Comment on "Friction at the bed does not control fast glacier flow"

Stearns and van der Veen (Reports, 20 July 2018, p. 273) conclude that fast glacier sliding is independent of basal drag (friction), even where drag balances most of the driving stress. This conclusion raises fundamental physical issues, the most striking of which is that sliding velocity would be i...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science) 2019-02, Vol.363 (6427)
Main Authors: Minchew, Brent M, Meyer, Colin R, Pegler, Samuel S, Lipovsky, Bradley P, Rempel, Alan W, Gudmundsson, G Hilmar, Iverson, Neal R
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Flow velocity
Glaciers
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Summary:Stearns and van der Veen (Reports, 20 July 2018, p. 273) conclude that fast glacier sliding is independent of basal drag (friction), even where drag balances most of the driving stress. This conclusion raises fundamental physical issues, the most striking of which is that sliding velocity would be independent of stresses imparted through the ice column, including gravitational driving stress.
ISSN:0036-8075
1095-9203
DOI:10.1126/science.aau6055