Crystal orientation fabric anisotropy causes directional hardening of the Northeast Greenland Ice Stream

Tamara Annina Gerber; David A Lilien; Nicholas Mossor Rathmann; Steven Franke; Tun Jan Young; Fernando Valero-Delgado; M Reza Ershadi; Reinhard Drews; Ole Zeising; Angelika Humbert; Nicolas Stoll; Ilka Weikusat; Aslak Grinsted; Christine Schøtt Hvidberg; Daniela Jansen; Heinrich Miller; Veit Helm; Daniel Steinhage; Charles O'Neill; John Paden; Siva Prasad Gogineni; Dorthe Dahl-Jensen; Olaf Eisen

doi:10.1038/s41467-023-38139-8

Crystal orientation fabric anisotropy causes directional hardening of the Northeast Greenland Ice Stream

Tamara Annina Gerber^*, David A Lilien, Nicholas Mossor Rathmann, Steven Franke, Tun Jan Young, Fernando Valero-Delgado, M Reza Ershadi, Reinhard Drews, Ole Zeising, Angelika Humbert, Nicolas Stoll, Ilka Weikusat, Aslak Grinsted, Christine Schøtt Hvidberg, Daniela Jansen, Heinrich Miller, Veit Helm, Daniel Steinhage, Charles O'Neill, John PadenSiva Prasad Gogineni, Dorthe Dahl-Jensen, Olaf Eisen^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

School of Geography & Sustainable Development

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

The dynamic mass loss of ice sheets constitutes one of the biggest uncertainties in projections of ice-sheet evolution. One central, understudied aspect of ice flow is how the bulk orientation of the crystal orientation fabric translates to the mechanical anisotropy of ice. Here we show the spatial distribution of the depth-averaged horizontal anisotropy and corresponding directional flow-enhancement factors covering a large area of the Northeast Greenland Ice Stream onset. Our results are based on airborne and ground-based radar surveys, ice-core observations, and numerical ice-flow modelling. They show a strong spatial variability of the horizontal anisotropy and a rapid crystal reorganisation on the order of hundreds of years coinciding with the ice-stream geometry. Compared to isotropic ice, parts of the ice stream are found to be more than one order of magnitude harder for along-flow extension/compression while the shear margins are potentially softened by a factor of two for horizontal-shear deformation.

Original language	English
Article number	2653
Number of pages	12
Journal	Nature Communications
Volume	14
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-38139-8
Publication status	Published - 8 May 2023

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Gerber, T. A., Lilien, D. A., Rathmann, N. M., Franke, S., Young, T. J., Valero-Delgado, F., Ershadi, M. R., Drews, R., Zeising, O., Humbert, A., Stoll, N., Weikusat, I., Grinsted, A., Hvidberg, C. S., Jansen, D., Miller, H., Helm, V., Steinhage, D., O'Neill, C., ... Eisen, O. (2023). Crystal orientation fabric anisotropy causes directional hardening of the Northeast Greenland Ice Stream. Nature Communications, 14, Article 2653. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-38139-8

@article{2d8621ccce5e4ba9862d4b710254fa17,

title = "Crystal orientation fabric anisotropy causes directional hardening of the Northeast Greenland Ice Stream",

abstract = "The dynamic mass loss of ice sheets constitutes one of the biggest uncertainties in projections of ice-sheet evolution. One central, understudied aspect of ice flow is how the bulk orientation of the crystal orientation fabric translates to the mechanical anisotropy of ice. Here we show the spatial distribution of the depth-averaged horizontal anisotropy and corresponding directional flow-enhancement factors covering a large area of the Northeast Greenland Ice Stream onset. Our results are based on airborne and ground-based radar surveys, ice-core observations, and numerical ice-flow modelling. They show a strong spatial variability of the horizontal anisotropy and a rapid crystal reorganisation on the order of hundreds of years coinciding with the ice-stream geometry. Compared to isotropic ice, parts of the ice stream are found to be more than one order of magnitude harder for along-flow extension/compression while the shear margins are potentially softened by a factor of two for horizontal-shear deformation.",

author = "Gerber, {Tamara Annina} and Lilien, {David A} and Rathmann, {Nicholas Mossor} and Steven Franke and Young, {Tun Jan} and Fernando Valero-Delgado and Ershadi, {M Reza} and Reinhard Drews and Ole Zeising and Angelika Humbert and Nicolas Stoll and Ilka Weikusat and Aslak Grinsted and Hvidberg, {Christine Sch{\o}tt} and Daniela Jansen and Heinrich Miller and Veit Helm and Daniel Steinhage and Charles O'Neill and John Paden and Gogineni, {Siva Prasad} and Dorthe Dahl-Jensen and Olaf Eisen",

note = "Funding: This research was undertaken, in part, thanks to funding from the Canada Excellence Research Chairs Programme and has been financially supported by the Villum Investigator Project IceFlow (Grant No. 16572 to D.D.-J.). Radar development was further supported by funding from the University of Alabama. EGRIP is directed and organised by the Centre for Ice and Climate at the Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen. S.F. received funding from the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD): Forschungsstipendien f{\"u}r promovierte Nachwuchswissenschaftlerinnen und -wissenschaftler. M.R.E. was supported by a DFG Emmy Noether grant (grant no. DR 822/3-1).",

year = "2023",

month = may,

day = "8",

doi = "10.1038/s41467-023-38139-8",

language = "English",

volume = "14",

journal = "Nature Communications",

issn = "2041-1723",

publisher = "Nature publishing group",

}

Gerber, TA, Lilien, DA, Rathmann, NM, Franke, S, Young, TJ, Valero-Delgado, F, Ershadi, MR, Drews, R, Zeising, O, Humbert, A, Stoll, N, Weikusat, I, Grinsted, A, Hvidberg, CS, Jansen, D, Miller, H, Helm, V, Steinhage, D, O'Neill, C, Paden, J, Gogineni, SP, Dahl-Jensen, D & Eisen, O 2023, 'Crystal orientation fabric anisotropy causes directional hardening of the Northeast Greenland Ice Stream', Nature Communications, vol. 14, 2653. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-38139-8

TY - JOUR

T1 - Crystal orientation fabric anisotropy causes directional hardening of the Northeast Greenland Ice Stream

AU - Gerber, Tamara Annina

AU - Lilien, David A

AU - Rathmann, Nicholas Mossor

AU - Franke, Steven

AU - Young, Tun Jan

AU - Valero-Delgado, Fernando

AU - Ershadi, M Reza

AU - Drews, Reinhard

AU - Zeising, Ole

AU - Humbert, Angelika

AU - Stoll, Nicolas

AU - Weikusat, Ilka

AU - Grinsted, Aslak

AU - Hvidberg, Christine Schøtt

AU - Jansen, Daniela

AU - Miller, Heinrich

AU - Helm, Veit

AU - Steinhage, Daniel

AU - O'Neill, Charles

AU - Paden, John

AU - Gogineni, Siva Prasad

AU - Dahl-Jensen, Dorthe

AU - Eisen, Olaf

N1 - Funding: This research was undertaken, in part, thanks to funding from the Canada Excellence Research Chairs Programme and has been financially supported by the Villum Investigator Project IceFlow (Grant No. 16572 to D.D.-J.). Radar development was further supported by funding from the University of Alabama. EGRIP is directed and organised by the Centre for Ice and Climate at the Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen. S.F. received funding from the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD): Forschungsstipendien für promovierte Nachwuchswissenschaftlerinnen und -wissenschaftler. M.R.E. was supported by a DFG Emmy Noether grant (grant no. DR 822/3-1).

PY - 2023/5/8

Y1 - 2023/5/8

N2 - The dynamic mass loss of ice sheets constitutes one of the biggest uncertainties in projections of ice-sheet evolution. One central, understudied aspect of ice flow is how the bulk orientation of the crystal orientation fabric translates to the mechanical anisotropy of ice. Here we show the spatial distribution of the depth-averaged horizontal anisotropy and corresponding directional flow-enhancement factors covering a large area of the Northeast Greenland Ice Stream onset. Our results are based on airborne and ground-based radar surveys, ice-core observations, and numerical ice-flow modelling. They show a strong spatial variability of the horizontal anisotropy and a rapid crystal reorganisation on the order of hundreds of years coinciding with the ice-stream geometry. Compared to isotropic ice, parts of the ice stream are found to be more than one order of magnitude harder for along-flow extension/compression while the shear margins are potentially softened by a factor of two for horizontal-shear deformation.

AB - The dynamic mass loss of ice sheets constitutes one of the biggest uncertainties in projections of ice-sheet evolution. One central, understudied aspect of ice flow is how the bulk orientation of the crystal orientation fabric translates to the mechanical anisotropy of ice. Here we show the spatial distribution of the depth-averaged horizontal anisotropy and corresponding directional flow-enhancement factors covering a large area of the Northeast Greenland Ice Stream onset. Our results are based on airborne and ground-based radar surveys, ice-core observations, and numerical ice-flow modelling. They show a strong spatial variability of the horizontal anisotropy and a rapid crystal reorganisation on the order of hundreds of years coinciding with the ice-stream geometry. Compared to isotropic ice, parts of the ice stream are found to be more than one order of magnitude harder for along-flow extension/compression while the shear margins are potentially softened by a factor of two for horizontal-shear deformation.

U2 - 10.1038/s41467-023-38139-8

DO - 10.1038/s41467-023-38139-8

M3 - Article

C2 - 37156772

SN - 2041-1723

VL - 14

JO - Nature Communications

JF - Nature Communications

M1 - 2653

ER -

Crystal orientation fabric anisotropy causes directional hardening of the Northeast Greenland Ice Stream

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