Across the frozen sea around most of Antartica even in the summertime?
I’m not sure if you’re actually curious, or if you think this is a “gotcha” question.
Here’s a picture. As the glacier flows outward (here’s measured flow rates), it begins floating on the sea and becomes an ice shelf, which then loses mass to the ocean through melting and breaking up into pieces, which then melt. This ice shelf is thick (100m − 1 km scale), because it’s a really thick sheet of ice being pushed out into the water by gravity. It then encounters the sea ice, which is ~1-4 meters thick. The sea ice gets pushed out, or piled up, because there are no particular forces holding the sea ice in place.
At this point I’m tapping out of the conversation. Either you’re ignorant but curious and there’s no point to me typing up things you could look up, or you want to feel superior while remaining ignorant and there’s no point to me typing up things you don’t care about.
That picture is silly. The deep-cold freshwater continental ice flowing into the ocean and melting there in the icy waters, but the 1-4 meters thick salty ice survives the Antarctic summer?
Actually, there are a few places on Antarctica, where glaciers flow into the ocean, but not very fast at all. And where is the heat to melt −40 degrees cold ice, 2000 cubic kilometers per summer? It is not only the question of the heat but the question of the heat transfer.
I think, most people still believe that picture anyway. Most people here, I guess, too.
I’m not sure if you’re actually curious, or if you think this is a “gotcha” question.
Here’s a picture. As the glacier flows outward (here’s measured flow rates), it begins floating on the sea and becomes an ice shelf, which then loses mass to the ocean through melting and breaking up into pieces, which then melt. This ice shelf is thick (100m − 1 km scale), because it’s a really thick sheet of ice being pushed out into the water by gravity. It then encounters the sea ice, which is ~1-4 meters thick. The sea ice gets pushed out, or piled up, because there are no particular forces holding the sea ice in place.
At this point I’m tapping out of the conversation. Either you’re ignorant but curious and there’s no point to me typing up things you could look up, or you want to feel superior while remaining ignorant and there’s no point to me typing up things you don’t care about.
That picture is silly. The deep-cold freshwater continental ice flowing into the ocean and melting there in the icy waters, but the 1-4 meters thick salty ice survives the Antarctic summer?
Actually, there are a few places on Antarctica, where glaciers flow into the ocean, but not very fast at all. And where is the heat to melt −40 degrees cold ice, 2000 cubic kilometers per summer? It is not only the question of the heat but the question of the heat transfer.
I think, most people still believe that picture anyway. Most people here, I guess, too.