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

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Editor's Highlight Read Full Article (file size: 1881292 bytes) Cited by GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS, VOL. 33, L17502, doi:10.1029/2006GL027235, 2006 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 Abstract 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. Index Terms: 0732 Cryosphere: Icebergs; 0776 Cryosphere: Glaciology (1621, 1827, 1863); 0728 Cryosphere: Ice shelves; 4560 Oceanography: Physical: Surface waves and tides (1222); 7299 Seismology: General or miscellaneous. Read Full Article (file size: 1881292 bytes) Cited by 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. Copyright 2006 by the American Geophysical Union.

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