Development of an Air-Droppable Goedetic-Seismic Ice Penetrator for Response Studies of Antarctic Ice Shelves and Icebergs to Ocean Forcings

The stability of the entire Antarctic glacial system depends critically on the stability of its ice shelves. Antarctic ice shelves, the ocean-floating margins of the massive Antarctic ice sheet, are showing signs of rapid decline. Ice shelf decay leads to increased discharge of grounded-ice to the ocean, and to mean sea-level rise. Ice shelf disintegration would drive the continental Antarctic ice sheet, in particular the West Antarctica section, to eventual collapse. Ocean waves may provide the tipping force necessary to trigger the failure of a thinned, mechanically weakened ice shelf. Monitoring how the ice shelves are responding to changing oceanic and atmospheric conditions is critically needed, but obtaining such measurements is technologically and logistically challenging. This award supports the development of novel technologies that can meet the challenge.