Inflow of Warm Circumpolar Deep Water in the Central Amundsen Shelf

• The thinning and acceleration of theWestAntarctic Ice Sheet has been attributed to basalmelting induced by intrusions of relatively warm salty water across the continental shelf. A hydrographic section including lowered acoustic Doppler current profiler measurements showing such an inflow in the channel leading to the Getz and Dotson Ice Shelves is presented here. The flow rate was 0.3–0.4 Sv (1 Sv[106 m3 s21), and the subsurface heat loss was estimated to be 1.2–1.6TW.Assuming that the inflow persists throughout the year, it corresponds to an ice melt of 110–130 km3 yr21, which exceeds recent estimates of the net ice glacier ice volume loss in the Amundsen Sea. The results also show a 100–150-m-thick intermediate water mass consisting of Circumpolar DeepWater that has beenmodified (cooled and freshened) by subsurfacemelting of ice shelves and/or icebergs. Thiswatermass has not previously been reported in the region, possibly because of the paucity of historical data.

Ämnesord

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Geovetenskap och miljövetenskap -- Oceanografi, hydrologi och vattenresurser (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Earth and Related Environmental Sciences -- Oceanography, Hydrology and Water Resources (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

Antarctica

Physical Oceanography

Amundsen Sea

Circumpolar Deep Water

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