FYFD

Tag: calving

  • Tides Widen Ice Cracks

    Tides Widen Ice Cracks

    When icebergs calve off of Arctic and Antarctic coastlines, it affects glacial flows upstream as well as local mixing between fresh- and seawater. A recent study points to ocean tides as a major factor in widening the ice cracks that lead to calving. The team built a simplified mathematical model of an ice shelf, taking into account the ice’s viscoelasticity, local tides, and winds. Then they compared the model’s predictions with satellite, GPS, and radar data of Antarctica’s Brunt Ice Shelf, where an iceberg the size of Greater London broke off in 2023.

    Between their model and the observation data, the team was able to show that the crack that preceded calving consistently grew during the spring tides, when tidal forces were at their strongest. The work gives us one more clue for refining our predictions of when major calving events are likely. (Image and research credit: O. Marsh et al.; via Gizmodo)

    Fediverse Reactions
  • Featured Video Play Icon

    Filming a Calving Glacier

    The San Rafael Glacier, one of the fastest calving glaciers in the world, sits above a fjord in Patagonia. About 10 – 25 meters of the glacier is lost to calving every day. Here, filmmakers take you behind-the-scenes to show what it takes to film in such a remote, unpredictable, and dangerous environment. (Image and video credit: BBC Earth)

  • Calving Icebergs

    Calving Icebergs

    The birth of icebergs from a glacier is known as calving. Although it’s extremely common for chunks of ice to break off a glacier’s terminus, the process is not well understood. In large calving events like the one shown above, the breakaway is preceded by the formation of a crack or crevasse in the main body of the glacier. How quickly that crack grows depends on many factors, including the presence (and temperature) of water in the crack, the topology of the underlying rock, and friction between the glacier and ground beneath. Once the crack is large enough that the glacier can’t support the weight of the ice at the terminus, the ice will break off, generating new icebergs and, potentially, large waves. (Image credit: T. James et al., source)