Modelled stress distributions at the Dome Summit South borehole, Law Dome, East Antarctica: a comparison of anisotropic ice flow relations

Abstract

AbstractIn this study we compare the anisotropic flow relations for polycrystalline ice of Azuma and Goto-Azuma (1996), Thorsteinsson (2002), Placidi and others (2010) and Budd and others (2013). Observations from the Dome Summit South (DSS) ice-coring site at Law Dome, East Antarctica, are used to model the vertical distribution of deviatoric stress components at the borehole site. The flow relations in which the anisotropic rheology is parameterized by a scalar function, so that the strain-rate and deviatoric stress tensor components are collinear, provide simple shear and vertical compression deviatoric stress profiles that are most consistent with laboratory observations of tertiary creep in combined stress configurations. Those flow relations where (1) the anisotropy is derived from the magnitude of applied stresses resolved onto the basal planes of individual grains and (2) the macroscopic deformation is obtained via homogenization of individual grain responses provide stress estimates less consistent with laboratory observations. This is most evident in combined simple shear and vertical compression flow regimes where shear is dominant. Our results highlight the difficulties associated with developing flow relations which incorporate a physically based description of microdeformation processes. In particular, this requires that all relevant microdeformation, recrystallization and recovery processes are adequately parameterized.