The ice shelves—the marine-terminating glaciers of the Antarctic Ice Sheet—are melting, and it's not just because of rising atmospheric temperatures. In a one-two punch, ice shelves in Antarctica are fighting a losing battle against rising temperatures both at the surface and under their body.
Called basal melting, oceanic heat and compression contribute to the phenomenon, but tides may play a bigger role than previously thought, according to a multi-institution research collaboration based in China. Based onin Prydz Bay, which are the first made of tidal currents and their role in basal melting, the researchers found that tidal currents from the third largest bay in Antarctica may be responsible for up to 69% of basal melting on the Amery Ice Shelf.
However, Wang noted, the observations did not include significant long-term information about velocity, so they employed simulated velocity in the sub-ice-shelf cavity from the models, which may have skewed the tidal currents' true contribution to basal melting. "Such weak tidal currents are not expected to play an important role in regulating the circulation and hydrographic properties in Prydz Bay," Chengyan Liu, the first author said."However, the observed maximum tidal velocity of about 11 centimeters per second occurs at the Amery Ice Shelf's front, and the maximal time-average tidal kinetic energy—the intensity with which tides rise and fall—reaches about 31% of the total kinetic energy over the outer continental shelf.
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