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DOI

  • Aleksey Markov
  • Sergey Polyakov
  • Bо Sun
  • Huigen Yang
  • Tijun Zhang
  • Xiangbin Cui
  • Jingxue Guo
  • Penghui Cui
  • Li'an Zhang
  • Jamin Greenbaum
  • Andrey Mirakin
  • Andrey Voyevodin
  • Alina Boronina
  • Anastasiya Sukhanova
  • Gennadiy Deshovykh
  • Sergey Zarin
  • Aleksey Semyonov
  • Vladimir Soshchenko
  • Aleksey Mel'nik
Understanding the trend and main causes of the formation and distribution of Blue ice areas (BIAs) in Antarctica may help the search for areas (BIAs) suitable for ice runways for heavy aircraft. Two districts were explored on the glacier within a 50 km radius around the Larsemann Hills. They were isolated as blue ice areas based on the analysis of satellite images. According to the results of surface studies, one of the areas (about 500x5,000 m in size), though initially identified as a BIA based on the analysis of satellite images, has a high density firn covered with sun crust. The second area is indeed a blue ice area of significant size (about 5,000x5,000 m). Similarities and differences have been determined in the formation conditions of the glacier surface in the two areas of assumed BIAs, and an analysis was carried out to identify dominant, necessary and “sufficient” reasons for the sustained existence of BIAs. An obvious link has been found between the distribution of BIAs and the morphology of the subglacial mountain relief and the ice dynamics.
Original languageEnglish
Article number100478
Number of pages11
JournalPolar Science
Volume22
Early online date26 Aug 2019
DOIs
StatePublished - Dec 2019

    Scopus subject areas

  • Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics
  • Aquatic Science
  • Earth and Planetary Sciences(all)
  • Ecology

    Research areas

  • Antarctica, Blue Ice Areas, Ice sheet dynamics, Runway in Antarctica, AGE

ID: 49360884