'the interior of the ice sheet may not be able to respond fast enough to deformation at the warming periphery, which amounts to a breakdown of continuum mechanics used in ice sheet models and translates to rapid inland propagation of fractures and crevasses.' [paraphrased]
sidd has pulled out a key idea from the paper here. Indeed this may be what is happening at Jakobshavn already, as in the unprecedented calving event of 15 Aug 15. The earlier massive acceleration may have left its mark as massive mechanical deformation of the interior of the periphery which, being brittle, lead to deep fracturing inland from the calving front, not to mention massive interior release of heat.
A calving event at the front end removes buttressing propping up the interior, so is followed by a cascade of events, each removing a bit more buttressing on what is left, with the effect over a day or so of removing a kilometer and more of ice to the east.
Was this just a one-off event that consumed legacy fractures left from a one-off acceleration, or is this the new normal for the calving mode? We shall find out by the end of August 2016. Two such events is one too many.
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Explanatory note #1: continuum mechanics in ice sheet models is a small corner of academic physics developed in 19th century primarily by Cauchy and resurrected in glacial applications as invariants of tensor calculus by the 1950's. As the name suggests, crevasse and fracture (rips and tears) are not accommodated within this plastic deformation framework. Decent enough account up at
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continuum_mechanicsExplanatory note #2: people on these forums, sometimes with very sketchy competence in mathematical physics, often invoke exotic collapse mechanisms such as state changes, phase changes, bifurcations, Thom catastrophe theory, Lorenz strange attractors, butterflies flapping their wings in Brazil, fractial dimensions, dark energy and so forth.
Colgan et al are not doing this. There is no need to. If you invoke exotic explanations within academic science, you will simply be patted on the head and pointed to Occam's razor (keep it simple, 1347 AD) or Laplace saying (in 1812) extraordinary proposals require extraordinary evidence. In other words,
the burden of proof is on you so spare us until you have it.