The Antarctic ice sheet discharges ice into the ocean through fast
flowing outlet glaciers. Ice loss due to calving and subshelf melting
at the front of the glaciers is the key to understand the recent ice
mass loss in Antarctica. Basal melting of ice shelves and floating
tongues is thought to be increasing under the influence of changes in
the ocean. Nevertheless, little is known about the processes occurring
underneath the floating ice because in-situ measurements are very
difficult.
In the 2017/18 austral summer season, we tackled this problem at
Langhovde Glacier on the Lutzow-Holm Bay near a Japanese Antarctic
research base Syowa Station, East Antarctica. We drilled boreholes
through the floating part of the glacier using a hot water drilling
system. Boreholes were utilized to measure ocean temperature and
salinity, as well as water circulation below several hundred meters
thick ice.
This project was perfomed as a part of the 59th Japanese Antarctic
Research Expedition (JARE 59) under the framework of the ROBOTICA
(Research of Ocean-ice BOundary InTeraction and Change around
Antarctica) project.
