deforms and how this controls the basal ice velocity in recent years two paradigms have emerged on the one hand theoreticians have tended to use a viscous rheology though this lacks quantitative support on the other hand field and laboratory studies suggest that till behaves plastically in this paper i will examine some of the dynamic consequences of this latter assumption and show how the dichotomy between viscous and plastic may be less clearcut than previously thought

drumlin formation related to inverted melt water erosional marks drumlin forms are described from maps and air photographs of a part of the athabasca plains northern saskatchewan three major forms spindle parabolic and transverse asymmetrical are recognized these forms which may show superimposed minor elements depart from classical descriptions of drumlins but are similar to moulds of erosional marks created by separated fluid flows assemblages of drumlins also show characteristics similar to those of erosional marks the form analogy between drumlins and moulds of erosional marks is carried to a conclusion that drumlins may be formed by the infilling of erosional marks created on the under side of glaciers by separated subglacial melt water flows estimates of specific discharge are obtained by means of an expected range of reynolds number geomorphological evidence is given for large scale erosion by subglacial melt water a discussion of the sedimentology stratigraphy and deformational structure of the interiors of drumlins shows that they may be explained by the erosional mark hypothesis this paper emphasizes the importance of melt water as a geomorphic agent and may have broad implications for ice sheet dynamics and profiles rates of deglaciation and the occurrence of bedrock thrusting by ice

physical and biological properties of early winter antarctic sea ice in the ross sea this work presents the results of physical and biological investigations at 27 biogeochemical stations of early winter sea ice in the ross sea during the 2017 pipers cruise only two similar cruises occurred in the past in 1995 and 1998 the year 2017 was a specific year in that ice growth in the central ross sea was considerably delayed compared to previous years these conditions resulted in lower ice thicknesses and chl a burdens as compared to those observed during the previous cruises it also resulted in a different structure of the sympagic algal community unusually dominated by phaeocystis rather than diatoms compared to autumn winter sea ice in the weddell sea awecs cruise the 2017 ross sea pack ice displayed similar thickness distribution but much lower snow cover and therefore nearly no flooding conditions it is shown that contrasted dynamics of autumnal winter sea ice growth between the weddell sea and the ross sea impacted the development of the sympagic community mean median ice chl a concentrations were 3 5 times lower at pipers and the community status there appeared to be more mature decaying based on phaeopigments chl a ratios these contrasts are discussed in the light of temporal and spatial differences between the two cruises

frozen bed fennoscandian and laurentide ice sheets during the last glacial maximum the areal extents of the laurentide and fennoscandian ice sheets during the last glacial maximum about 20 000 years ago are well known1 but thickness estimates range widely from high domed2 to thin3 with large implications for our reconstruction of the climate system regarding for example northern hemisphere atmospheric circulation and global sea levels this uncertainty stems from difficulties in determining the basal temperatures of the ice sheets and the shear strength of subglacial materials4 a knowledge of which would better constrain reconstructions of ice sheet thickness here we show that in the absence of direct data the occurrence of ribbed moraines in modern landscapes can be used to determine the former spatial distribution of frozen and thawed bed conditions we argue that ribbed moraines were formed by brittle fracture of subglacial sediments induced by the excessive stress at the boundary between frozen and thawed bed conditions resulting from the across boundary difference in basal ice velocity maps of glacial landforms from aerial photographs of canada and scandinavia reveal a concentration of ribbed moraines around the ice sheet retreat centres of quebec keewatin newfoundland and west central fennoscandia together with the evidence from relict landscapes that mark glacial areas with frozen bed conditions the distribution of ribbed moraines on both continents suggest that a large area of the laurentide and fennoscandian ice sheets was frozen based and therefore high domed and stable during the last glacial maximum

unprecedented springtime retreat of antarctic sea ice in 2016 during austral spring 2016 antarctic sea ice extent sie decreased at a record rate of 75 103 km2 day 1 which was 46 faster than the mean rate and 18 faster than in any previous spring season during the satellite era the decrease of sea ice area was also exceptional and 28 greater than the mean anomalous negative retreat occurred in all sectors of the antarctic but was greatest in the weddell and ross seas record negative sie anomalies for the day of year were recorded from 3 november 2016 until 9 april 2017 rapid ice retreat in the weddell sea took place in strong northerly flow after an early maximum ice extent in late august rapid ice retreat occurred in november in the ross sea when surface pressure was at a record high level with the southern annular mode at its most negative for that month since 1968

pancake ice formation in the weddell sea 1 the ice formation resulting from two low temperature events at the weddell sea ice edge during april 2000 is presented pancake and frazil ice were sampled at seven stations at varying distances from the ice edge the ice cover was further characterized from above using helicopter aerial photography and from below using a remotely operated vehicle previously undescribed two layer pancake types were observed and classified a novel pancake growth mechanism is introduced to account for these involving the washing of frazil ice over the pancake top surface and its subsequent freezing the process was directly observed in ice tank experiments layer thicknesses seen in the field were compared to the ice growth that would occur both under calm conditions and from free surface frazil ice growth classical bottom accretion pancake growth was found to proceed at a rate similar to that of thin congelation ice top layer growth was more rapid at approximately double the congelation rate overall ice volume production was similar to congelation ice for the thin pancakes considered 20 cm though subsequent thickening was expected to be faster as the rapid top layer process continued and the equivalent congelation growth slowed it is suggested that parameterization of this new process is important for models that aim to simulate the rapid advance and thickening of wave influenced ice covers

physical environment of drumlin formation review of published descriptions of drumlin fields suggests that the following conditions are important to drumlin growth 1 compressive longitudinal and possibly extending transverse strain rates in the ice 2 thin ice such as occurs near the glacier margin and 3 high pore water pressure in the subglacial sediments most drumlin fields display all of these and no fields of well developed drumlins were found that did not on the oilier hand the lithology of drumlin forming sediment appears not to be important in promoting drumlin growth since it varied widely nor are the lithology and large scale topography of the bed

sea ice production and export from coastal polynyas in the weddell and ross seas 1 for 1992 2008 we use data from the special sensor microwave imager ssm i and the advanced microwave scanning radiometer eos amsr e to examine differences in ice production and export in the weddell and ross seas we find that the ross production is three times that in the weddell the ross export twice that in the weddell in the ross the ice production has a statistically significant positive trend of about 21 km3 y 1 and approximately equals the export while in the weddell the production trend is statistically flat and provides only about 60 of the export for each sea comparison of the ice production with the total winter sea ice volume shows that the weddell polynyas produce 5 10 of the total the ross polynyas 20 50 the explanation for these differences is that in the ross the low pressure system is better situated for generation of large polynyas than in the weddell

assessing the paradigm shift deformable glacier beds abstract during the mid 1980s glaciologists recognised that many glaciers and ice masses overlie soft sediments rather than hard bedrock these sediments are typically weaker than glacier ice and may therefore deform this realisation was heralded as a paradigm shift in glaciology since this realisation a wide body of theoretical and field based research has been undertaken to assess the mechanical and hydrological significance of such substrates we review the techniques and results of this work and attempt to assess this paradigm shift in glaciology and in particular its importance for quaternary scientists we suggest areas of research that remain unanswered and identify those in which glacial geology in particular may be able to inform glaciologists

conditions leading to the unprecedented low antarctic sea ice extent during the 2016 austral spring season the 2016 austral spring was characterized by the lowest anomalous southern hemisphere sh sea ice extent seen in the observational record 1979 present and coincided with anomalously warm surface waters surrounding most of antarctica two distinct processes contributed to this event firstly the extreme el nino event peaking in december february djf 2015 16 contributed to pronounced extra tropical sh sea surface temperature and sea ice extent anomalies in the eastern ross amundsen and bellingshausen seas that persisted in part until the following 2016 austral spring secondly internal unforced atmospheric variability of the southern annular mode promoted the exceptional low sea ice extent in november december 2016 these results suggest that a combination of tropically forced and internal sh atmospheric variability contributed to the unprecedented sea ice decline during the 2016 austral spring on top of the slow background changes expected from greenhouse gas and ozone forcing

sea ice transport driving southern ocean salinity and its recent trends the southern ocean has freshened over the past few decades but the underlying mechanisms involved have remained unclear alex haumann and colleagues bring together multiple lines of evidence and despite large uncertainties in the underlying datasets they find that northward transport of sea ice formed around the antarctic coast can explain the bulk of the observed freshening

the stability of a viscous till sheet coupled with ice flow considered at wavelengths less than the ice thickness a turbation method is used to analyse the stability of a thin till layer overlain by a deep ice layer ice is modelled as a linearly viscous fluid while the till viscosity has power law dependence on stress and effective pressure a linearized set of equations yields descriptions of the coupling of the ice flow with the sediment flow and reveals parameter ranges where the till perturbation amplitude can grow this shect flow instability is an essential part of any theory of drumlin formation and shows that viscous models of till have the ability to explain typical deforming bed features this is of great significance for large scale ice shect modelling

estimating the benthic efflux of dissolved iron on the ross sea continental shelf continental margin sediments provide a potentially large but poorly constrained source of dissolved iron dfe to the upper ocean the ross sea continental shelf is one region where this benthic supply is thought to play a key role in regulating the magnitude of seasonal primary production here we present data collected during austral summer 2012 that reveal contrasting low surface 0 08 0 07 nm and elevated near seafloor 0 74 0 47 nm dfe concentrations combining these observations with results from a high resolution physical circulation model we estimate dfe efflux of 5 8 107 mol yr 1 from the deeper portions 400 m of the ross sea continental shelf more than sufficient to account for the inferred winter reserve dfe inventory at the onset of the growing season in addition elevated dfe concentrations observed over shallower bathymetry suggest that such features provide additional inputs of dfe to the euphotic zone throughout the year

mapping of sea ice production for antarctic coastal polynyas 1 active sea ice production in antarctic coastal polynyas causes dense water formation finally leading to antarctic bottom water aabw formation this study gives the first mapping of sea ice production in the antarctic ocean based on heat flux calculation with ice thickness data derived from satellite data the highest ice production occurs in the ross ice shelf polynya region the ice production there decreased by 30 from the 1990s to the 2000s which can be one candidate for causing the recent freshening of aabw the cape darnley polynya in east antarctica is found to be the second highest production area suggesting a possible aabw formation area according to our estimation around 10 of southern ocean sea ice is produced in the major antarctic coastal polynyas the mapping provides surface heat and salt flux conditions in the ice covered region which have not been well understood

regions of rapid sea ice change an inter hemispheric seasonal comparison this bi polar analysis resolves ice edge changes on space time scales relevant for investigating seasonal iceocean feedbacks and focuses on spatio temporal changes in the timing of annual sea ice retreat and advance over 1979 80 to 2010 11 where arctic sea ice decrease is fastest the sea ice retreat is now nearly 2 months earlier and subsequent advance more than 1 month later compared to 1979 80 resulting in a 3 month longer summer ice free season in the antarctic peninsula and bellingshausen sea region sea ice retreat is more than 1 month earlier and advance 2 months later resulting in a more than 3 month longer summer icefree season in contrast in the western ross sea antarctica region sea ice retreat and advance are more than 1 month later and earlier respectively resulting in a more than 2 month shorter summer ice free season regardless of trend magnitude or direction and at latitudes mostly poleward of 70 n s there is strong correspondence between anomalies in the timings of sea ice retreat and subsequent advance but little correspondence between advance and subsequent retreat these results support a strong ocean thermal feedback in autumn in response to changes in spring sea ice retreat further model calculations suggest different net ocean heat changes in the arctic versus antarctic where autumn sea ice advance is 1 versus 2 months later ocean atmosphere changes particularly in boreal spring and austral autumn i e during march may are discussed and compared as well as possible inter hemispheric climate connections

drumlinization and drumlin forming instabilities viscous till mechanisms glacially induced flow naturally tends to thin and extended till cover through shock formation even in the absence of longitudinal gradients in the applied stress thicker till cover has an increased effective pressure at its surface and base a lower sliding velocity or deformation rate and above a critical thickness a decrease in wave velocity with thickness leading to reverse facing shocks moving downstream for sliding and for some theologies of internal deformation a decrease in sediment flux with thickness occurs implying backward moving kinematic waves and reverse facing reverse moving shock downstream facing shocks are also formed which move upstream if the till is sliding and downstream if the till is deforming internally eventually shocks coalesce leaving an upstream lacing shock for sliding and a downstream facing shock for internal deformation it is observed that some drumlins have downstream blunt ends only fairly realistic three dimensional drumlin shapes can be produced from symmetric sediment bodies and barchan shapes can be produced from linear forms perpendicular to the ice sheet flow the fact that viscous theories produce drumlinoid forms suggests that on this scale till behaves viscously and the the lower length scale for drumlins represents the plastic viscous transition scale

energetic plumes over the western ross sea continental slope rapid descent of dense drygalski trough western ross sea antarctica shelf water over the continental slope within 100 to 250 m thick benthic plumes is described speeds of up to 1 0 m s are recorded flowing at an average angle of 35 to the isobaths entraining ambient lower circumpolar deep water en route this process is predominant in determining the concentration and placement of the shelf water injected into the deep sea as a precursor antarctic bottom water nonetheless a 4 hour duration pulse of undiluted shelf water was observed at depth 1407 m directly north of the drygalski trough moving at around 90 degrees to isobaths and at a speed of 1 4 m s thus the export of ross sea shelf water to the deep sea is accomplished within plumes descending at moderate angle to isobaths punctuated by rapid downhill cascades

identification and significance of ice flow transverse subglacial ridges rogen moraines in northern central ireland in the omagh basin north central ireland subglacial diamict ridges lie transverse to southwestward late devensian ca 23 13 ka ice flow these ridges 0 5 2 5 km long 100 450 m wide 15 35 m high are similar morphologically to rogen moraines which have not been described previously from the british isles the crests of some transverse ridges are streamlined cross cut or overprinted by drumlins whereas other ridges are unmodified and were not affected by later drumlinisation at kilskeery west east trending eskers overlying unmodified transverse ridges post date drumlinisation 17 14 14c ka esker formation shows that the subglacial thermal regime changed from cold based favouring bedform preservation to warm based with meltwater flowing through enclosed subglacial channels patterns of flow transverse ridges and spatial variations in the degree of bedform modification record dynamic changes in regional subglacial environments during the last deglacial cycle this ice mass variability cannot be reconciled with current irish glacial models which are based on immobile ice centres and ordered stages of ice retreat in a wider context these changes in bedform patterns and basal ice regimes have a similar signature to millennial scale ice mass oscillations recorded by dated proxy evidence elsewhere in the amphi north atlantic 1997 john wiley sons ltd

emergent drumlins and their clones from till dilatancy to flow instabilities subglacial bedforms are a range of landforms 10 105 m in length shaped mostly in glacial sediments and are abundant on ice sheet beds numerous explanations for their generation especially of drumlins have been proposed rather than viewing them as resulting from erosion or deposition directly by ice smalley and unwin 1968 proposed that both might occur simultaneously if beneath the glacier a layer of lubricating sediment existed and flowed conducting geomorphic work erosion deposition shaping of its own this idea appears to have steered the field leading perhaps to final resolution of the centuries old problem of drumlin genesis here i trace how the idea evolved leading to the conclusion that subglacial bedforms are emergent phenomena arising from self organisation in the coupled flow of ice sediment and water the ubiquity and patterning of bedforms appears to be well explained by a naturally arising flow instability in the subglacial system and which has been demonstrated by analytical and numerical modelling a problem for the instability theory is an apparent mismatch between predicted and observed sedimentological properties of bedforms a distinction is made between emergent drumlins drumlin clones and obstacle drumlins which helps explain some apparent contradictions and a conceptual framework is erected that might form a basis for confrontation of the theory with the wealth of observational evidence that exists

subglacial landforms and deposits in central and northern quebec canada with emphasis on rogen moraines abstract the development of the anatomy and the morphology of a relatively simple till sheet deposited over parts of the canadian shield is discussed this is characterized by the common occurrence of well developed streamlined landforms and rogen moraines the sedimentation of the till sheet was an alternating succession of depositional and erosional or landforming events the former leading to the sedimentation of various till lithofacies the latter leading to the development of various morainic terrains this orderly sequence of subglacial events occurred during the deglaciation of central and northern quebec with the controlling factors being bed rock topography and geology ice thickness and basal ice temperatures till lithofacies include in ascending stratigraphic order lodgement till subglacial melt out till immature lodgement till and varieties of supra glacial ablation deposits morainic terrains include drumlinized and fluted ground moraine rogen moraines as well as fluted and unfluted hummocky moraine rogen moraines are formed subglacially a few kilometers behind the glacier margin as a consequence of localized compressive stresses which result in shearing and stacking of slices of near base englacial debris later deposited as a basal melt out till the moraines are believed to be a characteristic landform associated with shield type rock surfaces namely an irregular topography of asymmetric rock basins of all sizes resulting from the areal scouring of hard rocks as well the moraines are believed to be as well a characteristic landform resulting from the flattening profile of the margin of the waning ice sheet the formation of the moraines led to enhanced flow in marginal areas generating late events of streamlining and boulder plucking

thick and deformed antarctic sea ice mapped with autonomous underwater vehicles satellites have documented trends in antarctic sea ice extent and its variability for decades but estimating sea ice thickness in the antarctic from remote sensing data remains challenging in situ observations needed for validation of remote sensing data and sea ice models are limited most have been restricted to a few point measurements on selected ice floes or to visual shipboard estimates here we present three dimensional 3d floe scale maps of sea ice draft for ten floes compiled from two springtime expeditions by an autonomous underwater vehicle to the near coastal regions of the weddell bellingshausen and wilkes land sectors of antarctica mean drafts range from 1 4 to 5 5 m with maxima up to 16 m we also find that on average 76 of the ice volume is deformed ice our surveys indicate that the floes are much thicker and more deformed than reported by most drilling and ship based measurements of antarctic sea ice we suggest that thick ice in the near coastal and interior pack may be under represented in existing in situ assessments of antarctic sea ice and hence on average antarctic sea ice may be thicker than previously thought

variability and trends in sea ice extent and ice production in the ross sea the trend in ice production the increase in brine rejection in the ross shelf polynya associated with the estimated increase with the ice production however is not consistent with the reported ross sea salinity decrease the locally generated sea ice enhancement of ross sea salinity may be offset by an increase of relatively low salinity of the water advected into the region from the amundsen sea a consequence of increased precipitation and regional glacial ice melt

the meltwater hypothesis for subglacial bedforms this paper presents an historical and in places informal account of the meltwater hypothesis which invokes enormous outburst floods for the formation of subglacial bedforms it begins with a brief discussion of the difficulties of determining processes of formation for landforms which are not seen in formation analogy provides a solution to these difficulties analogy between erosional marks at the bases of turbidites and drumlins which were the starting point for this hypothesis rests on the idea that inverted erosional marks at the ice bed are subsequently infilled to form drumlins field tests on the sedimentology architecture and landform associations of drumlins in the livingstone lake drumlin field are outlined before more extensive work on bedrock erosional forms and flood routes is introduced bedrock erosional forms played a central part in establishing the hypothesis since their form and ornamentation are confidently interpreted as fluvial their form and genesis are discussed mainly with reference to sites at french river and wilton creek ontario though some remarkable bedrock erosional forms in antarctica support their regional extent initially in the meltwater hypothesis drumlins were thought to be cavity fills and erosional drumlins were recognized later this development is shown to be central to the realization that drumlin composition may be inferred from drumlin form the scale of drumlin fields measured at about 10 3 km 2 and the magnitude of the inferred floods require that the flood events were regional regional scale flood tracts in ontario quebec alberta and the northwest territories extending over 1000 km in length and several hundred kilometers in width support this suggestion floods had they occurred would have caused rapid rates of sea level rise and may have changed climate through their effects on ocean stratification and sea surface temperatures the meltwater hypothesis covers a range of bedforms besides drumlins and bedrock erosional marksffluting rogen moraine hummocky terrain and transverse ridges recent work shows how these forms are best explained by the meltwater hypothesis the roles of water storage and release which underpin the theory of the meltwater hypothesis remain poorly understood r 2002 published by elsevier science ltd

synchronous intensification and warming of antarctic bottom water outflow from the weddell gyre 1 antarctic bottom water aabw the densest water in the global overturning circulation has warmed in recent decades most notably in the atlantic time series recorded within the boundary currents immediately upstream and downstream of the most significant outflow of aabw from the weddell sea indicate that raised outflow temperatures are synchronous with stronger boundary current flows these changes occur rapidly in response to changes in wind forcing suggesting that barotropic dynamics and the response of the bottom ekman layer are significant the observed synchronicity indicates that the previously detected weakening of the export of the colder forms of aabw from the weddell sea need not be associated with a reduction in the total flux of aabw exported via this route these points need careful consideration when attributing the observed aabw warming in the atlantic and when determining its contribution to global heat budgets and sea level rise citation meredith m p a l gordon a c naveira garabato e p abrahamsen b a huber l jullion and h j venables 2011 synchronous intensification and warming of antarctic bottom water outflow from the weddell gyre geophys res lett 38 l03603 doi 10 1029 2010gl046265