Fracture criteria and tensile strength for natural glacier ice calibrated from remote sensing observations of Antarctic ice shelves

The conditions under which ice fractures and calves icebergs from Antarctic ice shelves are poorly understood due largely to a lack of relevant observations. Though previous studies have estimated the stresses at which ice fractures in the laboratory and through sparse observations, there remains significant uncertainty in the applicability of these results to naturally deforming glacier ice on larger scales. Here, we aim to better constrain the stresses under which ice fractures using remote sensing data by identifying large-scale fractures on Antarctic ice shelves, calculating the principal stresses from the observed strain rates and comparing the stresses of unfractured and fractured areas. Using the inferred stresses, we evaluate five common fracture criteria: Mohr–Coulomb, von Mises, strain energy, Drucker–Prager and Hayhurst. We find the tensile strength of ice ranges from 202 to 263 $\mathrm{kPa}$ assuming the viscous stress exponent n = 3, narrowing the range produced by previous observational studies. For n = 4, we find tensile strengths of 423–565 $\mathrm{kPa}$ , bringing our inferences closer to alignment with laboratory experiments. Importantly, we show that crevassed and uncrevassed areas in the four largest ice shelves are distinct in principal stress space, suggesting our results apply to all ice shelves and the broader ice sheet.

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Related Links

Related Dataset #1 : MODIS Mosaic of Antarctica 2003-2004 (MOA2004) Image Map, Version 2

Related Dataset #2 : MEaSUREs BedMachine Antarctica, Version 1

Related Dataset #3 : MEaSUREs InSAR-Based Antarctica Ice Velocity Map, Version 2

Related Dataset #4 : MEaSUREs MODIS Mosaic of Antarctica 2013-2014 (MOA2014) Image Map, Version 1

Related Dataset #5 : MODIS Mosaic of Antarctica 2008-2009 (MOA2009) Image Map

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Author Wells-Moran, S.
Meghana Ranganathan
Minchew, B.
Publisher UCAR/NCAR - Library
Publication Date 2025-01-21T00:00:00
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Topic Category geoscientificInformation
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Metadata Date 2025-07-10T19:55:01.413673
Metadata Record Identifier edu.ucar.opensky::articles:43592
Metadata Language eng; USA
Suggested Citation Wells-Moran, S., Meghana Ranganathan, Minchew, B.. (2025). Fracture criteria and tensile strength for natural glacier ice calibrated from remote sensing observations of Antarctic ice shelves. UCAR/NCAR - Library. https://n2t.net/ark:/85065/d7pz5f8v. Accessed 01 August 2025.

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