Improved bathymetry estimates beneath Amundsen  Sea ice shelves using a Markov Chain Monte Carlo  gravity inversion (GravMCMC, version 1)

Field, Michael J.; MacKie, Emma J.; Wang, Lijing; Muto, Atsuhiro; Shao, Niya

doi:10.5194/gmd-19-1749-2026

Articles | Volume 19, issue 4

https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-19-1749-2026

© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-19-1749-2026

© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 19, issue 4

Model description paper

|

02 Mar 2026

Model description paper |

| 02 Mar 2026

Improved bathymetry estimates beneath Amundsen Sea ice shelves using a Markov Chain Monte Carlo gravity inversion (GravMCMC, version 1)

Michael J. Field, Emma J. MacKie, Lijing Wang, Atsuhiro Muto, and Niya Shao

Data sets

Stochastic Sub-ice-shelf Bathymetry for Thwaites, Crosson, and Dotson Ice Shelves Michael Field https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15258019

IceBridge Sander AIRGrav L1B Geolocated Free Air Gravity Anomalies (Version 1) K. Tinto et al. https://doi.org/10.5067/R1RQ6NRIJV89

Processed line aerogravity data over the Thwaites Glacier region (2018/19 season) (Version 1.0) T. Jordan et al. https://doi.org/10.5285/B9B28A35-8620-4182-BF9C-638800B6679B

MEaSUREs MODIS Mosaic of Antarctica 2014 (MOA2014) Image Map (Version 1) T. Haran et al. https://doi.org/10.5067/RNF17BP824UM

MEaSUREs Phase-Based Antarctica Ice Velocity Map (Version 1) J. Mouginot et al. https://doi.org/10.5067/PZ3NJ5RXRH10

MEaSUREs Grounding Zone of the Antarctic Ice Sheet (Version 1) E. Rignot et al. https://doi.org/10.5067/HGLT8XB480E4

Sub-ice-shelf seafloor elevation derived from point-source active-seismic data on Thwaites Eastern Ice Shelf and Dotson Ice Shelf, December 2019 and January 2020 A. Muto et al. https://doi.org/10.15784/601827

Model code and software

GravMCMC Version 1.0 Michael Field https://github.com/mjfield2/stochastic_bathymetry

Harmonica v0.6.0: Forward modeling, inversion, and processing gravity and magnetic data Fatiando A Terra Project et al. https://doi.org/10.5281/ZENODO.3628741

mmaelicke/scikit-gstat: A scipy flavoured geostatistical variogram analysis toolbox M. Mälicke et al. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5970098

GeoStat-Framework/GSTools: v1.5.0 'Nifty Neon' S. Müller and L. Schüler https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8044720

Matplotlib: Visualization with Python Team https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.14464227

Short summary

Ice shelves are thinning and losing mass in West Antarctica because of interaction with warm water. The topography of the bedrock beneath the ice shelves is difficult to measure but important for understanding how quickly the ice shelves will melt. This study uses gravity data to infer the bedrock topography beneath the ice shelves. We use statistical methods to create an ensemble of bathymetry models that sample the uncertainty of the assumptions in the problem.