Evidence map›Paper›PMID 32821236›Full record

ArticleProceedings. Mathematical, physical, and engineering sciences2020

Dilation of subglacial sediment governs incipient surge motion in glaciers with deformable beds.

B M Minchew, C R Meyer

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Proceedings. Mathematical, physical, and engineering sciences, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
5citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

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3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

5 citing papers in PubMed.

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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

2 authors.

B M MinchewDepartment of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA.ORCID 0000-0002-5991-3926
C R MeyerThayer School of Engineering, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH, USA.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Glacier surges are quasi-periodic episodes of rapid ice flow that arise from increases in slip rate at the ice-bed interface. The mechanisms that trigger and sustain surges are not well understood. Here, we develop a new model of incipient surge motion for glaciers underlain by sediments to explore how surges may arise from slip instabilities within a thin layer of saturated, deforming subglacial till. Our model represents the evolution of internal friction, porosity and pore water pressure within the till as functions of the rate and history of shear deformation, and couples the till mechanics to a simple ice-flow model. Changes in pore water pressure govern incipient surge motion, with less permeable till facilitating surging because dilation-driven reductions in pore water pressure slow the rate at which till tends towards a new steady state, thereby allowing time for the glacier to thin dynamically. The reduction of overburden (and thus effective) pressure at the bed caused by dynamic thinning of the glacier sustains surge acceleration in our model. The need for changes in both the hydromechanical properties of the till and the thickness of the glacier creates restrictive conditions for surge motion that are consistent with the rarity of surge-type glaciers and their geographical clustering.

Indexed as

glacier dynamicsglacier surgesgranular mechanics

Identifiers

PMID32821236
PMCPMC7428031

What OpenQuestion holds

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LicenceCC BY
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Registered trials

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.