title: Ocean heat drives rapid basal melt of the Totten Ice Shelf.
abstract: Mass loss from the West Antarctic ice shelves and glaciers has been linked to basal melt by ocean heat flux. The Totten Ice Shelf in East Antarctica, which buttresses a marine-based ice sheet with a volume equivalent to at least 3.5 m of global sea-level rise, also experiences rapid basal melt, but the role of ocean forcing was not known because of a lack of observations near the ice shelf. Observations from the Totten calving front confirm that (0.22 ± 0.07) × 106m3s-1of warm water enters the cavity through a newly discovered deep channel. The ocean heat transport into the cavity is sufficient to support the large basal melt rates inferred from glaciological observations. Change in ocean heat flux is a plausible physical mechanism to explain past and projected changes in this sector of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet and its contribution to sea level.
authors.affiliation: Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems Cooperative Research Centre, University of Tasmania, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia.; Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization Oceans and Atmosphere, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia.
authors.forename: Stephen Rich
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-7055-9876
authors.initials: SR
authors.lastname: Rintoul
authors.affiliation: Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization Oceans and Atmosphere, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia.; Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, University of Tasmania, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia.
authors.forename: Alessandro
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-6441-1496
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Silvano
authors.affiliation: Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems Cooperative Research Centre, University of Tasmania, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia.
authors.forename: Beatriz
authors.identifier: 0000-0003-1587-1696
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Pena-Molino
authors.affiliation: Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization Oceans and Atmosphere, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia.
authors.forename: Esmee
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: van Wijk
authors.affiliation: Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems Cooperative Research Centre, University of Tasmania, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia.
authors.forename: Mark
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Rosenberg
authors.affiliation: Institute for Geophysics, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78758, USA.
authors.forename: Jamin Stevens
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-0745-7113
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Greenbaum
authors.affiliation: Institute for Geophysics, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78758, USA.
authors.forename: Donald D
authors.initials: DD
authors.lastname: Blankenship
keywords: East Antarctica; Totten Glacier; basal melt; ocean-ice shelf interaction; sea level