Sunday, February 28, 2010

Tsunamis and ice sheets


Do any of the seismic and/or climactic people know what small-to-moderate tsunamis do to ice sheets? I'm just thinking that the summer melt season is wrapping up, and the West coast of the Antarctic Peninsula, Ellsworth Land, and Marie Byrd Land are all in the Pacific basin.

3 comments:

Lockwood said...

Interesting point to think about, I guess. Not for too long. But it is something I'll be paying attention to in the NASA pics and science news. Did you notice that the massive collision between a berg and an ice tongue that was all over the news yesterday was described in terms of Luxembourg's area? I guess that's the metric unit for Rhode Islands.

Kieran said...

Rhode Islands are the US measurement. Luxembourgs are the SI unit.

jyyh said...

No comment since there are no correct and direct measurements on this issue (that'd require full scale measuring network on the whole sheet when one strikes, due vorticity). Theories and models are discredited in this matter (no references). For the next NH sea ice prediction contest (if you're doing that) I'd put in an early 4000 and 250 (unref'd).