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This book presents the basic physics needed to model the past, present and future of large continental ice sheets. Minimal mathematical ability is needed. Simple triangles and rectangles allow a visual treatment of the force balance for stresses driving and opposing glacier flow. The holistic aspect of the book recognises that ice flow in ice sheets begins as slow sheet flow from high convex ice domes near the centre of an ice sheet, with most sheet flow converging on fast concave currents of ice called ice streams near the ice-sheet margin, and ends as relatively thin and flat shelves of ice floating in water or lobes of ice grounded on land.
List of contents
Preface; Overview; Introduction; Holistic Modeling of Dynamic Systems; Ice Sheets, Climate, & Sea Level; Ice; Components of a Holistic Model; Tensors; Modeling Ice Sheets Along Ice Flowbands; Linear Sheet Flow in Flowbands(O = 0); Linear Shelf Flow in Flowbands (O = 1); Linear Stream Flow in Flowbands (0 < O < 1); How O Produces Concave Profiles for Ice Streams; Dependence of Stresses on Floating Fraction O of Ice; Ice-Shelf Buttressing Beyond Ice Streams; Assessing the Geometrical Force Balance in Flowbands; Perturbations in the Force Balance of Ice Flowbands; Relating t to the Mass Balance for Shelf Flow & Stream Flow; Relating t to the Mass Balance for Sheet Flow; Relating tS to the Mass Balance for Stream Flow & Shelf Flow; Relating O to the Mass Balance for Stream Flow; Limiting Ice Thinning Rates to Perturbations in O; Assessing the Mass Balance Treatment; Reconstructing Former Ice Sheets For Changing Glacial Isostasy; The Marine Ice Instability; How Flowband Profiles Reveal Basal Thermal Conditions; Geometric Logic Links Ice Dynamics to IceBed Coupling; How Ice Sheets Cause Abrupt Climate Change; Slab Calving Above Water; Block Calving Below Water; Calving Giant Tabular Icebergs From Ice Shelves; Catastrophic Disintegration of Ice Shelves; Conclusions; Appendices; References; Index.
