Experiments lead to slip law for better forecasts of glacier speed, sea-level rise

3 years ago
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https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/04/200402144517.htm

That equation -- or "slip law" -- is a tool that scientists can include in computer models of glacier movement over the deformable beds of mud, sand, pebbles, rocks and boulders under glaciers such as the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, said Neal Iverson, the project leader and a professor of geological and atmospheric sciences at Iowa State University. Models using the new slip law could better predict how quickly glaciers are sliding, how much ice they're sending to oceans and how that would affect sea-level rise.

A paper published online today by the journal Science describes the new slip law and the experiments and data that motivate it. Authors are Lucas Zoet, a postdoctoral research associate at Iowa State from 2012 to 2015 and now an assistant professor of geoscience at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Iverson.