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“If we want to have accurate predictions of sea-level rise, we need to understand how to model iceberg calving,” says Fabian Walter, a glaciologist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, in La Jolla, Calif. Walter is lead author of the study, which has been accepted for publication in Geophysical Research Letters, a journal of the American Geophysical Union (AGU). “Calving” is the term for icebergs breaking off from glaciers.
This study presents the first detailed observation of a glacier undergoing a transition from grounded (resting on the ocean floor) to floating, as is currently happening to a section of Columbia Glacier, one of Alaska's many tidewater glaciers. Tidewater glaciers flow directly into the ocean, ending at a cliff in the sea, where icebergs are formed. Prior to this study, Alaskan tidewater glaciers were believed to be exclusively grounded and unable to float without disintegrating.
Icebergs are a leading source of water for the global ocean basin. Despite this, iceberg calving is one of the least understood processes involved in ice mass loss and the corresponding sea-level rise. This study is part of a larger effort to understand the formation of icebergs from glaciers and to include that process in large-scale glacier models….
Columbia Glacier, in the Chugach National Forest, Chugach Mountains, Prince William Sound. Photo by the US Fish and Wildlife Service
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