Home▸Nature & Climate▸2D Glacier Calving: Overhang Stress & Fatigue Model

2D Glacier Calving: Overhang Stress & Fatigue Model

A 2D side-view companion to the 3D glacier calving scene: the ice overhang is modelled as a cantilever beam whose self-weight bends it, undercutting lengthens the lever arm, and thermal plus wave-impact fatigue erode its tensile strength over time — the overhang snaps when the beam's bending stress exceeds its damaged strength, not on a fixed timer.

Nature & Climate2DModerate60 FPS📱 Mobile-adapted❄️ Ice ⇄ 3D version

This is the 2D companion to the 3D glacier calving scene. Rather than calving on a fixed timer, this side-view model treats the exposed overhang as a cantilever beam: its self-weight produces a bending moment that peaks at the fixed end, undercutting from wave and thermal erosion steadily lengthens the lever arm, and both meltwater hydro-fracture (worse near 0°C) and repeated wave impacts accumulate fatigue damage that lowers the ice's effective tensile strength — when the bending stress finally exceeds that damaged strength, the overhang snaps off, rotates forward and splashes into the sea, leaving a smaller, fresher overhang to begin the cycle again.

⚙ Under the hood

A 2D side-view glacier calving lab built on cantilever beam theory (σ = Mc/I) for bending stress and a fatigue-damage accumulator driven by thermal and wave-impact cycles; the overhang calves when bending stress exceeds the damaged tensile strength.

glacier calvingcantilever beambending stressfatigue damageice mechanicsglaciology2D simulation

2D · HTML5 Canvas 2D · 60 FPS target · runs fully client-side, no install