Radar-derived ice fabric anisotropy and implications on flow enhancement along the Thwaites Glacier Eastern Shear Margin

Glaciers and ice streams account for the majority of ice mass discharge to the ocean from the Antarctic Ice Sheet, and are bounded by intense bands of shear that separate fast-flowing from slow or stagnant ice, called shear margins. The anisotropy of glacier ice (i.e. a preferred crystal orientation) stemming from high rates of shear at these margins can greatly facilitate fast streaming ice flow, however it is still poorly understood due to a lack of in-situ measurements. If anisotropy is incorporated into numerical ice sheet models at all, it is usually as a simple scalar enhancement factor that represents the "flow law" that governs the model's rheology. Ground-based and airborne radar observations along two transects fully crossing the Eastern Shear Margin of Thwaites Glacier reveal rapid development of highly anisotropic fabric tightly concentrated around a lateral maximum in surface shear strain. These measurements of fabric strength at the centre of the shear margin are indicative of a horizontal pole configuration, which potentially represents ice that is “softened” to shearing in some directions and hardened in others. The resulting flow enhancement revealed by our results suggest that the viscosity of ice is highly variable and regime-dependent, and supports the importance of considering anisotropic flow laws to model the rheology of ice sheets.