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Reassessment of ice mass balance at Horseshoe Valley, Antarctica

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 October 2009

Anja Wendt ,
Gino Casassa ,
Andres Rivera  and
Jens Wendt
Anja Wendt*
Affiliation:
Centro de Estudios Científicos, Av. Arturo Prat 514, Valdivia, Chile
Gino Casassa
Affiliation:
Centro de Estudios Científicos, Av. Arturo Prat 514, Valdivia, Chile
Andres Rivera
Affiliation:
Centro de Estudios Científicos, Av. Arturo Prat 514, Valdivia, Chile Centro de Ingeniería de la Innovación del CECS, Av. Arturo Prat 514, Valdivia, Chile Departamento de Geografía, Universidad de Chile, Marcoleta 250, Santiago, Chile
Jens Wendt
Affiliation:
Centro de Estudios Científicos, Av. Arturo Prat 514, Valdivia, Chile
*
*awendt@cecs.cl
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Abstract

Horseshoe Valley (80°18′S, 81°22′W) is a 30 km wide glaciated valley at the south-eastern end of Ellsworth Mountains draining into the Hercules inlet, Ronne Ice Shelf. The ice at Horseshoe Valley has been considered stable; now we use Global Positioning System (GPS) measurements obtained between 1996 and 2006 to investigate ice elevation change and mass balance. Comparison of surface heights on a profile across Horseshoe Valley reveals a slight but significant elevation increase of 0.04 m a-1 ± 0.002 m a-1. The blue ice area of Patriot Hills (∼13 km2) at the mount of Horseshoe Valley shows large interannual variability in area, with a maximum extent in 1997, an exceptionally warm summer, but no clear multi-year trend, and an elevation increase of 0.05 m a-1 in eight years, which agrees with the result from Horseshoe Valley.

Keywords

Ellsworth MountainsGlobal Positioning Systemice elevation change
Type
Physical Sciences
Information
Antarctic Science , Volume 21 , Issue 5 , October 2009 , pp. 505 - 513
Copyright
Copyright © Antarctic Science Ltd 2009

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Footnotes

†

Jens Wendt lost his life in an airplane crash while returning from an airborne laser height survey on 6 April 2009.

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