Conductivity and oxygen isotope measured on ice core FRI09C90_13 (B13) from the Filchner-Ronne ice shelf, Antarctica

DOI

The Filchner-Ronne ice shelf, which drains most of the marine-based portions of the West Antarctic ice sheet, is the largest ice shelf on Earth by volume. The origin and properties of the ice that constitutes this shelf are poorly understood, because a strong reflecting interface within the ice and the diffuse nature of the ice?ocean interface make seismic and radio echo sounding data difficult to interpret. Ice in the upper part of the shelf is of meteoric origin, but it has been proposed that a basal layer of saline ice accumulates from below. Here we present the results of an analysis of the physical and chemical characteristics of an ice core drilled almost to the bottom of the Ronne ice shelf. We observe a change in ice properties at about 150 m depth, which we ascribe to a change from meteoric ice to basal marine ice. The basal ice is very different from sea ice formed at the ocean surface and we propose a formation mechanism in which ice platelets in the water column accrete to the bottom of the ice shelf.

Temperature of ice at 10 m depth: -23.5 deg C

Supplement to: Oerter, Hans; Kipfstuhl, Sepp; Determann, Jürgen; Miller, Heinz; Wagenbach, Dietmar; Minikin, Andreas; Graf, Wolfgang (1992): Evidence for basal marine ice in the Filchner-Ronne ice shelf. Nature, 358, 399-401

Identifier
DOI https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.548746
Related Identifier IsSupplementTo https://doi.org/10.1038/358399a0
Metadata Access https://ws.pangaea.de/oai/provider?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=datacite4&identifier=oai:pangaea.de:doi:10.1594/PANGAEA.548746
Provenance
Creator Oerter, Hans; Kipfstuhl, Sepp ORCID logo; Determann, Jürgen; Miller, Heinz; Wagenbach, Dietmar; Minikin, Andreas ORCID logo; Graf, Wolfgang
Publisher PANGAEA
Publication Year 1992
Rights Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported; https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
OpenAccess true
Representation
Resource Type Supplementary Dataset; Dataset
Format text/tab-separated-values
Size 1331 data points
Discipline Geosciences; Geospheric Sciences; Glaciology; Natural Sciences
Spatial Coverage (-52.268 LON, -76.981 LAT); Filchner Ronne Ice Shelf
Temporal Coverage Begin 1990-01-14T00:00:00Z
Temporal Coverage End 1990-02-07T00:00:00Z