Publication - Sublimation of ice through sediment in Beacon Valley, Antarctica
Abstract
The time-dependent physics of ice sublimation through thin layers of till is considered, to determine whether sublimation could be sufficiently slow to permit the preservation of ice for 8 Ma in the Dry Valleys, Antarctica. This could only happen if the ice had been very thick, but other evidence (crystal size, dating of other ice-cored moraines) is not consistent with this possibility. Steady-state models suggest that sublimation is rate-controlled by vapor transport. A time-dependent model coupling vapor concentration, air pressure, temperature and ice concentration is formulated, and the resulting equations solved non-linearly. No transient coupling between vapor concentration, air temperature and pressure that substantially slows down sublimation was found in the numerical experiments. This means either that vapor transport is being slowed down by some unconsidered physical process or that the ice is much younger than 8 Ma.
Authors
| Name | Organization |
| Richard Hindmarsh | Britisch Antarctic Survey (BAS) |
| Dick van der Wateren | VU University Amsterdam |
| Anja Verbers | Utrecht University, Faculty of Geosciences (UU) |
Datasets
| Title | Start date | End date |
| Glacial geology of Northern and Central Victoria Land and Marie Byrd Land | 1988-01-01 | 1999-12-31 |
Projects
No projects linked to this publication yetExternal resource
Publication type
Journal Article
Date
1998-10-01
Journal
Geografiska Annaler: Series A, Physical Geography
Volume
80
Issue
3-4
Pages
209-219
