Whillans Ice Stream
| Whillans Ice Stream | ||
|---|---|---|
| location | Siple Coast , Marie Byrd Land (politically: Ross Dependency ), West Antarctica | |
| Type | Ice flow | |
| length | 500 km | |
| width | Max. 95 km | |
| Ice thickness | ⌀ 600 m | |
| Coordinates | 83 ° 40 ′ S , 145 ° 0 ′ W | |
|
||
| drainage | Ross Ice Shelf | |
The Whillans Ice Stream (formerly Ice Stream B ) is a glacier in Marie Byrd Land, West Antarctica . It is an influx to the Ross Ice Shelf . The ice current flowing in a westerly direction has a flow velocity on the surface of up to 800 meters per year. The glacier is around 500 kilometers long, up to 95 kilometers wide and around 600 meters thick.
The Whillans Ice Stream runs parallel to the stagnant Kamb - and the fast flowing Bindschadler Ice Stream and, like these, flows into the Ross Sea on the Siple Coast . The Van der Veen Ice Stream flows towards it from the southeast .
While many other ice flows have developed along subglacial rift structures, the ice flows on the Siple Coast are shallow and characterized by very low bed and surface slopes and highly fluctuating dynamics. Geophysical studies show that under the Whillans Ice Stream there is a freshwater bubble four to five kilometers long and about ten meters deep. This subglacial lake, known as Lake Whillans , lies around 800 meters below the surface of the ice.
Typically twice a day, the Whillans Ice Current sets off seismic waves equivalent to a magnitude 7 earthquake. After having stood still for hours, the glacier makes jerky movements of up to 70 centimeters. These are triggered by the tides of the Ross Sea.
The Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names named the ice flow in 2001 after the Canadian geologist Ian Morley Whillans (1944-2001), who carried out extensive studies in Antarctica from 1967 until his death and thus made a decisive contribution to the understanding of the ice movements on the Antarctic continent .
See also
Web links
- Whillans Ice Stream in the Geographic Names Information System of the United States Geological Survey (English)
- Whillans Ice Stream on geographic.org.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Central Institute for Meteorology and Geodynamics (ZAMG): Antarctica: More dynamic than assumed , accessed on April 24, 2013
- ↑ a b National Geographic Germany, 2009: Geology: When the Ice Shakes ( Memento of the original from May 14, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed April 24, 2013.
- ^ Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar Research (AWI), Bremerhaven, 1996: Reports on Polar Research, No. 212, p. 17 ( online ), accessed on April 28, 2013.
- ↑ Deutschlandfunk, Forschung aktuell, from January 21, 2013: Drilling in the eternal ice of the Antarctic , accessed on April 24, 2013
- ↑ Federal Ministry of Education and Research (ed.) On planeterde.de: Waiting for a clear view ( Memento of the original from January 6, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed September 27, 2013
