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AGU: Geophysical Research Letters

 

Index Terms

  • Cryosphere: Icebergs
  • Cryosphere: Glaciology
  • Cryosphere: Ice shelves
  • Oceanography: Physical: Surface waves and tides
  • Seismology: General or miscellaneous

Abstract

GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS, VOL. 33, L17502, 4 PP., 2006
doi:10.1029/2006GL027235

Transoceanic wave propagation links iceberg calving margins of Antarctica with storms in tropics and Northern Hemisphere

Douglas R. MacAyeal

Department of the Geophysical Sciences, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA

Emile A. Okal

Department of Geological Sciences, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, USA

Richard C. Aster

Geophysical Research Center and Department of Earth and Environmental Science, New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, Socorro, New Mexico, USA

Jeremy N. Bassis

Institute for Geophysics and Planetary Physics, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California, USA

Kelly M. Brunt

Department of the Geophysical Sciences, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA

L. Mac. Cathles

Department of the Geophysical Sciences, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA

Robert Drucker

School of Oceanography, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, USA

Helen A. Fricker

Institute for Geophysics and Planetary Physics, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California, USA

Young-Jin Kim

Department of the Geophysical Sciences, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA

Seelye Martin

School of Oceanography, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, USA

Marianne H. Okal

Department of the Geophysical Sciences, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA

Olga V. Sergienko

Hydrospheric and Biospheric Sciences Laboratory, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland, USA

Mark P. Sponsler

Stormsurf, Half Moon Bay, California, USA

Jonathan E. Thom

Antarctic Meteorological Research Centre, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin, USA

We deployed seismometers on the Ross Ice Shelf and on various icebergs adrift in the Ross Sea (including B15A, a large 100 km by 30 km fragment of B15, which calved from the Ross Ice Shelf in March, 2000). The data reveal that the dominant energy of these floating ice masses is in the 0.01 to 0.1 Hz band, and is associated with sea swell generated in the tropical and extra-tropical Pacific Ocean. In one example, a strong storm in the Gulf of Alaska on 21 October 2005, approximately 13,500 km from the Ross Sea, generated swell that arrived at B15A immediately prior to, and during, its break-up off Cape Adare on 27 October 2005. If sea swell influences iceberg calving and break-up, a teleconnection exists between the Antarctic ice sheet mass balance and weather systems worldwide.

Received 14 June 2006; accepted 31 July 2006; published 12 September 2006.

Citation: MacAyeal, D. R., et al. (2006), Transoceanic wave propagation links iceberg calving margins of Antarctica with storms in tropics and Northern Hemisphere, Geophys. Res. Lett., 33, L17502, doi:10.1029/2006GL027235.

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