HR: 11:20h
AN: C12B-05    [Abstracts]
TI: A Blowing Snow Model for Ice Shelf Rifts
AU: * Leonard, K C
EM: kleonard@ldeo.columbia.edu
AF: Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University, 61 Route 9W, Palisades, NY 10964 United States
AU: Tremblay, L
EM: tremblay@ldeo.columbia.edu
AF: Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University, 61 Route 9W, Palisades, NY 10964 United States
AU: MacAyeal, D R
EM: drm7@midway.uchicago.edu
AF: University of Chicago, Department of Geophysical Sciences 5734 S. Ellis Ave, Chicago, IL 60637 United States
AB: Ice m‚lange (a mixture of snow, marine ice, and ice talus) may play various roles in the rates of propagation of iceberg-calving rifts through Antarctic ice shelves. This modeling study examines the role of windblown snow in the formation and maintenance of ice m‚lange in the "nascent rift" in the Ross Ice Shelf (78 08'S, 178 29'W). The rift axis is perpendicular to the regional wind direction, allowing us to employ a two-dimensional blowing snow model. The Piektuk-Tuvaq blowing snow model (Dery and Tremblay, 2004) adapted the Piektuk blowing snow model for use in sea ice environments by including parameterization for open-water leads within the sea ice. This version of the model was used to study the initial conditions of a freshly-opened rift, as the input of blowing snow into the seawater within the rift promotes marine ice formation by cooling and freshening the surface water. We adapted the Piektuk-Tuvaq model both for the local climatic conditions and to incorporate the geometry of the rift, which is 30m deep and 100m wide (far deeper than a lead). We present the evolution of the topography within the rift for two cases. The first is an ice m‚lange composed exclusively of snow and marine ice, the second uses an initial topography including large chunks of ice talus.
DE: 0736 Snow (1827, 1863)
SC: Cryosphere [C]
MN: Fall Meeting 2005