The safety band of Antarctic ice shelves

The floating ice shelves along the seaboard of the Antarctic ice sheet restrain the outflow of upstream grounded ice1, 2. Removal of these ice shelves, as shown by past ice-shelf recession and break-up, accelerates the outflow3, 4, which adds to sea-level rise. A key question in predicting future outflow is to quantify the extent of calving that might precondition other dynamic consequences and lead to loss of ice-shelf restraint.