Ice fabrics in two-dimensional flows: beyond pure and simple shear

Abstract

Abstract. Ice fabrics – the distribution of crystal orientations in a polycrystal – are key for understanding and predicting ice flow dynamics. Despite their importance, the characteristics and evolution of fabrics produced outside of the deformation regimes of pure and simple shear flow has largely been neglected, yet they are a common occurrence within ice sheets. Here, we use a recently developed numerical model (SpecCAF) to classify all fabrics produced over a continuous spectrum of incompressible two-dimensional deformation regimes and temperatures. The model has been shown to accurately predict ice fabrics produced in experiments, where the ice has been deformed in either uniaxial compression or simple shear. Here we use the model to reveal fabrics produced in regimes intermediate to pure and simple shear, as well as those that are more rotational than simple shear. We find that intermediate deformation regimes between pure and simple shear result in a smooth transition between a fabric characterised by a girdle and a secondary cluster pattern. Highly rotational deformation regimes are revealed to produce a weak girdle fabric. Furthermore, we provide regime diagrams to help constrain deformation conditions of measured ice fabrics. We also obtain predictions for the strain scales over which fabric evolution takes place at any given temperature. The use of our model in large-scale ice flow models and for interpreting fabrics observed in ice cores and seismic anisotropy provides new tools supporting the community in predicting and interpreting ice flow in a changing climate.