Interpretation of ice sheet stratigraphy: A radio-echo sounding study of the Dyer Plateau, Antarctica

Determining the flow history of ice sheets is an issue central to glaciology. Stratigraphic ice horizons provide the only known natural markers for inferring velocity at depth. Stratigraphy can be detected by radio-echo sounding (RES, also called radar) and dated by coring, which together determine the age field in the ice. In this thesis it is shown for the first time how ice flow can be deduced from stratigraphy. As a first step a method is given for the deduction of the spatial pattern of accumulation from shallow dated stratigraphy. The effects of densification and horizontal divergence are determined. It is then shown how, and when, internal motion can be deduced from dated stratigraphy. A theory is developed to deduce streamlines assuming steady-state flow and mass conservation. The theory does not require rheological assumptions or a spatial accumulation rate pattern. The theory can be used to determine internal deformation rates, accumulation rate history and whether or not observed stratigraphy is consistent with steady-state flow.; As part of a collaborative program involving the British Antarctic Survey, the Byrd Polar Research Center, the Polar Ice Coring Office and the University of Washington, the author has used a newly devised RES system to measure the geometry of internal stratigraphy and ice thickness on the Dyer Plateau Ice Sheet, Antarctic Peninsula. RES-determined stratigraphy was dated by comparison to ice core stratigraphy. A prominent shallow RES horizon probably associated with the eruption of Tambora (1815) was used for estimating the spatial accumulation rate pattern. The estimated pattern is consistent with the pattern measured from burial markers indicating that the new method is accurate and that the recent accumulation rate pattern is not different from the 175 year average. An analysis of ice core stratigraphy indicates that over the past 500 years the accumulation rate has varied and over the past 50 years has had an increasing trend. However, dated RES stratigraphy (top half of ice column) appears to be consistent with steady-state flow suggesting that climate variations over the past 500 years have not been sufficient to alter ice flow.