posted on 2016-07-20, 15:12authored byJohn HillierJohn Hillier, I.A. Kougioumtzoglou, C.R. Stokes, Mike J. Smith, C.D. Clark, M. Spagnolo
Sediments beneath modern ice sheets exert a key control on their flow, but are largely
inaccessible except through geophysics or boreholes. In contrast, palaeo-ice sheet beds are accessible, and typically characterised by numerous bedforms. However, the interaction
between bedforms and ice flow is poorly constrained and it is not clear how bedform sizes might reflect ice flow conditions. To better understand this link we present a first exploration of a variety of statistical models to explain the size distribution of some common subglacial bedforms (i.e., drumlins, ribbed moraine, MSGL). By considering a range of models,
constructed to reflect key aspects of the physical processes, it is possible to infer that the size distributions are most effectively explained when the dynamics of ice-water-sediment interaction associated with bedform growth is fundamentally random. A ‘stochastic instability’ (SI) model, which integrates random bedform growth and shrinking through time with exponential growth, is preferred and is consistent with other observations of palaeo
bedforms and geophysical surveys of active ice sheets. Furthermore, we give a proof-of
concept demonstration that our statistical approach can bridge the gap between
geomorphological observations and physical models, directly linking measurable size
frequency parameters to properties of ice sheet flow (e.g., ice velocity). Moreover, statistically developing existing models as proposed allows quantitative predictions to be made about sizes, making the models testable; a first illustration of this is given for a hypothesised repeat geophysical survey of bedforms under active ice. Thus, we further demonstrate the potential of size-frequency distributions of subglacial bedforms to assist the elucidation of subglacial processes and better constrain ice sheet models.
History
School
Social Sciences
Department
Geography and Environment
Published in
PLoS One
Citation
HILLIER, J.K. ... et al, 2016. Exploring explanations of subglacial bedform sizes using statistical models. PLoS One, http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0159489
Publisher
Public Library of Science
Version
VoR (Version of Record)
Publisher statement
This work is made available according to the conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) licence. Full details of this licence are available at: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/
Acceptance date
2016-07-07
Publication date
2016
Notes
This is an open
access article distributed under the terms of the
Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), which permits
unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any
medium, provided the original author and source are
credited.