Dynamics of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-x

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2. The West Antarctic Ice Sheet: The Need to Understand Its Dynamics

   • C. J. van der Veen

   Pages 1-16

3. Force Budget of Ice Sheets

   • I. M. Whillans

   Pages 17-36

4. On the Oceanic Circulation Near a Shelf-Ice Edge

   • G. J. F. van Heijst

   Pages 37-56

5. Quantitative Estimates of the Mass Flux and Ice Movement Along the Ice Edges in the Eastern and Southern Weddell Sea

   • Manfred A. Lange

   Pages 57-74

6. Some Aspects of the Flow of the Ronne Ice Shelf

   • C. S. M. Doake

   Pages 75-98

7. Unconfined Ice-Shelf Flow

   • L. W. Morland

   Pages 99-116

8. Plane and Radial Ice-Shelf Flow with Prescribed Temperature Profile

   • L. W. Morland, R. Zainuddin

   Pages 117-140

9. Ice-Shelf Backpressure: Form Drag Versus Dynamic Drag

   • Douglas R. MacAyeal

   Pages 141-160

10. Ice Stream-Ice Shelf Interaction in West Antarctica

    • R. A. Bindschadler, D. R. MacAyeal, S. N. Stephenson

    Pages 161-180

11. A Few Preliminary Results from the Glaciogeophysical Survey of the Interior Ross Embayment (GSIRE)

    • Charles R. Bentley, Sion Shabtaie, Donald D. Blankenship, Richard B. Alley, Sean T. Rooney

    Pages 181-184

12. On the Flow within the Transition Zone between Ice Sheet and Ice Shelf

    • K. Herterich

    Pages 185-202

13. The Finite-Element Method Applied to a Time-Dependent Flowband Model

    • James L. Fastook

    Pages 203-221

14. Longitudinal Stresses and Basal Sliding: A Comparative Study

    • C. J. van der Veen

    Pages 223-248

15. A Subglacial Aquifer Bed Model and Water Pressure Dependent Basal Sliding Relationship for a West Antarctic Ice Stream

    • Craig S. Lingle, Timothy J. Brown

    Pages 249-285

16. The Heat Budget of the Ross Drainage Basin

    • J. Oerlemans

    Pages 287-292

17. Numerical Modelling of the Large-Scale Basal Water Flux under the West Antarctic Ice Sheet

    • W. F. Budd, D. Jenssen

    Pages 293-320

18. Modelling the Response of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet to a Climatic Warming

    • W. F. Budd, B. J. McInnes, D. Jenssen, I. N. Smith

    Pages 321-358

19. Back Matter

    Pages 359-368

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Few scientists doubt the prediction that the antropogenic release of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere will lead to some warming of the earth's climate. So there is good reason to investigate the possible effects of such a warming, in dependence of geographical and social­ economic setting. Many bodies, governmental or not, have organized meetings and issued reports in which the carbon dioxide problem is defined, reviewed, and possible threats assessed. The rate at which such reports are produced still increases. However, while more and more people are getting involved in the 'carbon dioxide business', the number of investigators working on the basic problems grows, in our view, too slowly. Many fundamental questions are still not answered in a satisfactory way, and the carbon dioxide building rests on a few thin pillars. One such fundamental question concerns the change in sea level associated with a climatic warming of a few degrees. A number of processes can be listed that could all lead to changes of the order of tens of centimeters (e. g. thermal expansion, change in mass balance of glaciers and ice sheets). But the picture of the carbon dioxide problem has frequently be made more dramatic by suggesting that the West Antarctic Ice Sheet is unstable, implying a certain probability of a 5 m higher sea-level stand within a few centuries.

• Ice shelf
• Scale
• atmosphere
• climate
• subglacial
• temperature
• water
• hydrogeology

` All in all this is splendid book. It brings together different viewpoints and presents a `state of the art' account of the dynamics of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet. It opens up new horizons both within glaciology as a whole and in Antarctica. Quaternary scientists owe a great debt to the editors for their initiative in holding the workshop and producing a high quality book of the proceedings. '
D.E. Sugden in Boreas, 17, 1988

• Institute of Meteorology and Oceanography, State University of Utrecht, The Netherlands

  C. J. Veen, J. Oerlemans

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