UPWELLING DRIVEN BY THE MELT OF ICE SHELVES AND TIDEWATER GLACIERS

Enhanced biological activity at the faces of ice shelves and tidewater glaciers has long been noted. One of several possible mechanisms for driving upwelling in these areas, the melting of glacial ice and the resulting buoyant plume, has been investigated. Comparison of the upwelling effects in Muir Inlet, Alaska and d'Iberville Fiord, Northwest Territories, indicates that the temperature of the seawater far from the ice face (several glacier depths) has a strong influence on the convective process. Employing a simple equation of state, basic thermodynamics, and laboratory results from boundary layer measurements on heated plates in air, the melt rate of a vertical ice wall in a stratified ocean is shown to be {A figure is presented} where m is the melt rate, ΔT is the temperature difference between the ice-seawater boundary and the far field and {A figure is presented} is the far field density stratification in the ocean. The upwelling effect due to melting is strongly dependent upon the temperature elevation of the sea above the freezing point. © 1979.