Ice Flow along the Byrd Station Strain Network, Antarctica

Abstract

The flow of the Antarctic ice sheet near Byrd Station is modeled using surface net accumulation-rate data, surface strain-rate data, and core-hole tilting results. The model empirically allows for the progressive development of ice fabric and for values of the vertical strain-rate nearer to zero at depth, and adjusts the strain-rates according to the effect of the climatic warming at the beginning of the Holocene. The validity of the model is supported by the agreements between calculated bed form and that measured by radar sounding, and between calculated and measured present-day ice-sheet thinning-rates. The ice was about 200 m thicker before thinning. The depth-age relationship for the Byrd Station ice core shows that the climatic change represented by the oxygen isotopic ratio of the ice began some 5000 years sooner than in north Greenland (Hammer and others 1978), but ended at about the same time.