Shear-to-slip transition in a shallow ice current ($H_{\ast }=3/\beta$)

The two mobilities in the shallow-ice flux with linear basal drag are equal at thickness $H_{\ast }=3/\beta$. A conserved half-volume $V_g$ gives length $L_{\ast }=V_g/H_{\ast }$ and time $T_{\ast }=3\mu L_{\ast }^2/(\rho g{H}_{\ast }^3)$. Nondimensional thick profiles spread as ${\tau }^{1/5}$; thin sliding profiles spread as ${\tau }^{1/4}$. Matching the centre of the mass-normalized early planar volume-conserving nonlinear-diffusion similarity to unit depth estimates ${\tau }_{\mathrm{tr}}=3/(10I_3^2)\simeq 0.42385$. The numerical estimate depends on the matching convention and the initial-profile relaxation.