Location
Online (email amgrad@uwaterloo.ca for link)
Candidate
Koi McArthur | Applied Mathematics, University of Waterloo
Title
Modeling hydrology and ice flow of the Greenland Ice Sheet
Abstract
The Greenland Ice Sheet (GrIS) is expected to be one of the primary contributors to sea level rise in the 21st century, and has lost roughly 5000 Gt of mass over the past three decades. The contribution from ice dynamic processes is a large area of uncertainty in future projections of mass loss from the GrIS. The fast moving regions of the GrIS move primarily due to basal sliding and deformation of the sediments underlying the ice sheet. Basal sliding is controlled by the subglacial hydrologic system, which can take the form of efficient channelized drainage, or a pressurized distributed water sheet. A pressurized water sheet leads to fast flowing ice, while channelized drainage is associated with lower water pressure and slower ice. The subglacial hydrologic system evolves on an annual basis and is highly impacted by water input from the ice sheet surface. Therefore, to predict the future of the GrIS a coupled ice flow/subglacial hydrology/supraglacial hydrology model is required. The content of this seminar is three-fold: 1) I will discuss the relationships between the supraglacial hydrologic system, the subglacial hydrologic system, and ice motion; 2) I will outline a path towards modeling the GrIS with these relevant processes, which I plan to follow through this PhD; 3) I will discuss preliminary work on development of a supraglacial hydrology model.