Dartmouth Events

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Meeting ID: 952 5758 4666
Passcode: 389930

The dynamics of glaciers and ice sheets influence rates of sea-level rise, freshwater supplies, and landscape evolution. Decades of research has highlighted key processes and connections between terrestrial ice, climate, and the solid earth, but limited observations of glaciated regions have allowed fundamental questions in glaciers dynamics to remain open. How are drag and the rate of slip at glacier beds related? How do high rates of shearing in glacier margins influence ice rheology? In recent years, the exponential growth of publicly available, high-quality remotely sensed observations has presented new opportunities to address these questions by providing insight into spatial and temporal variations in glacier surface elevation and velocity fields.

In this talk, we will discuss recent work aimed at using remote sensing observations collected from multiple spaceborne instruments to quantify the rates of propagation and decay of dynamic and kinematic waves in glaciers. These waves originate from stress perturbations caused by a variety of environmental forcings and provide unique insights into the rheology of glacier ice and the mechanics of slip at glacier beds. Both the rheology of ice and mechanics of slip govern the sensitivity of glaciers and ice sheets to climate change, and we will conclude with a discussion of some implications of this work and thoughts on the future of Earth observations.