Of all the glaciological components comprising the Antarctic Ice Sheet, ice shelves are the most vulnerable to climate change. This is because, as the most seaward extension of a glaciological system, ice shelves are in contact with both the atmosphere
Of all the glaciological components comprising the Antarctic Ice Sheet, ice shelves are the most vulnerable to climate change. This is because, as the most seaward extension of a glaciological system, ice shelves are in contact with both the atmosphere above and the underlying ocean. Consequently, ice shelves are in continual adjustment to dynamic forcing from multiple sources: the advancing glacial ice, the bedrock to which they are attached at the continent’s edge, the atmosphere (temperature, pressure, wind), as well as the ocean conditions below (temperature, currents and waves). Changes in any of these can alter ice shelf extent, flow velocity, thickness, and other parameters as the shelf responds to new forcing.
Climate change affects ice shelves through warming of the atmosphere causing increased surface melting, and increasing ocean temperatures that melt ice shelves from below. The resulting ice shelf thinning (from above and below) weakens ice shelves, making them more easily fractured. Progressive thinning and associated weakening can result in ice shelf collapse, a