Feasibility of ice sheet conservation using seabed anchored curtains

Keefer, Bowie; Wolovick, Michael; Moore, John C.

doi:10.1093/pnasnexus/pgad053

Cited by 5 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 39 publications

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“…Wolovick and Moore ( 17 ) proposed using solid artificial sills to block warm water from reaching the grounding line; using a simple model of ice flow and basal melting, they found that reductions in the basal melt rate could cause the floating ice shelf to thicken and flow outward, ultimately regrounding on the sill, which increased buttressing, reduced ice flux across the grounding line, and stabilized the ice sheet. In a companion paper ( 18 ), we improve on the ( 17 ) design by introducing the idea of buoyant underwater curtains. These are flexible impermeable curtains anchored to the seabed and held upright in the water column by their own buoyancy.…”

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The potential for stabilizing Amundsen Sea glaciers via underwater curtains

2023

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Rapid sea level rise due to an ice sheet collapse has the potential to be extremely damaging to coastal communities and infrastructure. Blocking deep warm water with thin flexible buoyant underwater curtains may reduce melting of buttressing ice shelves and thereby slow the rate of sea level rise. Here, we use new multibeam bathymetric datasets, combined with a cost-benefit model, to evaluate potential curtain routes in the Amundsen Sea. We organize potential curtain routes along a “difficulty ladder” representing an implementation pathway that might be followed as technological capabilities improve. The first curtain blocks a single narrow (5 km) submarine choke point that represents the primary warm water inflow route towards western Thwaites Glacier, the most vulnerable part of the most vulnerable glacier in Antarctica. Later curtains cross larger and deeper swaths of seabed, thus increasing their cost, while also protecting more of the ice sheet, increasing their benefit. In our simple cost-benefit analysis, all of the curtain routes achieve their peak value at target blocking depths between 500-550 m. The favorable cost-benefit ratios of these curtain routes, along with the trans-generational and societal equity of preserving the ice sheets near their present state, argues for increased research into buoyant curtains as a means of ice sheet preservation, including high-resolution fluid-structural and oceanographic modeling of deep water flow over and through the curtains, and coupled ice-ocean modeling of the dynamic response of the ice sheet.

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The potential for stabilizing Amundsen Sea glaciers via underwater curtains

2023

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Objectives and Methods of Mining and Construction in Snow and Ice

Talalay

2024

Springer Polar Sciences

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A survey of interventions to actively conserve the frozen North

van Wijngaarden,

Moore,

Alfthan

et al. 2024

Climatic Change

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The frozen elements of the high North are thawing as the region warms much faster than the global mean. The dangers of sea level rise due to melting glacier ice, increased concentrations of greenhouse gases from thawing permafrost, and alterations in the key high latitude physical systems spurred many authors, and more recently international agencies and supra-state actors, to investigate “emergency measures” that might help conserve the frozen North. However, the efficacy and feasibility of many of these ideas remains highly uncertain, and some might come with significant risks, or could be even outright dangerous to the ecosystems and people of the North. To date, no review has evaluated all suggested schemes. The objectives of this first phase literature survey (which can be found in a separate compendium (https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10602506), are to consider all proposed interventions in a common evaluation space, and identify knowledge gaps in active conservation proposals. We found 61 interventions with a high latitude focus, across atmosphere, land, oceans, ice and industry domains. We grade them on a simple three-point evaluation system across 12 different categories. From this initial review we can identify which ideas scored low marks on most categories and are therefore likely not worthwhile pursuing; some groups of interventions, like traditional land-based mitigation efforts, score relatively highly while ocean-based and sea ice measures, score lower and have higher uncertainties overall. This review will provide the basis for a further in-depth expert assessment that will form phase two of the project over the next few years sponsored by University of the Arctic.

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Feasibility of ice sheet conservation using seabed anchored curtains

Cited by 5 publications

References 39 publications

The potential for stabilizing Amundsen Sea glaciers via underwater curtains

The potential for stabilizing Amundsen Sea glaciers via underwater curtains

Objectives and Methods of Mining and Construction in Snow and Ice

A survey of interventions to actively conserve the frozen North

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