Ice stream
A ice stream ( glacial current in English) is a type of glacier formed starting from the ice of a Inlandsis and progressing at very high speed (up to one kilometer per annum). They are one of the means of evacuation of the ice in edge of the ice caps with the emissary glaciers.
The ice streams can be 50 kilometers wide, two kilometers thickness and several hundred kilometers length. It is in particular them which give rise to the Barrière of Filchner and with the Barrière of Ross which are the two prolongations of the ice cap the Antarctic respectively on the seas of Weddell and of Ross. In the Antarctic, the ice streams account for 10% of the volume of the ices.
There exist ice streams with the Greenland but they do not form barriers of ice.
The high speed of the ice streams is primarily basal what causes an important shearing of the ice which forms Crevasse S, becomes deformed and is recristallized.
The causes of formation as of these ice streams are variées : subglacial water and a formed ground of movable sediments can facilitate and accelerate the flow of the ice.
The ice streams can be channeled between two mountains and resemble then glaciers of valley of very great dimension.
External bonds
- Presentation of the glaciers in the Antarctic
- Definition of the ice streams Photo
- and diagram of ice stream
- Ice stream of bay of Disko in Greenland on GoogleMap
References
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